Which is the most difficult European language to learn?

Question

Some say it's the Hungarian language. It's my mother tongue, so I can't really tell.

Answer 1

There is no single answer to this question; it depends on so many factors. However, the British Foreign Office has looked at the languages that diplomats and other embassy staff have to learn and has worked out which they find the most difficult to learn. The second hardest is Japanese, which probably comes as no surprise to many, but the language that they have found to be the most difficult to learn is Hungarian, which has 35 cases (forms of a nouns accoring to whether it is subject, object, genetive, etc). This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for everybody, but it causes British diplomatic staff, who are used to learning languages, the most difficulty. However, Tabassaran, a Caucasian language has 48 cases, so it would probably cause more difficulty if British diplomats had to learn it.

Different cultures and individuals from those cultures will find different languages more difficult. In the case of Hungarian for British learners, it is not a question of the writing system, which is alphabetic, but the grammatical complexity, though native speakers of related languages may find it easier, while struggling with languages that we find relatively easy. No language is easy to learn well, though languages which are related to our first language will be easier. Learning a completely different writing system is a huge challenge, but that does not necessarily make a language more difficult that another. In the end, it is impossible to say that there is one language that is the most difficult language in the world.

Cheers

Answer 2

Basque. It is an ergative-absolutive language, which is quite different from virtually all other European languages, which are nominative-accusative. Also, it's been said that a single Basque noun can have 458,683 possible inflections (after two levels of recursion).

Answer 3

finnish - the grammar is just horrific... but it's a really beautiful language :)

i know polish is a difficult one (it's my mother tounge), grammar is a nightmare, spelling isn't easy (eg. ch=h, rz=ż, u=ó - there are many rules which one goes to which word but there are also many words which you just have to learn by heart) and pronounciation, lol, i've tried to teach my cousin from uk a few words and he just couldn't pronounce most of them in a correct way, so it's quite hard.

Answer 4

I haven't studied them, only skimming, but I'd say it should be one among Hungarian, Irish Gaelic, Danish and Finnish.

Answer 5

Since I was born in Ireland about 40 years ago I feel that it is Irish. I am fluent in Spanish and can get by in Italian and can wade through in French but Irish is by far the hardest.

Answer 6

Welsh

Answer 7

French. The grammar is so difficult. So is the pronounciation.

Answer 8

My language which is maltese is I guess. We're just 365,000 in population, so why learn it when its so difficult and useless to other countries.

Answer 9

Chineese

Answer 10

russian u hav 2 hav the roll of ur tounge