Whats the least complicated Cyrlic language?

Question

Ive heard mandarin is easy to learn because it doesnt have conjugation and things like that.

Is there a cyrlic equivilant?

Answer 1

Cyrillic is an alphabet. Some Slavic languages (Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian...) as well as some languages from the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union (Kazakh, Mongolian...) are WRITTEN with the Cyrillic alphabet. As for Mandarin being easy, forget it. Beyond the script (1984 standard characters) it involves a lot of grammar. Smb. here complained about the 6 cases of Russian. Well, in Mandarin there are 9 cases to describe only the location. Not to speak of tones and modes. Mandarin is both pre- and post-positional and it might not have conjugation in the "classic" way by terminations but it has it by particles in a less defined way than in English. That requires a fine sense of the language and a good ear. If you have knowledge of other European languages go for Russian. If not, go whatever way you feel like. Or, you might want to try Korean which has an alphabet in its advantage but the grammar is still very difficult.

Answer 2

From what I've heard, all Slavic languages have nightmarish grammar. A language professor told me that UN once put out a list of the 10 toughest languages for native speakers of English to learn, and Polish was right up there with Arabic and Thai. I studied Polish myself (a Slavic language that uses the latin alphabet) in the top university in Poland for a semester, and I can tell you that the grammar is downright ridiculous - verb conjugation like crazy, six different cases, declension of all nouns (even personal names), and they don't even try to teach you to make masculine animate nouns plural until the end of your fourth semester. Because all languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet are Slavic languages, I'm assuming that they all share the same crazy grammar. Maybe start with a Slavic language that uses the Latin alphabet? I've heard that Czech and Slovak aren't too bad. After a full semester of Polish-by-immersion, I STILL don't feel comfortable putting together relatively basic sentences.

I studied Mandarin for 4 semesters (one in Taiwan), and it is easy to learn. The trick is that you can't try to learn it the same way that you'd try to learn Spanish, for example. If you approach the language with an open mind and adjust your learning habits as you need to, then it's really not hard. I found it easier to learn than German. Mandarin has no conjugation, no real tenses, limited punctuation rules, incredibly easy elementary sentence structure... it's like the total opposite of a Slavic language.

Answer 3

Cyrillic is an alphabet, not a family of languages. Though, indeed, most languages using it are slavic (and, yes, outrageously difficult for non-native speakers), for political reasons it has been used for non-slavic languages as widespread as Kazakh and Mongolian.

Answer 4

I only know russian and that's a bloody nightmare to learn.