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World’s most difficult language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6229 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 9 of 130 12 October 2007 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Missing option: "I don't know".
I've studied Japanese a moderate amount, and dabbled lightly in Arabic. I wouldn't consider myself qualified to discuss how relatively difficult these languages are to each other. This applies even more strongly to Mandarin and Korean: while I've read about both, listened to both, etc, I haven't studied them, partially because I find both extremely difficult to hear correctly, and have had no luck successfully reproducing key sounds. I wonder how these languages compare to Inuit, Pirahã, or Navajo in difficulty. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6359 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 10 of 130 12 October 2007 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmmm, interesting. Arabic is seen as the hardest? The only reason I can think of that can make Arabic less accessible than Mandarin and Japanese is that there's fewer resources for Arabic. Interesting ..
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| Hashimi Senior Member Oman Joined 6049 days ago 362 posts - 529 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)* Studies: English, Japanese | Message 11 of 130 12 October 2007 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think Japanese is harder than Chinese, actually, but both are easier than Arabic. Arabic is the world's most difficult language. It has many varieties that diverge widely from one another both from country to country and within a single country. It has some consonants that do not exist in English or most Indo-European languages. It has a very complex grammar. Unlike languages like English, where you have a very small number of forms to each noun or verb, Arabic have complex conjugation and inflection rules based on 3-letter "roots", rather than basewords and affixes. See this: http://acon.baykal.be/index.php?r3=%D8%A8&r2=%D8%AA&r1=%D9%8 3&type=I&pvowel=a&ivowel=a
Unlike Latin, Cyrillic or Hangul, the Arabic alphabet isn't a true alphabet. It is an Abjad. The Abjads have letters for consonants and leave most vowels unexpressed, and the reader must supply the appropriate vowel. For example, it is difficult to read the word رجل if you don't know its meaning in the context. It could be pronounced 'rajul' (man), 'rijl' (leg), 'rajala' (move on foot, walk), or 'rajjal' (curry the hair). قتل could be pronounced 'qatl' (killing), 'qatala' (he killed), 'qutila' (he was killed), or 'qattal' (he killed too much). 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6359 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 12 of 130 12 October 2007 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
I disagree. Although my opinion is not completely unbiased, I think Arabic is more accessible to IE speakers than Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. While the Arabic variants are a hurdle, you can also think of Chinese variants as a hurdle if you ever try to think of anything like a "Chinese language". To compare Arabic's difficulty with other languages, consider just one local variant and a standard register. In which case Arabic is fairly accessible. As to grammar, while Arabic grammar does seem more complex than English, it isn't more difficult than Russian or Icelandic for example. It's not more difficult than Korean, and it is even less alien than all other three languages because it doesn't have all the politeness registers. The Arabic letters that don't exist in IE are more than compensated for by the lack of tones. While Arabic phonology is perhaps more challenging than Japanese, it isn't really as far off as Mandarin. Moreover, most of the exotic voices in Arabic are lost in the spoken variants. The Arabic abgad is an imperfect abgad since it does provide for vowel markings for beginners. These are like training wheels that people get rid of along the way. Beyond phonetic correspondence, homonym incicdence in Arabic is not more common than say English simply because of the Semitic structure of words. This is all incomparable to having to learn Kanji. I don't wanna pass a judgment on something so subjective, but I think Arabic is the easiest of all 4 languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6408 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 13 of 130 12 October 2007 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Cn y rd ths? Y cn rd wtht vwls.
Edited by Linguamor on 12 October 2007 at 5:40pm 9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| owshawng Senior Member United States Joined 6676 days ago 202 posts - 217 votes Speaks: English* | Message 14 of 130 12 October 2007 at 5:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I would think writing Japanese and Mandarin alone would make them harder then Arabic. I voted for Korean since it seems incomprehensible to me when I've watched Korean tv series and listened to it in Korean restaurants. I do love going to Korea Plaza in New York and eating at the bakery and the restaurants. Must control wanderlust.
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| Hashimi Senior Member Oman Joined 6049 days ago 362 posts - 529 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)* Studies: English, Japanese | Message 15 of 130 12 October 2007 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
So why the fluent non-native speakers of Japanese are more than the fluent non-native speakers of Arabic? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hashimi Senior Member Oman Joined 6049 days ago 362 posts - 529 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)* Studies: English, Japanese | Message 16 of 130 12 October 2007 at 6:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
Even if you change the letters order, execpt the first and the last letter, you can still read it. Look at this: http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/jumbledW ords/jumbledWords.swf That is because you know thousands of English words. But it will be very difficult for the beginner learner. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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