Linguists from the University of Oslo named the world's most difficult language to learn, having the most complex phonetics. According to scientists, this is the dialect of the Pirahán people, who live in the Amazonian jungle of Brazil. The researchers explained that the reason for the complexity of the pirahana lies in the many whistling sounds.
Sign language. How to find out the secret thoughts of the interlocutor?
According to Izvestia, representatives of this tribe whistle words and whole sentences to each other. In this case, the sounds propagate over a long distance. With the help of the language, the Pirahãs navigate in space, making their way through the jungle or crossing the river. It is also used for hunting.
Interestingly, the verbs here are used only in the future and past tenses. There are also no singular or plural nouns in the language. Speech, based on one consonant and one vowel, can sound in different keys.
Let's note, according to neurophysiologists, which even the carrier's brain hardly perceives. For example, Chinese and Arabic.
In answer to the favorite question of everyone who has encountered the study of a foreign language - what is the most difficult language on Earth? - linguists chuckle: it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer. In their opinion, the difficulties depend primarily on the student himself, namely on which dialect is native to him. The rather difficult Russian language will not be so difficult for a Czech or Ukrainian, but a Turk or a Japanese may be too tough.
From the point of view of "kinship", one of the most difficult to learn is the Basque language (Euscara) - it is not associated with any of the currently known groups of languages, living or dead. Everyone is equal before the difficulties of mastering Euskars. The Guinness Book of Records calls the most difficult languages Chippewa (the dialect of the Ojibwe Indian people in Canada and the USA), Haida (the language of the Haida Indian people living in the northwest of North America), Tabasaran (it is spoken by one of the indigenous peoples of Dagestan), Eskimo and Chinese .
The most difficult languages in terms of writing are Chinese, Japanese and Korean. They are difficult even for the carriers themselves. For example, in Japan, school education lasts as much as 12 years, and half of this time is devoted to only two subjects - the native language and mathematics. Even from preschool age, Japanese kids are given developmental classes to train their memory. To pass the final exams, they need to learn about 1850 hieroglyphs, and to understand a note printed in the newspaper - about 3 thousand.
The easiest group (again, for native English speakers) included Danish, Dutch, French, Haitian, Creole, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili and Swedish. Bulgarian, Dari, Farsi (Persian), German, Modern Greek, Hindi-Urdu, Indonesian and Malay were second in difficulty.
American teachers and students consider Amharic, Bengali and Burmese languages to be even more difficult, as well as Czech, Finnish, modern Hebrew, Hungarian, Lao, Nepalese, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Sinhala, Thai, Tamil, Turkish and Vietnamese. The most difficult for English-speaking students were Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
It is curious that despite the relationship and the obvious similarity in spelling, Hebrew and Arabic related to the Semitic group were at different levels of complexity. This pattern is also true for speakers of both languages. According to a study by scientists from the University of Haifa, it is more difficult for Arabs to read texts in their native language than for Jews and the British (or Americans). The reason is simple but surprising: the brain processes the graphic characters of these languages differently.
As you know, the functions of the left and right hemispheres are different. The right one, for example, "specializes" in solving spatial problems and template processing of information, while the left one is responsible for speech recognition and detailed processing of text messages. At the same time, the right hemisphere is responsible for intuition and is able to "understand" metaphors, that is, words and phrases with a veiled meaning, while the left hemisphere is responsible for understanding only the literal meaning.
Israeli scientists analyzed the brain activity during reading and word recognition in people whose native language was English, Arabic or Hebrew. Volunteers were offered two experiments. In the first, they were shown words or meaningless combinations of letters in their native language on a screen. The subject had to determine whether the given word made sense, and the researchers recorded the speed and accuracy of the answer.
In the second trial, volunteers were shown words simultaneously on the left and right sides of a screen, sometimes on one, sometimes on both. Thus, the brain was faced with the task of processing the displayed symbols by the left or right hemisphere separately.
The resulting picture was interesting. English-speaking volunteers and those whose mother tongue was Hebrew easily "read" words in one of the hemispheres independently of the other. But the Arabs had it worse: when reading in Arabic, the right hemisphere cannot function without using the resources of the left. Reading Arabic characters in a unique way activates the cognitive systems of the brain, scientists conclude. If you want to develop your mind, learn Arabic!
