The Hardest Language?

[Unkotare]

There isn't one. Really.

But here's an interesting article anyway:

The Economist explains: What makes a language difficult? | The Economist

 

[hjmick]

They say that English is the most difficult language to learn.


Judging by the butchering of the language by those who presumably speak it as a first language, I believe it...

 

[Darkwind]

Irandi...

That is some screwed up syntax I can tell ya!

 

[Bloodrock44]

There isn't one. Really.

But here's an interesting article anyway:

The Economist explains: What makes a language difficult? | The Economist

When I was in the military, some intelligence jobs required you learn a language. In order to qualify you had to take a test called the DLAB (Defense Language Aptitude Battery). Different languages required certain scores in order to qualify. Russian required the highest score back then.

 

[williepete]

Womanese.

Incomprehensible even after years of devoted study.

 

[Annie]

They say that English is the most difficult language to learn.


Judging by the butchering of the language by those who presumably speak it as a first language, I believe it...

I've always heard that too. First is the huge number of homonyms, then the exceptions to every rule taught. i before e, except after c; except...

 

[Unkotare]

What's really interesting is that people are so interested in the idea that there is a "most difficult" language.

 

[FJO]

As a kid in a Hungarian language class, trying to learn Russian, then German, then English, let me tell you that any language that imposes gender on things that have absolutely nothing to do with that gender is difficult to learn to mind that is logical AND REASONABLE.

How can you reconcile the fact that the three implements on your table, at least in Germany, you know, spoon fork and knife are three different genders?

How can you understand that in Russian there are genders, but it is determined by what the last letter of a word is?

And before you get too complacent about English, explain how a ship called "Ronald Reagan" or "Edmond Fitzgerald" or "Nimitz" is referred to by those on board as "she" and "her"?

 

[asaratis]

Apache...that's why the enemy never could figure out the audio messages sent between our Apache speaking radiomen.

 

[FJO]

What's really interesting is that people are so interested in the idea that there is a "most difficult" language.

As someone who HAD to learn English in order to survive, since in my time there were no government handouts, and really, no self-respecting immigrant would have taken it, had it been there, let me say that English is a very easy language to learn.

When I was in high school, I was told that when you want to learn a language, learn grammar. It makes no difference how many words you can translate.

If you think in your mother tongue and try to express your thoughts in English, translated word for word, you will sound idiotic.

The same teacher said that grammar is like the skeleton in the body, if you don't know grammar, you don't know the grammar your language will collapse when yo try to speak.

 

[Unkotare]

What's really interesting is that people are so interested in the idea that there is a "most difficult" language.

As someone who HAD to learn English in order to survive, since in my time there were no government handouts, and really, no self-respecting immigrant would have taken it, had it been there, let me say that English is a very easy language to learn..

No language is simple, and "hard" or "easy" is relative and dependent upon too many variables to apply appropriately to generalizations.

 

[Unkotare]

When I was in high school, I was told that when you want to learn a language, learn grammar. It makes no difference how many words you can translate.

If you think in your mother tongue and try to express your thoughts in English, translated word for word, you will sound idiotic.

The same teacher said that grammar is like the skeleton in the body, if you don't know grammar, you don't know the grammar your language will collapse when yo try to speak.

Grammar is important, but then so is every other aspect of language acquisition.

 

[longknife]

Apache...that's why the enemy never could figure out the audio messages sent between our Apache speaking radiomen.

Are you sure you're not talking about the Navajo Code Talkers.

 

[longknife]

As one who has studied and used German, it is not that difficult, especially if you are a native English speaker. In fact, learning German taught me an amazing amount about English.

I have also found Spanish to not be that difficult. However, because of Indian influences, Mexican Spanish can be a bit different because of the root of the words.

As for other languages, it would appear to me that Chinese might be very different as it depends so much on intonations.

 

[Ava]

As for other languages, it would appear to me that Chinese might be very different as it depends so much on intonations.

I have read in more than one article, in the past, that Chinese and English are the most difficult languages to learn to speak.

 

[asaratis]

As for other languages, it would appear to me that Chinese might be very different as it depends so much on intonations.

I have read in more than one article, in the past, that Chinese and English are the most difficult languages to learn to speak.

