Let's talk about languages today. You’re not a stupid guy and you understand exactly what languages we’re talking about now. You probably remember how at university they told you about the importance of language in the lives and history of people. We cannot argue with the statements of the teachers; on the contrary, we subscribe to their words.
We want to tell you about the most difficult languages not only for Russian speakers, but also for English speakers. Damn, sorry, but this word is difficult to replace with anything, so you have to constantly use it. Learning a language is The best way to contact a person from another part of the world. If you know at least the basics of the local dialect, you will feel many times more confident than that guy for whom spoken speech is incomprehensible nonsense.
So, back to enlightenment: today you will learn about some of the most difficult languages. Let's get started.
1. Arabic
Compared to English, this is truly a living hell. Are you having trouble learning a language that has been taught since school? Then you won't be able to master Arabic. In addition to a completely incomprehensible alphabet for you, consisting of unfamiliar symbols, you will encounter the opposite direction of reading and complex model pronunciation.
2. Japanese
Various Asian dialects have a certain level of difficulty for Russian speakers. In addition to the new alphabet, they all have one feature that makes them difficult for an unprecedented person. In the case of the Japanese language, you must master thousands of characters in order to express yourself more or less normally. This is because Japanese has three separate writing systems, each with its own alphabet. In addition to these complexities, the Japanese language includes a structure that is responsible for addressing peers and older people, whom it is customary to address with due respect, therefore, you need to talk to them differently.
3. Chinese
Chinese is a unique language because it has a lot of meaning. grammatical structure and the tone of the speaker. In some languages, with a basic knowledge of grammatical structure, you could get away with it. However, with the Chinese, confusion in grammar can put you in an awkward position. In addition, the writing system and language system differ from reading and writing systems. So it will be quite difficult to survive in China if you don't end up in an area with at least English speakers.
4. Greek
We hasten to please you: Greek is less difficult for Russian speakers than the top three languages that we have already mentioned. But there are other aspects that may be a problem for you if you decide to learn this language. Not everyone has difficulties with the alphabet. However, what confuses many people is the tension required for the other person to understand what you are saying. Incorrect placement of tension in the voice changes the meaning of the word and phrase entirely.
5. Estonian
Estonian is ranked fifth on our list due to its complex structure, which is a big problem in many other European countries that have their own language system. All this depends on the influence of other neighboring languages.
6. Finnish
Like many European languages, Finnish persists within the country itself, influencing the growth of the corresponding manner of the language. In addition, for many people Finnish and Estonian can be perceived as close relatives in their speech and grammatical patterns. Of course, Finnish is a little easier to learn, unlike Estonian.
7. Thai
Taking a short detour from European languages, we find ourselves in Thailand. Thai can be described as having medium difficulty compared to top part our list. When learning Thai, you will encounter difficulties in pronunciation. Grammar rules are similar to those in English language, but the pronunciation and tone of the speaker are the most important and the most difficult for beginners.
8. Norwegian
At the end of our list, let's return to Europe, or more precisely, to Norway. Norwegian is the last language on our list for this reason. It is a language that is easy to learn in various group courses and in formal settings. However, the fact that Norwegian is primarily spoken only in Norway makes it the final language on our list because Norwegian speakers use a less formal form of communication than what is taught to you in classes. By the way, this is a problem with any course. Because of this, not every guy in Norway will understand what you are talking about. It’s the same thing if someone addressed you on the street in Old Russian.
Learning a foreign language can be a very exciting experience. Knowing at least one more language opens up the possibility of interacting with completely unfamiliar cultures. Some languages are easier to learn than others. Thus, unless you are a masochist, we recommend avoiding these 25 most difficult languages in the world to learn. But if you managed to learn any of these languages, we shake your hand!
25. Tagalog.
Originating from Austronesia, Tagalog is quite popular in the Philippines, spoken by almost a quarter of the population.
24. Navajo.
The Navajo language is an ancient Athabascan language spoken by approximately 120,000 to 170,000 people in the southwestern United States.
23. Norwegian language.
This language, originally from northern Germany, has become the national language of Norway. Norwegian, along with Swedish and Danish, is similar to other Scandinavian languages, and has many similarities with Icelandic and Faroese.
