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2007-01-13 12:01:53 · 11 answers · asked by Kaien かいえん 4 in Society & Culture Languages

I can speak English, Chinese, some chinese regional dialect, and am currently learning Japanese and Yucatec Mayan (including the hieroglyphs).

2007-01-17 06:35:42 · update #1

11 answers

The hardest language, hmmm. Again a debatable question.
Each language is dependant on the complexity it presents to potential students, and the desire and mental discipline that those students command. English is a contender because of all its bastardizations and idioms. Navaho (Navajo) is also. They used Navaho as a code language in the Pacific because of its complexity during World War II.

The constructed language Esperanto is the strongest contender as the easiest language because it is designed to be just that. A look at its history will show you that it is expanding exponentialy. In numerous studies conducted over the last century, it has been demonstrated that first mastering Esperanto can lessen significantly the amount of instruction required for a third or forth language, because it clearly demonstrated linguistic theory that is useful in understanding languages. The link below provides details on this phenomena.
Now one could say that the same effect would happen with almost any language, and I believe they are correct. So if you are in a position to learn any language, and hope to use it to vault into a third language, then by all means do so.
The only real benefit that Esperanto has over the other tongues in this case is its ease of absorption, and its clear demonstration of linguistic principles.
I frequently make this next statement, and I live by it.

"If you can't learn Esperanto, you can't learn any language."

At the very least, if you learn Esperanto first, which by the way can lead to the enjoyment of meeting new friends and traveling to new places, you'll at least have that under your belt regardless of how far you decide to take any other languages.
It's not uncommon for a student of Esperanto to become fluent inside of a month, maybe less, if you've the desire.

Please don't let anybody tell you it's useless. As with anything else, it's use is dependant on how you decide to use it. With over 2,000,000 speakers in the world, there aren't too many places where you won't find it, you just need to look. The internet is the best place to start. The sites below are the best intitial places to investigate the language and it's history. (Yes, it has a history (119 years) and a culture.)
Research and make your own conclusions.

Ĝis!

2007-01-14 00:54:50 · answer #1 · answered by Jagg 5 · 0 0

No language is easy to learn well, though languages which are related to our first language will be easier. For English speakers the most difficult to learn seems to be Hungarian, which has 35 cases (forms of a nouns according to whether it is subject, object, genitive, etc). However, Tabassaran, a Caucasian language has 48 cases.

Learning a different writing system is an incredible challenge, however that does not make a language more difficult that another.

With Japanese, the challenge is even greater. Consider that the Japanese written code is different from the spoken code. You cannot learn to speak the language by reading it or the other way around. Also, there are three different writing systems: The kanji system uses characters borrowed from Chinese. You need to memorize 10,000 to 15,000 of these characters. Written Japanese also makes use of two syllabary systems: kata-kana for loan words and emphasis, and hira-gana for spelling suffixes and grammatical particles.
Finally, the difficulty of grasping the culture difference. With most languages you start by learning introductions: Buenos días. Cómo está usted?. Good morning. How are you?
Not with Japanese. There are social distinctions: Age, social status, gender.

2007-01-13 13:01:19 · answer #2 · answered by ninhaquelo 3 · 1 0

English IS NOT the simplest language on Earth; the only reason you're saying that is because you're a native English speaker. Spanish is not the easiest, either, as through my experiences a lot of people have immense troubles with it.

Afrikaans has no verb conjugations...they just modify the verb using "ver" etc. (for those of you who don't speak Afrikaans, which is probably most people, this is just a way of modifying the verb to tell its tense. Pronouns are used to add clarification as to the subject).

Chinese is extremely difficult because of the characters, dialects and other factors, as many others have mentioned.

2007-01-13 12:21:50 · answer #3 · answered by hacerfalta 1 · 2 0

personally I feel that some European languages, like French and Italian, of which words can be masculin and feminine and so the verbs, adjectives etc that follow are the most difficult.

Japanese can be considered easy compared to other languages. yes, there are two sets of "alphabets" but there are only 50 of them. you can be well versed in them after the first 3 months of learning. Besides, Japanese words are phonetic and easy to pronounce. yes, many Kanjis(Chinese words) are used. maybe it's because I know Chinese, I find it quite easy learning the Kanjis.

2007-01-13 14:27:44 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

By far the simplest language is Esperanto. It has no verb conjugation, no masuline or feminine nouns, is completely phonetic, and has no exceptions to any rules. It is not "easy" to learn--no language is: you have to sit down and work with it, learn vocabulary, and use it. But it IS simple in the sense of not being complex. Some of the American Indian languages I have looked at look notoriously difficult to "crack".

2007-01-13 13:26:12 · answer #5 · answered by ? 5 · 1 0

Spanish and French would have to be the easist. I was taught that English was the most complex because of all the verb rules and so many different things.

2007-01-13 12:32:34 · answer #6 · answered by Penelope 5 · 2 1

I heard Japanese was the most complex...they have three alphabets! I'm not sure about the most simplest...i dont think there's such a language.

2007-01-13 12:14:02 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1 1

I saw a Discovery Channel documentary that said that Humpback whales have the most complex language. I believe that the least complex is the 'Southern Drawl.'

2007-01-13 12:06:13 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 5 1

I think it is Chinese, as there are hundreds of dialects as well as the spellings.

2007-01-13 12:14:59 · answer #9 · answered by Deana 4 · 1 1

Simplest has to be English.
Complex - Sanskrit or Oriental Languages

2007-01-13 12:10:00 · answer #10 · answered by KR 2 · 0 4

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