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. The Japanese language has 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. When speaking Polish, pay attention 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 a complex system endings of verbs, 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 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.
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 be faced with the opposite direction of reading and a complex pronunciation model.
2. Japanese
Various Asian dialects have a certain level of difficulty for Russian speakers. Besides the new alphabet, they all have one feature that makes them difficult to understand. unprecedented man. When Japanese language you must master thousands of symbols in order to express yourself more or less normally. This is because Japanese has three separate systems written form, each of which has 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 grammatical structure and the tone of the speaker matter greatly. 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 are different from the reading and spelling 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 Similar to the rules in English, but the pronunciation and tone of the speaker are the most important and 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.
First, let's determine which languages are popular today.
Of course, English, which is unanimously considered the language of international communication.
Then Spanish, because it is spoken not only in Spain, but also in most countries South America, it is also one of the official languages of the United States.
We must not forget about French, and not only because it is on par with English official language Canada, as well as the main language of many African countries, but also because this beautiful and melodic language has many fans who study it just like that, “for the love of art.”
German, despite the limited territory of application (officially - Germany and Austria), still does not give up its position and has a huge army of those who study or own it, apparently due to the fact that Germany has had a huge historical and cultural influence on other countries, and continues to flourish in economically and politically.
Let's not forget about our own Russian language, after all, it is spoken not only in the largest country in the world, but also in the former Soviet republics, as well as emigrants who have left this very country and republics in all other developed countries. Let's include it in our list also in order to compare its complexity with other popular languages.
Now let's face it and admit that actually the first person on this list should be Chinese, which is statistically the most widespread language in the world, because it is spoken by 1.213 billion people, which, you agree, is a lot.
At first we wanted to add to our list in fairness National language India - Hindi, which takes an honorable 3rd place in the list of the most common languages, after Chinese and English. But, unfortunately, it is of little interest to anyone outside of Hindustan. This situation arose due to the active role of the English language, which in the century before last became lingua franca- tongue interethnic communication. That is, in India you can communicate freely in English, and you will always be understood.
Therefore, we include in our analysis Arabic, spoken in many countries in the Middle East, North Africa, South and Central America.
So, let's start analyzing the complexity English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese and Arabic. Let’s immediately make a reservation that we will analyze them from the position of a Russian-speaking person, and we will take into account data about the Russian language itself from the position of foreigners studying it.
1. The simplest of the above is considered... English language ! There are no genders, cases, or word agreements; its grammar is quite simple. The words in it are short, as a rule, the verb and noun are denoted by the same word, verbs acquire a suffix only in the third person. Native speakers are calm about the mistakes of foreigners, because many people learn English as a second language. It is in English that 80% of the world's information is now stored, the bulk of technical and scientific literature is also printed in it, in addition, English is considered the language of the Internet.For those who are just starting to learn English, it is important to understand that it is a language of structures, a language with a fixed word order. You just need to remember that the structure of each sentence is the same: “subject + predicate + minor members”, and in that order. You should also remember that every sentence must have verb. Well articles of course - they are the ones that cause the greatest difficulties for Russian speakers. In general, you can learn English quite quickly for everyday communication, but to master it... it takes more than one year. As they say, English is easy to learn, but hard to master.
Read more about the English language.
2. In second place you can put Spanish. Its vocabulary is similar to English as they share the same roots - Latin. Its spelling is simple - as it is written, so it is heard. The word order here is not fixed as rigidly as in English, there is no need auxiliary verbs. In addition, this language is brighter, richer and more interesting in terms of word formation - for example, diminutive suffixes are actively used (which simply do not exist in English). The tenses are at the same level of difficulty as in English, but the past is a bit messed up. In general, for a Russian person Spanish is easily perceived by ear, much easier than English, this is due to similar phonetics. Read more about Spanish read .
3. French is also not very complicated, many of its words are similar to English and Russian, which is due to history. French is widely used and it is quite easy to find opportunities to learn and speak it.The hardest thing about French is pronunciation and reading. It is difficult to get used to the fact that several letters in a word may not be read at all, and those that are read may be pronounced differently from how they are written. In addition, the pronunciation features of abbreviated forms are related and studied in parallel with basic grammar.
What about grammar? Verbs are conjugated according to persons (there are both you and you) in different times and inclinations. In the traditional grammar system, there are: 3 present tenses, 3 future tenses, 6 past tenses, 2 types imperative mood, 2 types of conditional mood and 4 types of subjunctive mood. French is also distinguished by the abundant use of negative and restrictive phrases and the frequent use of the infinitive as a subject.
