The hardest language in the world?

Just lately I've been studying japanese intensively and so far my progress is quite good. Even though it's quite painstaking, but I think japanese is probably not as hard as I thought. For a break, I browsed for articles about the hardest languages in the world. It seems Finnish and Hungarian deserve the title of being the hardest language in the world, while Indonesia/Malay is the easiest.

Well, what do you think about this? Do you study language a lot? What is the hardest language you ever learn?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I started learning Russian a few weeks ago, and the Cyrillic alphabet was pretty fucking hard to nail down at first.

I'm pretty good with it now, though. Apart from the hard and soft vowels and stresses.

Most amazing jew boots

While not necessarily the hardest, the languages that are most unrelated to any other language are: Hungarian and Basque.

There's a saying about a man who studied Basque and after nine years he knew seven words. Probably an exaggeration, but still.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by ramoth

While not necessarily the hardest, the languages that are most unrelated to any other language are: Hungarian and Basque.

I thought Hungarian was related to Finnish?

How ya doing, buddy?

It is, but distantly. It's not like any of the other Indo-European languages that populate the rest of Europe.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I would perceive Cantonese/Mandarin very hard in both an oral and an aural context. Especially if your primary language does not make constant use of intonation. The structure does not seem too intimidating (eg. no need to mark articles), but for many people, you'd take quite a long time to be able to fluently process all the seemingly subtle rises and dips in intonation. Learning all the kanji isn't exactly a walk in the park either.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

English probably is. English has so many words with the same pronunciation, but with different spellings. There, their, they're and words like then, than, etc.

For foreigners, people can move to the US and live here their whole lives and still not pick up the language. English has to be up there.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Devo

Are you kidding me? Just because our language doesn't have super coherent rules about verbs, and god forbid some homonyms doesn't make it hard.

I know foreigners or those with english as a second language (native puerto ricans) who speak english better than American born people who've grown up with it.

The ignorent are outlyers and should not be counted within the mean

How ya doing, buddy?

I think Polish is probably up there as well, though I guess it's somewhat similar to Russian.

The pronounciation is pretty strict and difficult, and you have to conjugate everything. Verbs (obviously), nouns, adjectives, pretty much everything, including names! This is speaking from personal experience, but I'm sure there's something harder out there. But then again, what's hard for one person may not be for another.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

English is generally regarded by non-English speakers as quite a difficult language, yes. I mean, every language has it's homonyms. But English just has so many fucking words.

I would say that Chinese (any of the dialects) and Thai are the most difficult languages to pull off, by account of their extreme tonality. Finnish is also quite challenging, I hear. Completely unrelated to the other Scandinavian languages.

Most amazing jew boots

Anybody have any idea if Maltese is hard to learn? Being a blend of Arabic and Latin, it seems like it should be at least slightly confusing.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Quote:

Finnish is also quite challenging, I hear. Completely unrelated to the other Scandinavian languages.

due to the complexity in the grammar, somehow I'm glad Finnish is not a superpower.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by DragoonKain

English probably is. English has so many words with the same pronunciation, but with different spellings. There, their, they're and words like then, than, etc.

For foreigners, people can move to the US and live here their whole lives and still not pick up the language. English has to be up there.

Yeah English was definately a bitch to learn. I managed to freaking learn it in about four years or so but boy was it tough. The worst part was that you have all these grammer, and spelling rules. And yet, every freaking rule seems to have like a billion exceptions that break it.

Most amazing jew boots

Trying to parse down a language into it's logic to me seems like an exercise into madness.

Which is why I would choose English and Chinese as the two hardest languages (and interestingly enough the two languages I always love to know more about). The former for being a stylistic chimera and the latter for its graceful difficulty in execution both in written and spoken forms.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

How about some of the languages in Africa that use clicking in them? I think those would be pretty tough.

FELIPE NO

It'd probably be either Vulcan or Goa'uld.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Devo

I think languages of the Native American tribes would actually be some of the most difficult, due to their interminglings and extinction.

Or some of these tribal African languages. I mean, I guess the ones that have been listed here are perceived to be the most difficult because they are the hardest ones spoken by a good number of educated people.

I remember a cource in language I took in college as a gen ed where the professor talked a bit about some of those click languages which just seems nuts. But it's almost like those are languages in the same way hyroglyphics are an alphabet...technically, yeah, but it's so radically different that it isn't even the same realm.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I studied spanish for 3 years and I still cant speak it despite how easy everyone says it is to learn.

How ya doing, buddy?

I don't think there really is one particular language that's the hardest. It's all relative to what your native language is, really. For instance, I'm studying Japanese and I find it immensely difficult (very different grammatically from English, not to mention the different kanji readings), however Chinese and Koreans have a pretty easy time picking it up, Chinese because their familiarity with kanji, Koreans because their grammar is so similar. The same holds true for other languages. Like, say you know Italian--learning Spanish, French or other Latin-based languages will be much easier compared to others with no familiarity with that branch of language.

In essence, it's all relative.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Technophile

Yeah English was definately a bitch to learn. I managed to freaking learn it in about four years or so but boy was it tough. The worst part was that you have all these grammer, and spelling rules. And yet, every freaking rule seems to have like a billion exceptions that break it.

Exactly, thats why English is up there. It isnt a logical language. The grammar rules and the way certain words are spelled go against some of the rules its supposed to have. But their just exceptions, so many of them though.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I would think Attikamekw would be the hardest, it is the language of the Inuit, and other languages of the Canadian first Nations. But I think Attikamekw is their primary language. Reading it probably harder!

I was speaking idiomatically.

It blows my mind that people are naming English. Not only is it very easy on its own (for instance, there are no declensions), but it's also so widely used in the Western world that even people who aren't interested in learning any languages will still understand the basics of English.

Really, the only two arguments I see here are that there exist exceptions to rules in English (that happens in virtually every language), and that there are, uh... many words (which is irrelevant, as you don't need to know a certain percentage of all words in a language to be fluent).

How ya doing, buddy?

I was looking up Kalaallisut, the inuit language of native Greenlanders, and it looks like someone's having a laugh.

Wikipedia, in Kalaallisut!

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Aardork

It blows my mind that people are naming English. Not only is it very easy on its own (for instance, there are no declensions), but it's also so widely used in the Western world that even people who aren't interested in learning any languages will still understand the basics of English.

Really, the only two arguments I see here are that there exist exceptions to rules in English (that happens in virtually every language), and that there are, uh... many words (which is irrelevant, as you don't need to know a certain percentage of all words in a language to be fluent).

I agree. English was a breeze to learn and, although I still confuse some verbs and conjugations from time to time, I believe my level is pretty good. Yet, I know shit about grammar rules (I've never been good with those), so probably if I knew about them I'd have a different opinion. It is true, though, that English has one of the most large vocabulary out there. But I bet you that most of those words are not used or known by english speakers.

Spanish, on the other hand (which is my native language), seems very hard. With all the ortographic rules (which I don't even know perfectly) and the pronunciation I've heard from foreigners, it seems like a though one.

Also, japanese and chinese. Writing those must be quite an adventure.

How ya doing, buddy?

i'm think german is, apart from having rules about using x and y for gender and intonations and trying to sound as though you aren't angry... um yeah

chinese/japanese is relatively easy for me because it's a picture language, kanji that is. it's easier to learn chinese first then understand how each character is different and unique then apply it with japanese.

Jam it back in, in the dark.