...as have I. I went away with the perception that the major difficulty in learning English is in the myriad of rules concerning proper tense and spelling. One rule has already been mentioned here. Another is in the use of homophones...multiple meanings for identically sounded words..like to, too, two...him, hem...there, their, they're...flower, flour...prey, pray...write, wright, right, rite...meet, meat...piece, peace...jeans, genes...

...and then there's the "neither-nor versus either-or" rule.

The difficulty of learning proper English presents a plausible argument for Ebonics!

Chinese is difficult partly due to the different meanings assigned by varying pitch within identically pronounced words.

Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard



8. Because tonal languages are weird.

Okay, that's very Anglo-centric, I know it. But I have to mention this problem because it's one of the most common complaints about learning Chinese, and it's one of the aspects of the language that westerners are notoriously bad at. Every person who tackles Chinese at first has a little trouble believing this aspect of the language. How is it possible that shùxué means "mathematics" while shūxuě means "blood transfusion", or that guòjiǎng means "you flatter me" while guǒjiàng means "fruit paste"?

By itself, this property of Chinese would be hard enough; it means that, for us non-native speakers, there is this extra, seemingly irrelevant aspect of the sound of a word that you must memorize along with the vowels and consonants. But where the real difficulty comes in is when you start to really use Chinese to express yourself. You suddenly find yourself straitjacketed -- when you say the sentence with the intonation that feels natural, the tones come out all wrong. For example, if you wish say something like "Hey, that's my water glass you're drinking out of!", and you follow your intonational instincts -- that is, to put a distinct falling tone on the first character of the word for "my" -- you will have said a kind of gibberish that may or may not be understood.

Intonation and stress habits are incredibly ingrained and second-nature. With non-tonal languages you can basically import, mutatis mutandis, your habitual ways of emphasizing, negating, stressing, and questioning. The results may be somewhat non-native but usually understandable. Not so with Chinese, where your intonational contours must always obey the tonal constraints of the specific words you've chosen. Chinese speakers, of course, can express all of the intonational subtleties available in non-tonal languages -- it's just that they do it in a way that is somewhat alien to us speakers of non-tonal languages. When you first begin using your Chinese to talk about subjects that actually matter to you, you find that it feels somewhat like trying to have a passionate argument with your hands tied behind your back -- you are suddenly robbed of some vital expressive tools you hadn't even been aware of having.

 

[Unkotare]

As for other languages, it would appear to me that Chinese might be very different as it depends so much on intonations.

I have read in more than one article, in the past, that Chinese and English are the most difficult languages to learn to speak.

...as have I. I went away with the perception that the major difficulty in learning English is in the myriad of rules concerning proper tense and spelling. One rule has already been mentioned here. Another is in the use of homophones...multiple meanings for identically sounded words..like to, too, two...him, hem...there, their, they're...flower, flour...prey, pray...write, wright, right, rite...meet, meat...piece, peace...jeans, genes...

...and then there's the "neither-nor versus either-or" rule.

The difficulty of learning proper English presents a plausible argument for Ebonics!

Chinese is difficult partly due to the different meanings assigned by varying pitch within identically pronounced words.

Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard



8. Because tonal languages are weird.

Okay, that's very Anglo-centric, I know it. But I have to mention this problem because it's one of the most common complaints about learning Chinese, and it's one of the aspects of the language that westerners are notoriously bad at. Every person who tackles Chinese at first has a little trouble believing this aspect of the language. How is it possible that shùxué means "mathematics" while shūxuě means "blood transfusion", or that guòjiǎng means "you flatter me" while guǒjiàng means "fruit paste"?

By itself, this property of Chinese would be hard enough; it means that, for us non-native speakers, there is this extra, seemingly irrelevant aspect of the sound of a word that you must memorize along with the vowels and consonants. But where the real difficulty comes in is when you start to really use Chinese to express yourself. You suddenly find yourself straitjacketed -- when you say the sentence with the intonation that feels natural, the tones come out all wrong. For example, if you wish say something like "Hey, that's my water glass you're drinking out of!", and you follow your intonational instincts -- that is, to put a distinct falling tone on the first character of the word for "my" -- you will have said a kind of gibberish that may or may not be understood.