Despite the apparent complexity of French there are a lot of fans, even fans, and it's actually not that difficult to learn. You can read more about French.
4. if you love long words and Capitalized nouns - your language German. German is easier for people with a technical mind, it is quite schematic and predictable, its sentences are similar to an electrical circuit, where each subsequent link is connected to the previous one. It also looks like a spreading tree with many branches - rules and exceptions to them. You definitely can’t call it a poor or boring language!German is difficult in its grammar, it has 4 cases and three genders of nouns, which, of course, are in no way related to the real qualities of the objects they denote (all articles are declined). According to Mark Twain, “In German a girl has no gender, although a turnip, say, has one.”
IN German also quite complex syntax, and the words in it can be very long, because are formed by combining different words and adding suffixes and prefixes to them.
Despite the fact that its sound is considered a rough language, many people hear its lyricism and see its ornamental beauty. Although, let’s be honest: teaching him is not an easy task. As I said Richard Porson, "Life is too short to learn German." But, of course, this is an exaggeration. Read more about the German language.
5. Russian- this is certainly a rather difficult language. Even the Russians themselves have to learn it all their lives, and at school only a few get an “excellent” rating in it. Russian has 6 cases, while German has only 4, in general its grammar is very confusing, with many exceptions, exceptions to exceptions; The word order is not fixed, there are no articles, and the meaning is often conveyed by intonation.Punctuation in Russian is quite confusing, but logical, but contains many rules.
It is difficult for foreigners to perceive Russian by ear due to its excellent phonetics - a large number of hissing and whistling sounds and a rolling “r”. Most people in the world consider Russian to be even more difficult than Chinese. Many people give up learning “tourist set” immediately after they try to pronounce "Hello" - Hello. Combination "hello" And "vstv" in one word is unpronounceable for most people.
Russian is a very emotional language. Its lexical content is rich and flexible - indeed, in no other language will you find so many diminutive and abusive words! For example: girl - girly - girl - little girl - wench - lass - damsel, and all of these are derivatives from one root. Compare English: girl - littlegirl, and that's it!
Much in Russian is not subject to logical comprehension, since it conveys mood and emotion.
For example:
- Do you want some tea?
- No, probably not.
So think about it, foreigners, whether we want tea or not.
6. Arabic no one will call it easy, but let's figure out how difficult it is. The first thing a beginner encounters and what scares him is the Arabic script, the Arabic script. However, the fear of the Arabic script is false, since it has only 28 letters that are connected to each other in print and writing. However, many letters have four different spellings - depending on their position in the word. Another difficulty (although essentially just a lack of habit) is the direction of writing from right to left. But stress in Arabic words is placed very simply and logically without any exceptions.So what's so complicated about it, you ask? Firstly, the pronunciation of Arabic sounds corresponding to a particular letter is quite difficult for both Slavs and Europeans. This mainly concerns the reading of vowels, since it is believed that they are not there, but there are "vocalization". Arabic has 28 consonants and only 3 vowels - a, and, y- each of them can be short or long. But vowels are not reflected in writing. In addition, there are sounds there that have no equivalent in Russian. At the same time, words are read the same way as they are written.
Arabic grammar is also not encouraging - the verb usually comes before the predicate and the object. A verb has three numbers, so nouns and verbs must be learned in singular, dual and plural . The present tense has 13 forms. The noun has three cases and two genders.
You also need to take into account the fact that Arabic is the language of a completely different culture (for Russian speakers). Studying any European language, we will come across a lot of words that are familiar to us. And when studying Arabic, we will no longer come across a single familiar word.
One more problem Arabic- this is that there are many dialects in it. Classical Arabic, the language of the Koran, was originally a dialect of Mecca (the territory Saudi Arabia), and its adapted form, which is called "Modern Standard Arabic", is now used in literature, newspapers, television and radio, in the mosque, as well as in the communication of educated Arabs from different countries. But the differences between local dialects are sometimes so huge that a representative of Morocco, for example, may not be understood by an Iraqi, and vice versa, although formally both speak Arabic.