22. Persian language.
Persian belongs to the Iranian group of Indo-European languages, and is primarily spoken in Afghanistan and Iran, as well as in Tajikistan and other Persian-influenced countries. Approximately 110 million people around the world speak it.
21. Indonesian language.
For many centuries Indonesian was the lingua franca of the entire Indonesian archipelago. It is considered one of the most widely spoken languages in the world because Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world.
20. Dutch language.
This language was born in western Germany. It is mainly spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname. It is currently an official language in Aruba, St. Maarten and Curacao and in parts of Europe and the United States. The Dutch language is closely related to English and German language and does not use the Germanic umlaut as a grammatical marker.
19. Slovenian language.
Slovenian language is part of South Slavic language group, and is spoken by more than 2.5 million people worldwide, mainly in Slovenia. This language is one of 24 official working languages European Union.
18. Afrikaans.
A West Germanic language spoken by natives of Namibia and South Africa, as well as Zimbabwe and Botswana. It is considered an offshoot of various Dutch dialects and is thus considered a relative of the Dutch language.
17. Danish language.
It is spoken by more than six million people around the world, Danish is a North Germanic language that currently has the status of a national minority language. In Greenland, approximately 15-20% of the total population speaks this language. It is similar to Swedish and Norwegian and is a descendant of Old Icelandic.
16. Basque language.
The Basque language is the heritage language of the Basque Country, which stretched from northeastern Spain to southwestern France. Almost 27% of the total population of the Basque territories speak this language.
15. Welsh language.
The Welsh language is part of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages used in Wales. This language used to have many different names, it was even called “British”.
14. Urdu.
Better known as Modern Standard Urdu, the language is commonly associated with Muslims who live in Hindustan. Urdu is also the official national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. One of 22 state languages in the Indian constitution, it is similar to Hindi and identical to Hindi in terms of grammatical construction and basic structure.
13. Hebrew.
Hebrew is a West Semitic language that belongs to the Afroasiatic language family and was first used by the ancient Jews in the 10th century BC. Since 200 it has ceased to be spoken language, but reappeared in the Middle Ages as the official language of Jewish rabbis and also began to be used in liturgical literature.
12. Korean.
Korean is the official language in North and South Korea, it is spoken by more than 80 million people worldwide.
11. Sanskrit.
The main liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan dialect that is descended from Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Indo-European languages. It is also one of the 22 official languages of India and has a rich history of dramatic, poetic, as well as philosophical and technical texts.
10. Croatian.
The Croatian language is a variety of the Serbo-Croatian language and one of the official languages of the European Union. It is based on the East Herzegovinian dialect, which is the basis for many other languages, including Montenegrin, Serbian and Bosnian.
9. Hungarian language.
Official in Hungary, this language is also the official language of the European Union, spoken not only by communities in Hungary, but also in Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia and Romania. It belongs to the Uralic language family and has similar dialects.
8. Gaelic language.
Also known as Scots, Gaelic is a Celtic language spoken by the natives of Scotland. It is a member of the Gaelic family of languages that was developed from Middle Irish, just like Manx and modern Irish.
7. Japanese language.
This East Asian language is the national language of Japan and is spoken by more than 125 million people worldwide. Member of the Japanese language family, he is one of the most difficult languages in the world because of its close connection with the Chinese language and because of its complex system of paying respects.
6. Albanian language.
The Indo-European language, spoken by people in Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia, is a centuries-old language first spoken by the old communities of Montenegro, Italy and Greece. It is closely intertwined with other languages, such as the Germanic proto-language, Greek and Balto-Slavic, but its vocabulary is quite different from other languages.
5. Icelandic language.
This North Germanic language is an Indo-European language that was influenced by Danish and Swedish languages after the colonization of America.
4. Thai language.
Commonly known as Siamese or Central Thai, the language is the official national language of Thailand. It is a member of the Thai-Kadai language family, and almost half of its words are borrowed from Pali, the old Khmer language, or Sanskrit. Thai is a tonal and analytical language and is known for its complex orthography and markers.
3. Vietnamese language.
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam, as well as the first or second language of many of its ethnic minorities. The Vietnamese dictionary contains borrowings from Chinese language, however, the Vietnamese alphabet used today is essentially the Latin alphabet with additional diacritics for tones and specific letters.