By the way, the same pattern was previously found for Chinese compared to English. In the study, scientists observed the brain activity of Chinese and English speakers, respectively, while they listened to their native language. In the English-speaking subjects, only the left hemisphere became active, while in the Chinese, both.
Language is a sign system consisting of sounds and words. Each nation has its own unique sign system due to its phonetic, grammatical, morphological and linguistic features. Moreover, there are no simple languages. Each of them has its own difficulties, which are immediately revealed in the process of studying. Below are the most complex languages of the planet, the rating of which includes ten sign systems.
# 10 #
Finnish language
Finnish language is considered one of the most difficult sign systems in the world and deservedly so. It has up to 16 cases and several hundred verb forms and conjugations.
Here, graphic signs convey the phonetics of the word completely (everything is pronounced as it is written). This simplifies the language a bit. In Finnish grammar, there are several past forms at once and there are no forms of the future tense at all.
# 9 #
Icelandic
Icelandic It is one of the most difficult languages to pronounce. Its sign system is considered associated with one of the oldest languages in the world. It contains such linguistic units that are used only by native speakers themselves.
Phonetics is a big challenge for learning Icelandic. Only native speakers can accurately convey it.
# 8 #
Hungarian
Hungarian ranks among the top ten hardest languages in the world to learn. It has 35 case forms and a lot of vowels, which are quite difficult to pronounce with their length.
The sign system of the Hungarian language has a complex grammar. It has an innumerable number of suffixes and set expressions that are characteristic only for this language. The vocabulary system of this language is distinguished by the presence of only two tense forms of the verb: past and present.
There are about 6,000 languages in the world today. Some are simple, some are more complex. And there are those that for foreigners are more like a cryptographic cipher than a language of communication. Here are the 10 most difficult languages to learn.
10. Tuyuka
“Think before you speak,” we were often told as children. But in the Tuyuka language, which is spoken by the Indians living in the Amazon basin, they always think about what they are talking about. After all, the Tuyuka language has special verb endings that let the listener understand how the speaker knows what he is talking about. And there is no way to do without them: the language demands! So when you say something like "a woman is washing clothes", you have to add: "I know because I saw it myself." In addition, this language has from 50 to 140 classes of nouns. The Tuyuk language is agglutinative, which means that one word can mean a whole phrase. And two whole words, meaning the pronoun "we" - inclusive and exclusive.
There are only three vowels in the Abkhazian language - a, y and aa. The remaining vowels, denoted in writing by separate letters - e, o, and, y, are obtained from a combination of other vowels and consonants. The Abkhaz language compensates for the vocal poverty with an abundance of consonants: there are 58 of them in the literary language, and as many as 67 in the Bzyb dialect. By the way, the Abkhaz alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet was created in 1862, and three years later the Abkhaz primer was released. The manner of the Abkhazians to start a word with the letter “a” has been joked many times. But this prefix, or colloquially a prefix, performs the same function in the Abkhazian language that the in English is a definite article. It is placed before all nouns, and according to the rules of the Abkhazian language, it is added to borrowed words too. So the "destruction of the air squadron" is not a joke.
Some of the Khoisan languages are endangered, and many have already died out. But still, about 370 thousand people still speak these very unusual dialects. The fact is that in the languages spoken in southern Africa around the Kalahari desert, there are so-called clicks or clicking consonants. The term "Khoisan" itself was constructed from the words of the Khoisan Nama language: "Koi" in it means a person, and "San" means "Bushman". Initially, this term was used to denote the physical-racial type of these peoples, and only much later did the American linguist Joseph Greenberg apply the term to the macrofamily of languages that use clicking sounds. Not so long ago, genetic scientists confirmed the ancient isolation of the Khoisan peoples from the rest of mankind and found that the tribes living north and south of the Kalahari have been isolated from each other for at least 30 thousand years.