Intonation and stress habits are incredibly ingrained and second-nature. With non-tonal languages you can basically import, mutatis mutandis, your habitual ways of emphasizing, negating, stressing, and questioning. The results may be somewhat non-native but usually understandable. Not so with Chinese, where your intonational contours must always obey the tonal constraints of the specific words you've chosen. Chinese speakers, of course, can express all of the intonational subtleties available in non-tonal languages -- it's just that they do it in a way that is somewhat alien to us speakers of non-tonal languages. When you first begin using your Chinese to talk about subjects that actually matter to you, you find that it feels somewhat like trying to have a passionate argument with your hands tied behind your back -- you are suddenly robbed of some vital expressive tools you hadn't even been aware of having.

Your post is a good illustration of why there is no "hardest language."


The tones in Mandarin can be a challenge for native speakers of non-tonal languages, but fortunately most native Mandarin speakers with any experience interacting with waiguoren try to be forgiving and figure out what you mean if you are anywhere in the ballpark of a comprehensible utterance. There are, of course, languages with even more tones than Mandarin, so there's always a challenge out there.

 

[Alfalfa]

I've heard japanese is the hardest to learn how to write.

 

[asaratis]

I have read in more than one article, in the past, that Chinese and English are the most difficult languages to learn to speak.

...as have I. I went away with the perception that the major difficulty in learning English is in the myriad of rules concerning proper tense and spelling. One rule has already been mentioned here. Another is in the use of homophones...multiple meanings for identically sounded words..like to, too, two...him, hem...there, their, they're...flower, flour...prey, pray...write, wright, right, rite...meet, meat...piece, peace...jeans, genes...

...and then there's the "neither-nor versus either-or" rule.

The difficulty of learning proper English presents a plausible argument for Ebonics!

Chinese is difficult partly due to the different meanings assigned by varying pitch within identically pronounced words.

Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard



8. Because tonal languages are weird.

Okay, that's very Anglo-centric, I know it. But I have to mention this problem because it's one of the most common complaints about learning Chinese, and it's one of the aspects of the language that westerners are notoriously bad at. Every person who tackles Chinese at first has a little trouble believing this aspect of the language. How is it possible that shùxué means "mathematics" while shūxuě means "blood transfusion", or that guòjiǎng means "you flatter me" while guǒjiàng means "fruit paste"?

By itself, this property of Chinese would be hard enough; it means that, for us non-native speakers, there is this extra, seemingly irrelevant aspect of the sound of a word that you must memorize along with the vowels and consonants. But where the real difficulty comes in is when you start to really use Chinese to express yourself. You suddenly find yourself straitjacketed -- when you say the sentence with the intonation that feels natural, the tones come out all wrong. For example, if you wish say something like "Hey, that's my water glass you're drinking out of!", and you follow your intonational instincts -- that is, to put a distinct falling tone on the first character of the word for "my" -- you will have said a kind of gibberish that may or may not be understood.

Intonation and stress habits are incredibly ingrained and second-nature. With non-tonal languages you can basically import, mutatis mutandis, your habitual ways of emphasizing, negating, stressing, and questioning. The results may be somewhat non-native but usually understandable. Not so with Chinese, where your intonational contours must always obey the tonal constraints of the specific words you've chosen. Chinese speakers, of course, can express all of the intonational subtleties available in non-tonal languages -- it's just that they do it in a way that is somewhat alien to us speakers of non-tonal languages. When you first begin using your Chinese to talk about subjects that actually matter to you, you find that it feels somewhat like trying to have a passionate argument with your hands tied behind your back -- you are suddenly robbed of some vital expressive tools you hadn't even been aware of having.

Your post is a good illustration of why there is no "hardest language."


The tones in Mandarin can be a challenge for native speakers of non-tonal languages, but fortunately most native Mandarin speakers with any experience interacting with waiguoren try to be forgiving and figure out what you mean if you are anywhere in the ballpark of a comprehensible utterance. There are, of course, languages with even more tones than Mandarin, so there's always a challenge out there.

You appear to be singularly obtuse here. There is most certainly a gradation in the difficulty of language learning. Therefore there exists a most-difficult-to-learn language. Simple logic.

 

[Unkotare]

You appear to be singularly obtuse here. There is most certainly a gradation in the difficulty of language learning. Therefore there exists a most-difficult-to-learn language. Simple logic.

It is not logical, nor accurate. The fact is that difficulty in acquiring another language is relative to a great many factors, not the least of which is what L1 a language-learner is starting from.