2. Arabic language.
Today's Arabic is a descendant of Classical Arabic, spoken in the 6th century. This language is spoken in a huge number of territories from the Middle East to the Horn of Africa. Most of its colloquial varieties are unintelligible and are said to constitute a sociolinguistic language.
1. Chinese language.
The Chinese language has many forms that are mutually incomprehensible. The language is spoken by approximately one-fifth of the world's population and is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn. Chinese is spoken in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Singapore.
Is this what you were looking for? Perhaps this is something you couldn’t find for so long?
Learning foreign languages is an important, exciting, but difficult activity. Nevertheless, some people turn it into a hobby, practically “collecting” the mastered foreign languages. Why do they do this, what difficulties accompany this process, as well as what is the rating of the most difficult and difficult languages to learn in the world - you will learn all this from the article.
Why do people love to learn languages?
It would seem that this is such a difficult, time-consuming activity that requires enormous motivation and concentration. Why do people voluntarily agree to learn a foreign language, and more than one, and often do it with pleasure? And there are those who do not stop at one or two languages, but increase the number of languages mastered to four, five or more. What is so exciting and necessary about this?
In general, the motives that motivate people to learn languages can be divided into two categories:
- for pleasure;
- to achieve the goal.
The first group includes a passion for foreign languages as a hobby, as well as the purposeful study of the culture of another country. Knowing the language, you can better understand the mentality of the people, their values and humor.
The second group includes the study of foreign languages for the purpose of emigration, improving professional status, communication and travel.
In general, we can say that people learn other languages for pleasure and benefit. Now let's talk about the difficulties that accompany this activity.
What is the difficulty of learning foreign languages?
For each case, the difficulties will be different. Let's list the most significant ones.
1.There is a big difference between your native language and a foreign one. So each person has their own hardest languages to learn. For example, most Dutch people find it easier to learn German or English than Russian or Serbian. Not to mention the languages of the peoples of Africa or Oceania. By the way, speakers of Slavic languages will have no less problems with the latter. But the reason is still the same - significant differences
2.Lack of a unified grammar. For example, it will not be easy for a native English speaker to master cases, conjugations and other forms in German, French, Estonian, Russian, etc. The difficulty of learning a language is also affected by the presence of exceptions and variations in it, which make it difficult to understand the general logic of the language.
3.Selected aspects: pronunciation, writing. For example, if the oral side of the Chinese language is not difficult to master, then you will have to tinker with the written side, namely, learn a huge number of hieroglyphs. The same can be said about the Japanese language, where there are three forms of writing, as well as various speech cliches, similar in meaning, but used in different situations. The English language, despite the simplicity of its grammatical structure, has complicated reading rules with many exceptions.
A few words about the great and mighty
Almost all of us have heard this maxim: “The Russian language is the most difficult.” And we, as schoolchildren, were proud that he was our family. But is it true that Russian is the most difficult language to learn?
As can be understood from the above, the complexity depends on a number of circumstances, among which the most prominent are individual characteristics studying. In other words, the Russian language is difficult to master for those people whose native language differs significantly in grammatical structure, pronunciation and writing.
The most difficult of the European and Slavic
The languages of the peoples of the Earth are so different from each other and have their own characteristics that determining the most Difficult language in the world is possible only within one or another large group. Another important factor is the individuality of the student - his abilities and native language.
Thus, among the European and Slavic languages the most difficult are considered to be:
- Estonian, Polish, Hungarian, Icelandic - in terms of grammar;
- Greek, Russian - in terms of graphics and spelling.
- English, Polish, Hungarian, Georgian - in terms of pronunciation.
The most difficult of the Eastern and Asian
If your native language is Slavic or European, then you will experience the most difficulties in learning Arabic, Turkish, Chinese, Sanskrit, Hindi, Japanese, and Korean. And all because their writing, pronunciation or grammatical structure are significantly different from the one to which other peoples are accustomed.
Arabic may not be the most difficult language in the world, but it has nevertheless been found that its writing requires more effort than reading Latin, Cyrillic, or even hieroglyphs. And the large number of hieroglyphic icons - 87 thousand - is the main obstacle to learning Chinese. The other listed languages are characterized by difficulties in pronunciation and a larger number of grammatical classes: genders, cases, persons, conjugations, tense forms, etc.