7. Finnish
Everyone who has tried to learn all fifteen Finnish cases and more than a hundred conjugations and personal forms of the verb will agree that Finnish is difficult. Finns don't just burn their hearts with the verb - they decline the verb like a noun! Add to this the alternation of consonants, the abundance of suffixes and cryptic postpositions, verbal control that is difficult for a foreigner - and it seems just right to fall into despair. But don't be in a hurry: there is a lot of comfort in the Finnish language for a diligent student. Words are both heard and written and read in exactly the same way - there are no unpronounceable letters here. The stress always falls on the first syllable, and the category of gender is absent altogether, which is quite capable of warming the soul of a supporter of equality. There are several past tenses in Finnish, but there is no future tense at all. Connoisseurs of the national character argue that this is because the Finns are used to being responsible for the spoken words, and if the Finn has already promised, he will definitely do it.
6. Chinese
The latest Chinese dictionary, Zhonghua Zihai, compiled in 1994, contains - are you sitting? - 85,568 hieroglyphs. True, it would be more correct to speak not about the Chinese language, but about the Chinese branch of languages, which unites many dialects, but there are still no easy ones among them. Take at least hieroglyphs: as a consolation, we can immediately say that not all of the more than 85 thousand are actively used in the modern language: the lion's share of them is found only in the memorable literature of various Chinese dynasties and is no longer used in practice. For example, the hieroglyph "se", meaning "talkative", which consists of 64 strokes. However, the current hieroglyphs are not so simple: for example, the hieroglyph “nan”, which means “stuffy nose”, is depicted with 36 dashes. Unlike happy Europeans, who learn a few dozen letters, a resident of the Celestial Empire, in order to start reading more or less, must memorize, at worst, at least 1,500 hieroglyphs. But each hieroglyph also needs to be learned to draw. Oh, you are heavy, Chinese letter!
The champion of verb forms is, of course, the Chippewa language of the American Indians, or, as they are more commonly called, Ojibwe. Linguists refer to the Chippewa language as the southwestern dialect of Ojibway proper. So, in this language - as many as 6 thousand verb forms! But even with all the complexities of this language, you, of course, know a couple of words from it: these are, for example, the words “wigwam” or “totem”. Based on the legends of the Ojibwe people, an epic poem by Henry Longfellow was written. The American classic used myths, toponyms, and even words from the Ojibwe language, but, like any other person, he was not able to take into account everything. So the mistake is right on the cover: the legendary Ojibwe hero is called Nanobojo, because Hiawatha is a character from Iroquois mythology.
4. Eskimo
Do you know the word "igloo", meaning the winter dwelling of the Eskimos, built of snow or ice blocks? Then congratulations: you know a word from the Eskimo language. It also rightfully takes its place of honor among the most difficult languages in the world: the Guinness Book of Records assures that it has 63 forms of the present tense, and simple nouns in it have 252 inflections. The term "inflection" in linguistics denotes different types of changes in words or roots. Let's just correct the Guinness Book: modern linguists do not single out the Eskimo language. This, apparently, is about the entire Eskimo branch of the Eskimo-Aleut languages. But in the main registrar of world records is not mistaken: all Eskimo languages are extremely complex: for example, in one verb form with the help of suffixes, up to 12 grammatical categories can be expressed. Speakers of this language think figuratively: the word "Internet" in it is expressed by the term "ikiaqqivik", which means "travel through layers."
The number of languages spoken by the indigenous peoples of Dagestan cannot be accurately counted. We can only say that 14 of them have a written language. The most difficult of them and, according to the Guinness Book of Records, one of the most difficult in the world is Tabasaran. The language of the Lezgi branch of the Nakh-Dagestan family of languages holds the world record for the number of cases - they are distinguished from 44 to 52 in the Tabasaran language! It has 54 letters and 10 parts of speech, and there are no prepositions, but postpositions are used instead. So that life does not seem like honey to a student of the Tabasaran language, there are as many as three dialects in the language. But there are a lot of borrowings in the dictionary of Tabasarans. Near the Farsi language, the mountain dwellers borrowed ancient household, military and craft terminology. Tabasarans borrowed religious and scientific terms from Arabic. And the Russian language shared with the Tabasaran modern socio-political and scientific and technical vocabulary. Just don't forget. that all these words change in more than 50 cases!
