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World’s most difficult language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Noir Bilingual Hexaglot Newbie Sweden Joined 5545 days ago 20 posts - 22 votes Speaks: Portuguese, Belarusian*, Russian*, English, Spanish, Norwegian Studies: Japanese, Korean, Armenian, Kazakh | Message 81 of 130 25 August 2009 at 7:35pm | IP Logged | ||
Actually learning the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, is not the issue it's quite easy unless you attempt the other alphabet, Hanjas, which are Chinese characters. There are 14 basic consonants and 10 basic vowels. It is the grammar and the unique sounds which I think is the one of the hardest, even though it is not tonal. Taken from this forum's language index: "Korean conjugation is very complex, with every verb having more than 600 possible different endings depending on degree of politeness, age and seniority. Most learners concentrate one one standard textbook politeness form. Korean adjectives are also conjugated, with more than 500 possible endings." 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5800 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 82 of 130 25 August 2009 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Having only attempted to learn a quarter of a percent of the world's languages so far, I don't think I can comment.
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| Gilgamesh Tetraglot Senior Member England Joined 6031 days ago 452 posts - 468 votes 14 sounds Speaks: Dutch, English, German, French Studies: Polish | Message 83 of 130 25 August 2009 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Really sorry to nag here, but one thing is getting on my nerves... It's that people think Arabic is written without any vowels; it's just the short vowels that are not (usually) marked... Therefore, writing all those funny-looking texts in English without vocals to demonstrate a point is a bit ridiculous; also, Arabic has a root-based system and a structure that go well with this.
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| james1 Senior Member Korea, South Joined 5413 days ago 121 posts - 145 votes Speaks: English* | Message 84 of 130 26 August 2009 at 4:08am | IP Logged | ||
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Hearing Korean can be very difficult.
Barry Farber and Dr. Arguelles have said something about the difficulty of Korean. Example: 이런 종류의 영화 If an English speaker heard 종류의, he would be totally lost. So, if I were watching TV and heard this I would hear 이런 ---- 영화 Because I cannot hear it, I cannot look it up in a dictionary. I do know the word, I still miss it, because it is so hard to hear. This happens all the time in Korean, the sounds are just hard to hear, and can really slow down the learning process. Also, Koreans will not understand if you make mistakes. 들, 돌, 덜, to an English speaker sound very similar, so often, English speakers focus on the consonant sounds. However, it all has to be pronunced perfect. A small mistake in the vowel sound means something totally different. Edited by james1 on 26 August 2009 at 4:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| formiko Nonaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6000 days ago 848 posts - 855 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Esperanto, Indonesian, Yoruba, Cherokee, Russian, German, French Studies: Mandarin, Ancient Greek | Message 85 of 130 27 August 2009 at 5:17am | IP Logged | ||
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While I learned Biblical Hebrew (not spoken though) it wasn't too hard, and the modern version is much easier grammatically. How different could it be from Arabic? They're both Semitic. But in my opinion, since Native American Indian languages are my specialty, Navajo is high on the list. My native Cherokee is easier than Navajo!. But the hardest that I'm familiar with would HAVE to be ANY Salishan language. They can make a grown man cry. They are so alien, even for a Native American language, I'm shocked they communicated at all!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ohhH4riYFg&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRaTyIXsut I just have to put a linkto Cherokee :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecm_DIpocI0&feature=related 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5555 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 86 of 130 27 August 2009 at 6:17am | IP Logged | ||
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I never knew Cherokee was tonal! It really sounds beautiful.
Back to topic; what does make a language difficult to learn? An alien grammar that uses a lot of possibilities not used by one's native or fluent languages. A phonetic inventory that puts emphasis on different possibilities (e.g. a tonal inventory with few vowels and consonants and high tolerance for variation in those vs one with a lot of different vowels and consonants and possible syllables but high tolerance for non-standard pitch and prosody.) The new language perusing a multitude of culture-specific concepts that are unknown to the learner. A refined system of registers and maybe taboos which substitutes words that do not in any ways seem related to each other. Few or no cognates or leanwords from known languages. A high number of words that are linked one way or another and don't show it (king, queen, royal), vocabulary that does not transfer the meaning from one situation to another, similar one. A writing system that requires good command of the spoken language before you csn learn the written language well. Scarce material or possibility to learn. For native English speakers maybe a polysynthetic, tonal language from a non-agricultural tribe should be a challenge. Let's add a sacral language which also has to be understood (though not mastered), because it defines the rules how you are allowed to speak about the dead, about some aspects of the future or about people whom you have to show your respect, and the writing system also is based on that sacral language. Oh, and many of the younger generation no not speak it fluently any more. How does this sound? (And yes I know I probably used some wrong words again.) Edited by Bao on 27 August 2009 at 6:19am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| deniz2 Groupie TurkeyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4941 days ago 53 posts - 62 votes | Message 87 of 130 18 October 2010 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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The discussion here is nonsense. Unless you learn the entire grammars and the writings to a useable level (if not all the characters) you do not have the right to vote. So as long as I can see no one knows all the languages and even these 4 languages. I know French and German. So I can compare only these two. The US government classified French as 1st degree (easiest) and German as 2nd degree. I disagree. It is just the opposite for me. There is nothing complex in French as much as the noun declension of German but one needs a good memory to memorize the irregular verb conjugations and their writings. While comparing German with French most people don’t rate the writing of the irregular verbs. So grammar plus writing in French can easily take more time than German’s grammar. The writing in German has zero difficulty. But I would never advise German to a person who has no math mind. He had better study French then.
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| zamie Groupie Australia Joined 5042 days ago 83 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Modern Hebrew | Message 88 of 130 18 October 2010 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mathematics -)
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