Rating of the most difficult languages
As you can already understand, compiling such a list is not an easy task. After all, the difficulty of learning a particular language for a foreigner lies in what language this person has as his native language, as well as what languages he already speaks and what his individual abilities are.
1. The most difficult language in the world is Basque, spoken by people living in southwestern France and northern Spain. It is characterized by an extremely complex grammatical structure and low prevalence, which made it possible to use the Basque language for encryption during the Second World War.
2. Tuyuca is the language of the small peoples of Brazil and Colombia. Its grammatical structure is quite complex, and the same can be said about spelling.
3. The Eskimo language has 252 noun endings, as well as 63 present tense forms of verbs. This is quite enough to make you suffer from studying it.
4. The language of the African Suaya tribe has no genders, verbs or nouns, but its grammar contains 15 forms of past and future tenses. In the vocabulary you can find 108 different words to indicate yellow color, but none for water.
5. The language of the Nivkhs (a small people living on Northern Sakhalin) is notable for its special counting system, which changes depending on what items are being counted. There are a total of 26 methods that anyone who decides to learn this rare language will have to master.
6. The Chippewa Indian Tribe boasts a native language containing 6,000 verb forms - a world record.
7. The Abaza language (belongs to the languages of the peoples of the Caucasus, is one of the official languages in Karachay-Cherkessia) is distinguished by such complex phonetics that it is almost impossible for a person for whom it is not native to master it.
What's the best way to learn any language?
Even the most difficult language in the world can be mastered if you approach this process purposefully and consciously. Create a lesson plan that includes goals for the day, week, month, and then follow it. It will take a lot of patience and constant practice.
In the case of common European and Slavic languages, watching videos with foreign subtitles helps a lot: this way you will not only hear pronunciation samples, but also learn to understand speech. Another valuable source when learning languages is communication in them.
Conclusion
Surely you have already realized that there is no one answer to the question of which foreign language is the most difficult. Each has its own nuances: be it pronunciation, graphics system, rules of grammar and spelling, lexical features and so on. Whether a language is complex or simple - the answer often lies in the personality of the person studying it.
Many people ask which language is the hardest to learn. Well what can we say? Many languages are difficult. Below is a list of some of the hardest languages to learn. But you must remember that some language may be difficult for you for certain reasons. So after reading the article, you can make your own list of the most difficult languages to learn.
What is the most difficult language in the world?
Many people ask what is the hardest language to learn. Well what can we say? Many languages are difficult. Below is a list of some of the hardest languages to learn. But you must remember that some language may be difficult for you for certain reasons. So after reading the article, you can make your own ranking of the most difficult languages to learn.
Rating: 10 most difficult languages
Arabic, Chinese and Japanese are considered the most difficult languages according to the Institute of Foreign Service of the State. US Department. Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian are also among the most difficult languages due to the huge number of cases. Pronunciation in them is more difficult than even in Asian languages, since they have a set of long, mind-boggling consonants. But our list is not limited to these languages. Here's our list of ten candidate languages, with explanations of why each language made the list. Your personal list may differ from this.
1. Chinese. This language made the list for many reasons. For example, the hieroglyphs used in writing are very complex and ancient. Each word is represented by a separate symbol - and not phonetically, so it doesn't give you any the slightest idea about how the word is pronounced. The tonal system doesn't make life easier either, because Chinese has four tones. Here's another reason: Chinese has a huge number of homophones. For example, the word "shi" is associated with thirty different morphemes. Some people try to learn Chinese just because it is so different from other languages and so difficult.
2. Arabic. The first difficulty is in writing. Many letters have four different spellings, depending on their position in the word. Vowels are not included in the letter. Sounds are complex, but words are even more complex. An English-speaking student studying a European language encounters a lot of words that look familiar. But the same student studying Arabic will no longer encounter a single familiar word. The verb in Arabic usually comes before the predicate and object. The verb has three numbers, so nouns and verbs must be taught in singular, dual and plural. The present tense has 13 forms. The noun has three cases and two genders. Another problem is dialects. In Morocco, Arabic is as different from Arabic in Egypt and from literary Arabic as French is from Spanish and Latin.