2. Navajo
The idea to use complex languages to transmit encrypted messages came to the Americans back in the First World War: then the Choctaw Indians served in the US Army. In World War II, they took advantage of this experience. And in addition to the complex Basque language, they began to transmit messages in the Navajo language. Fortunately, there were enough native speakers of this most complex language, who also knew English, but there was no writing in the language, and therefore there were no dictionaries at all. "Windtalkers", that is, "speaking with the wind," as the Navajo ciphers called themselves, even had to invent new words that were previously absent in their language. For example, the plane was called "not-ahs-ya", that is, "owl", the submarine - "besh-lo", literally - "iron fish". And Navajo signalers called Hitler "posa-tai-wo", that is, "crazy white man." In addition to vowels and consonants, this language has four more tones - high, low, ascending and descending. Particularly complex in the Navajo language are verb forms, which consist of a stem, to which derivational and inflectional prefixes are added. The fascist himself will break his head!
1. Basque
In this unique, unlike anything European language, very ancient concepts have been preserved. For example, the word “knife” in it literally means “a stone that cuts”, and “ceiling” means “roof of a cave”. We are talking about the language that its speakers call Euskara, and we call the Basque language. It is a so-called isolated language: it does not belong to any of the known language families. Now it is spoken and written by approximately 700,000 people, mostly living on the coastal strip 50 kilometers wide from the Spanish city of Bilbao to the city of Bayonne in France. The Basque language is classified as an agglutinative language - this is how linguists call languages in which suffixes and prefixes are used to form new words, and each of them carries only one meaning. There are about half a million words in the Basque language dictionary - approximately the same as in our great and powerful one. This is explained by a large number of synonyms and dialect variants. The obscurity and complexity of the Basque language played a positive role: during the Second World War, it was used by US Army cipher radio operators.
Let's talk about languages today. You are not a stupid guy and you understand what kind of languages we are talking about now. You probably remember how at the university you were told about the importance of language in the life 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, I'm sorry, but this word is hard to replace, so you have to use it all the time. Learning a language is the best way to connect with 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 the dude for whom the 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, it really is a living hell. Can't you learn the language that has been taught since school? Then you can't master Arabic. In addition to an alphabet that is completely incomprehensible to you, consisting of unfamiliar characters, you will encounter the opposite direction of reading and a complex pronunciation pattern.
2. Japanese
Various Asian dialects have a certain level of difficulty for native Russian speakers. In addition to the new alphabet, they all have one feature that distinguishes their difficulty for an unprecedented person. In the case of Japanese, you have to master thousands of characters in order to speak more or less normally. This is because Japanese has three separate writing systems, each with a different alphabet. In addition to these complexities, the Japanese language includes a structure that is responsible for addressing peers and older people, who are usually treated with due respect, therefore, they need to be spoken to in a different way.
3. Chinese
Chinese is a unique language because the grammatical structure and tone of the speaker matters to a great extent. In some languages, having a basic knowledge of grammatical structure, you could well get out. However, with Chinese, grammatical confusion can put you in an awkward position. Also, the writing system and the language system are different from the reading and writing systems. So it will be quite difficult to survive in China if you don't get into the area with at least English speakers.
4. Greek
We hasten to please: 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 undertook to learn this language. Difficulties with the alphabet are not found in everyone. However, what confuses many is the tension required for the other person to understand what you are saying. Incorrect alignment of tension in the voice changes the meaning of the word and the phrase as a whole.
5. Estonian
Estonian is 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 is preserved within the country itself, influencing the growth of the corresponding manner of the language. In addition, for many people, Finnish and Estonian may be perceived as close relatives in their speech and grammar patterns. Of course, Finnish is a bit easier to learn than Estonian.
7. Thai
Making a small detour from European languages, we find ourselves in Thailand. Thai can be described as medium difficulty compared to the top of our list. When learning Thai, you will encounter pronunciation difficulties. The grammar rules are similar to those in English, but the speaker's pronunciation and tone are the most important and most difficult for beginners.