7. There is an opinion that Chinese not that complicated at all. In fact, only its grammar is simple and even primitive - there are no endings, no suffixes, no prefixes.What makes Chinese really difficult is the mass of synonyms and the terrible interchangeability of words, as well as the hieroglyphs themselves. Many hieroglyphs are often synonyms, and the synonyms themselves require learning more and more new hieroglyphs, and often completely different words are read identically.
At the same time, there are no special problems when reading hieroglyphs; they arise in oral speech when the brain has to deal with a lot of associations and equally sounding words. Therefore, the Chinese themselves speak in short phrases, sometimes repeating everything they said. And for a native speaker of the Slavic group, even just saying one Chinese sentence with correct, understandable pronunciation is already a great achievement, for which you need to work and work.
As for the simplicity of Chinese grammar, it is more than offset not only by complex writing, but also by extremely complex pronunciation with 4 tones, extensive homonymy, homophony, and homography. Thus, Chinese is in last place on our list, and you can read more about it.
So, we looked at 7 popular languages today and ranked them by degree of difficulty. But which language will be easier or more difficult for you is a separate question that depends on many factors. If, for example, you already taught English at school, like most Russians, then you will find it easier to speak related languages - German, Spanish, French.
if you have strong motivation , for example, the intention to move to another country (read about emigration), then of course the language you are learning will be easier for you - it will affect emotional mood, interest in the life of the country, the press, television, the desire to watch films and television programs in the language.
Are you wondering which language is the most difficult? Linguists believe that a clear answer to this question has not yet been found.
It all depends on three key criteria:
- 1. Native language learning foreign languages are as complex as they differ from their native one.
- 2. Qualification An experienced linguist can cope with any language much easier than a person who has nothing to do with linguistics.
- 3. Language environment - people learn much faster in a language environment than outside it. That's why the best way learning a language - regular communication with those for whom it is native. Well, the most effective method— learn a language while living in a country where it is widely used.
Native speakers of Russian usually have a very difficult time mastering languages that do not belong to the Indo-European language. language family: Uralic (Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian), Turkic (Yakut, Turkish, Uzbek), Dravidian (Tamil, Telugu), Afroasiatic (Hebrew, Arabic, Somalia). Highest degree languages are difficult North Caucasus(Chechen, Kabardian, Abkhazian), languages South-East Asia(Thai, Chinese, Khmer), languages of “Black” Africa (Zulu, Swahili, Wolof), languages of Oceania (Maori, Hawaiian), languages of the American Indians (Quechua, Cherokee, Mayan).
The most difficult common languages are Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Arabic. It has been proven that the human brain perceives Chinese and Arabic differently from other languages. For native speakers of these languages, both hemispheres are active when reading and writing, while for other people, only one hemisphere works in this situation. Therefore, learning these unique languages helps develop the brain.
Korean, Japanese and Chinese are difficult even for native speakers. In Japan, for example, school lasts 12 years and half of this time is spent on mathematics and Japanese. To pass the exams, a student must learn about 1850 hieroglyphs, and about 3000 to understand a newspaper article.
Rating of the most difficult languages in the world
In this list we have included common languages, as well as less common ones spoken only by small, isolated tribes.
Chinese
Writing is based on very ancient hieroglyphs. There are more than 85 thousand of them in total, but not all of them are actively used. Many of them are found only in ancient literature. Among them is the hieroglyph “se”, which means “chatty” and consists of 64 lines. But modern Chinese characters cannot be called simple. For example, the hieroglyph “nan” means “stuffy nose” and is represented by 36 lines. Chinese has practically no words in common with European languages. However, many people who have mastered and fallen in love with the Chinese language consider the characters not complex, but logical and incredibly beautiful.
Arab
Many letters have 4 different spellings. The present tense has as many as 13 forms. Another difficulty is dialects. In Egypt they speak a language that is as different from Moroccan and literary Arabic as Spanish is from French and Latin.
Japanese
There are as many as three writing systems. In addition, 2 syllabic alphabet are used: for borrowed words - katana, and for suffixes and grammatical particles hiragana.
Tuyuka
This unusual language is spoken by Indians in the Amazon basin. One word here can mean an entire phrase. Special verb endings give the listener information about how the speaker learned what he is talking about. That is, if you say “Mom cooked dinner,” you should add “I know it because I saw it.” As you can see, in the Amazon basin they are very sensitive to the reliability of the source of information.
Hungarian
It is included in the list of the most difficult languages in the world because it has 35 cases. Vowels are pronounced in a specific way - deep in the throat. Therefore, Hungarian is also difficult to pronounce.