3. Tuyuka- the language of the eastern Amazon. His sound system not too complex: simple consonants and a few nasal vowels. But here is agglutination!!! For example, the word "hóabãsiriga" means "I don't know how to write." It has two words for “we”, inclusive and exclusive. The classes of nouns (gender) in the languages of the Tuyuca family number from 50 to 140. And the most surprising thing about this language is that you need to use special verb endings that make it clear how the speaker knows what he is talking about. For example, “Diga ape-wi” means “the boy played football (I know because I saw it).” In English we may or may not talk about it, but in Tuyuka these endings are obligatory. Such languages force their speakers to think carefully about how they learned what they are talking about.
4. Hungarian. Firstly, Hungarian has 35 cases or forms of nouns. This alone puts Hungarian on the list of the most difficult languages to learn. Hungarian has a lot of expressive idioms, a lot of suffixes. A large number of The vowels and the way they are pronounced (deep in the throat) make this language difficult to pronounce. You will need more effort to learn and maintain this language at a decent level than many other languages.
5. Japanese. It is difficult primarily because writing is different from pronunciation. That is, you cannot learn to speak this language by learning to read it - and vice versa. Moreover, there are three different writing systems. Kanji system uses Chinese characters. Students must learn from 10 to 15 thousand hieroglyphs (cramming, no mnemonic techniques will help). Additionally, written Japanese uses two syllabaries: katakana for loanwords and hiragana for writing suffixes and grammatical particles. The State Department allocates Japanese students three times as much time as Spanish or French students.
6. Navajo. This amazing language also claims a place on the list of the most difficult languages. During World War II, the language was used as a code to send messages over the radio (radio operators were bilingual Navajo speakers). The advantage of this method was that information could be encrypted very quickly. The Japanese couldn't figure out this code. Navajo was chosen not only because it is very difficult, but also because there were no published dictionaries or grammars of this language, but there were native speakers of the language. This language does almost everything differently from English. For example, in English, in a verb, we highlight only the third person singular (in the present tense) with a suffix. And in Navajo, all persons are distinguished by prefixes in the verb.
7. Estonian. Estonian has a very strict case system. Case is a grammatical class that affects the behavior of words in a sentence. Estonian has 12 cases, which is twice as many as many Slavic languages. In addition, there are many exceptions to the rules; many words can mean several different concepts.
8. Basque is also one of the top ten most difficult languages according to the British Foreign Office. It has 24 cases. It is impossible to associate British with any Indo-European language. It may be the oldest language in Europe. It belongs to agglutinative languages, that is, it uses suffixes, prefixes and infixes to form new words. It is a synthetic language rather than an analytical one. In other words, the language uses case endings to indicate connections between words. It changes not only the ending of the verb, but also the beginning. In addition to the usual moods of Indo-European languages, Basque has some other moods (for example, potential). In language a complex system indicating the subject, direct and indirect object - all of which are part of the verb.
9. Polish. The language has 7 cases, and its grammar has more exceptions than rules. For example, German has 4 cases and they are all logical. Learning Polish cases will require more time and effort to learn (and discover) the logic and rules, and you may have to learn the entire language first. In addition, Poles rarely communicate with foreigners who speak their language, so you will have to be very careful about your pronunciation, otherwise you will not be understood.
10. Icelandic very difficult to learn due to its archaic vocabulary and complex grammar. It preserves all the ancient declensions of nouns and verb conjugations. Many Icelandic phonemes do not have exact equivalents in English. You can only learn them by listening to original recordings or talking to Icelanders.
No linguist can unequivocally answer the question of which language is the most difficult in the world. Here it is necessary to take into account several factors, among which your native language plays an important role, in what dialect you communicate with your family. Let's give a simple example: the Russian language will not be so difficult for a Ukrainian, but for a Chinese it may not be possible. Let's look at several languages, the most difficult ones.