8. Norwegian
At the end of our list, let's return to Europe, or rather, to Norway. Norwegian is last on our list for a reason. It is a language that is easy to learn in various collective courses and in formal settings. However, the fact that Norwegian is mostly 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 a course. By the way, this is a problem of any courses. Because of this, not every guy in Norway will understand what you are talking about. This is the same if you were addressed on the street in Old Russian.
Have you just started learning a foreign language and are already facing incredible difficulties?
Can't wade through the thorns of German, English or French grammar, phonetics and vocabulary without tears? Chin up! Rejoice that you are not faced with the task of conquering one of the most difficult languages in the world.
Russian - fifth place
Foreigners compare the study of the "great and mighty" with a nightmare. Even the Russian alphabet enters into a state of panic. Many letters in Cyrillic look the same as in Latin, but sound completely different. The purpose of "b" and "b" is a mystery behind seven seals. But more often than not, "Y" and "Y" become a stumbling block. The pronunciation of these sounds is a real torture for the uninitiated.
Words also raise questions. The most difficult to study are homonyms. Although they are spelled the same, they have different meanings. Synonyms also do not stand aside - only the verb "to go" has about 50 identical concepts! And the consonance of some words and the change in stress can distort the meaning of the phrase and cause an awkward situation.
Having coped with the kaleidoscope of letters and words, the unfortunate fall into the wondrous world of 6 cases, 2 conjugations and 3 declensions. Keeping all the rules in your head is already a feat, and it’s time to give a medal for mastering the exceptions.
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Hungarian - fourth place
The grammar of the Hungarian language is almost inaccessible to mere mortals. She is fraught with unpleasant surprises:
- 25 cases (in some sources - 18);
- The presence of 6 tense verb forms, including the imperative mood for the first person.
- Unusual morphology. What Russian speakers express with prepositions, Hungarians attach to the word with the help of case endings.
- The gender of a noun is determined only by the meaning of the sentence or the word itself.
The Magyar alphabet consists of 40 letters (14 vowels and 26 consonants). A difficult moment for the Russians is the peculiarity of the pronunciation of symbols. So, "S" is read as "Ш", "GY" - as "ДЬ", "A" - as something in between Russian "О" and "А".
Insidious and linguistics. It’s hard not to faint when you see the word “megszentsеgtelenнthetetlensеgeskedеseitekйrt” in the text, which translates roughly as “in connection with your desire to maintain an impeccable reputation.”
Japanese - third place
The language of the samurai is a severe test for foreigners. Even the Japanese find it difficult to learn the rules of their native language: 10 out of 12 school years, children spend fighting with intricate kanji (hieroglyphs) and two alphabets that have their own alphabet. What can we say about those who grew up away from the mysterious calligraphic signs!
The good news is that Japanese morphology is simple and has a clear structure. Nouns and adjectives do not change, and verb forms are easy to learn. The bad news is the abundance of grammatical synonyms: indistinguishable for the European ear, methods of expressing time, conditions and reasons.
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A separate topic is the famous Japanese politeness. The courteous inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun use 50 types of greetings. For representatives of different ages, social status and financial status, a separate, carefully selected style of speech is provided. One misused word - and you will be on the list of notorious rude people.
Arabic - second place
Foreigners understand the scale of the tragedy already when they open an Arabic book. What the inhabitants of the land of sheikhs call letters, for Europeans looks like bizarre patterns. However, contemplating this artistic creation and learning to depict the same yourself are two different things. Arabs write from right to left, but numbers are written from left to right.
Forming words, each of the 28 letters of the alphabet is connected to the next one with the help of a ligature. In addition, 18 letters acquire a new spelling depending on their position. The second difficulty is the pronunciation of sounds. Many of them seem to people ignorant of Arabic to be exactly the same. Pay due attention to mastering phonetics, otherwise native speakers will not perceive your speech.
Another problem for Arabic learners is the polysemy of words. It is realized in speech: only from the context it becomes clear what the speaker means. A correct understanding of the lexical meaning of words in different situations comes only with age.
The most difficult language in the world
The most difficult language in the world is Chinese. The desire to study it disappears at the first glance at the hieroglyphs. There is no alphabet in the Celestial Empire, since the written characters of Chinese are not isolated meaningless characters, which are the letters familiar to Europeans. Each character stands for a syllable or a whole word.