Basque
It preserves very ancient concepts. For example, the word “ceiling” literally means “roof of a cave.” Suffixes and prefixes are used here to form new words. Not only the verb ending changes, but also the beginning. There are a lot of dialect options. Due to this, the Basque language dictionary contains about 500 thousand words.
Finnish
It has 15 cases, and there are more than a hundred conjugations and personal forms of the verb. Add to this the variety of suffixes, alternating consonants and mysterious aftersyllables - and the confused beginner begins to feel that he has taken on the most difficult language in the world. But there are also many pleasant aspects to learning Finnish: the stress falls only on the first syllable, words are written as they are heard, and there is no concept of gender at all.
Estonian
In this language there are as many as 12 cases, in addition, many words mean several different concepts.
Polish
In grammar there are even more exceptions than rules. There are only 7 cases, but it’s hard to figure them out. Usually people first learn to understand spoken Polish and only then delve into cases. Also, Poles practically do not understand those who speak their language with an accent. By the way, if some Polish word seems very familiar to you, be careful - most likely, it means something completely different from what you first thought.
And then there is Eskimo with its 63 present tense forms, Haida with 70 prefixes, Chippewa with 6,000 verb forms. They all challenge each other for the title of “the most difficult language in the world.”
In fact, any difficulty ratings are quite arbitrary. For example, English is considered relatively simple, but many people study it all their lives and still cannot boast of impressive results. There are cases when people easily mastered Chinese, but experienced difficulties with “easy” Spanish. They admire Chinese, which has no tenses or conjugations, but Spanish grammar causes them confusion. Experienced teachers say: it all depends on how passionate you are about learning a particular language. To master it, you will have to make it an important part of your life, get used to thinking in it and feeling it. If you are very interested, then any language will be within your grasp.
Of course, it is impossible to say for sure which language is the most difficult. From an everyday point of view, the most difficult language is the one that is least similar in grammar and phonetics to your native one. However, linguists can use certain characteristics to indicate the complexity of a particular language. Let's look at the rating published on the website mylanguages.org
What is the hardest language to learn?
Most non-native languages are difficult. But you must remember that some language may be difficult for you for certain reasons. In the comments after the article you can add your opinion and make your own rating :)
Rating of the ten most difficult languages
The most difficult languages Arabic, Chinese and Japanese are considered. By at least– this is what the Institute of State Diplomatic Service writes. US Department. Also among the most difficult are Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian. This is to blame great amount cases. Still in them more difficult pronunciation than even in Asian languages, since the languages of this group have a huge set of completely unpronounceable consonants.
So, the list:
- Chinese. There were many reasons to add this language to the list. Chinese is a hieroglyphic language. Each word of the language is indicated by a separate symbol - and not phonetic (sound), so you cannot understand the sound of the word by writing it. The tone system doesn't help much because Chinese only four tones. There are also a huge number of homophones in Chinese. For example, the word "shi" is associated with three dozen different morphemes. There is even a poem in classical Chinese that consists of 192 words of Shi spoken in different keys, but still makes sense. You can easily find it on Google :)
- Arab. First in difficulty of writing. Many letters have up to four spelling options, depending on their position in the word. Vowels are not included in the letter, but may be indicated. Sounds are complex, but words are even more complex. 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. (By the way, this is also true for Chinese, but it is in first place anyway)
- Tuyuka- the language of the eastern Amazon. Its sound system is not overly 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.
- 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. It must be said that the Hungarian language belongs to the Finno-Ugric language group and in Europe its relatives (albeit distant) are the Finnish and Estonian languages. And Estonian is also (bingo!) in our ranking :)
- Japanese. This language is difficult primarily because the writing is different from the 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. The 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 US State Department allocates Japanese students three times as much time as Spanish or French students.
- 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.
- 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 cases. Slavic languages. In addition, there are many exceptions to the rules; many words can mean several different concepts.
- 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. Perhaps this is the most old 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. 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). The language has a complex system of designating the subject, direct and indirect object- and they are all part of the verb.
- 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. However, for Ukrainians the Polish language is not as scary as for residents of Western Europe, so this is the case when the rating can be adjusted :)
- 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.
And to summarize, we must say that even the most complex language can be made native if you do not learn it, but immerse yourself in the language environment. This is exactly the approach we use in our studio. Come to us and let the most complex languages will become your friends and helpers!
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