Arabic
One of the most complex languages - the abundance of complex sounds is almost impossible to reproduce. Every word is difficult to pronounce, and the same letter can sound differently - it all depends on the location of the letter in the word. If, for example, you find consonant words in European languages, then in Arabic you are unlikely to encounter familiar intonations. We are accustomed to the fact that the verb is placed after the predicate, but here the verb is placed before it. In addition, the verb can be in three forms - plural, singular and dual. Try not to get confused by the thirteen present tense forms. In addition, do not lose sight of the fact that Arabic is written from right to left.
Russian language
Unprepared people may have difficulties with reproduction - if in many languages the stress falls on the same syllable, then in Russian it can be located anywhere in the word. Often stress radically changes the meaning of what is being said. The word seems to be one, but it can mean completely different things. Foreigners are often surprised by the richness and diversity of Russian speech. In addition, it is worth paying great attention to studying not only cases, numbers, tenses and declensions, but also the placement of commas and other punctuation marks.
Hungarian
There are thirty-five cases in this complex language. The Hungarian's speech is generously seasoned with all sorts of suffixes and expressive phraseological units. A huge number of consonants pronounced in the throat does not add ease of pronunciation. Even having comprehended the wisdom of the language, you will not learn to speak this language soon.
Chinese
One of the most difficult languages in the world is Chinese. The most ancient hieroglyphs must be drawn with care and attention - the slightest tilt of the dash or its absence changes the meaning of what is written. One single hieroglyph can express not only a word, but an entire sentence. Looking at these intricate squiggles, you are unlikely to immediately guess how they should be pronounced. In addition, homophones and tones influence the meaning of words and sentences.
Often, even for native Chinese people, Chinese literacy is too difficult. Today, the most complete dictionary contains about 90 thousand hieroglyphs, and each of them represents its own syllable. For example, the hieroglyph for a stuffy nose consists of 36 lines.
Japanese
Not inferior in complexity to Chinese. If you ever master the science of hieroglyphs, you are unlikely to be able to speak this language. IN Japanese There are three different writing systems. Students are given several times more time to study this complex language - learning about fifteen thousand different hieroglyphs is no joke! And students in Japan study for twelve whole years. In order for a Japanese schoolchild to pass the final exam, he has to learn more than one and a half thousand hieroglyphs.
Polish language
This language is more complex than it seems. Firstly, there are far fewer rules than exceptions, and only the most stubborn can remember them all. Despite the fact that there are as many letters in the alphabet as there are teeth in an adult, ideally, of course, there are much more sounds. Sometimes it is difficult to simply read a written word. There seem to be few cases, only seven, but in order to understand them, you will first have to learn to understand the spoken language of the Poles, and then master the rules. Talking on Polish language, give great importance pronunciation, otherwise you risk being misunderstood. By the way, when you hear a seemingly familiar word, you may be surprised that it means something completely different from what you are used to.
Bak language
This complex language of the world is spoken by some French people and the population of northern Spain. This language is not related to any known group of languages - neither living nor dead. Difficulty may arise when trying to understand and remember the twenty-four cases. New words are formed by adding morphemes. Words are connected to each other through case endings. A system of inclinations, among which there is, for example, potential.
Tuyuk language
It is rare to meet a person who speaks this complex language. It is mainly distributed in the eastern Amazon. Despite the fact that the language has frankly few sounds and letters, the very construction of words and phrases can cause difficulties. A person speaking this language can say just one word and say difficult sentence. This language is characterized by a complex system of verb endings, changing which can explain to the interlocutor both the action and the explanation to him, and a lot of other important information.
Navajo language
Another complex language is the language of two hundred thousand Indians. This complex language, spoken by residents of Arizona and the southwestern United States, has four vowels, but the consonants have a unique pronunciation. Often Europeans are simply unable to reproduce such sounds. There are no numbers in the Navajo language, and nouns have no declensions. But verbs have many faces. During the war that took place in the middle of the last century, this language was used when it was necessary to convey important information - none of the codebreakers could make out a single word from the reports.
Icelandic
One of the most ancient languages in the world contains words that have long been forgotten. This is precisely its main difficulty - the words are so old that only regular communication with people who speak this language from the cradle can help lift the veil of antiquity over them. To study this most difficult language in the world, books and reference books alone will not be enough. Just try to pronounce the word - Eyjafjallajökull. One of the volcanoes lives under such a “simple” name.
