What is the most difficult language on earth. The most difficult languages

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 during the study process. Below are the most complex languages planets, the rating of which includes ten sign systems.

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Finnish language

Finnish language It is considered one of the most difficult sign systems in the world and deservedly so. It contains up to 16 cases and several hundred verb forms and conjugations.

Here, graphic signs convey the phonetics of the word in full (everything is pronounced as it is written). This simplifies the language a bit. Finnish grammar contains several past tense forms and no future tense forms at all.

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Icelandic

Icelandic is one of the most difficult languages ​​to pronounce. His sign system is considered related to one of ancient languages peace. It contains linguistic units that are used only by native speakers themselves.

Phonetics is a big challenge for learning the Icelandic language. Only native speakers can accurately convey it.

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Hungarian

Hungarian It is one of the top ten most difficult languages ​​to learn in the world. It has 35 case forms and a lot of vowel sounds, which are quite difficult due to their long pronunciation.

The sign system of the Hungarian language has a complex grammar. It contains an innumerable number of suffixes and fixed expressions that are characteristic only of this language. The vocabulary system of this language is distinguished by the presence of only two temporary forms verb: past and present.

There are about five thousand languages ​​in the world. Even within the same country, the population can use several languages, in addition to the state one. Each language is a whole system of signs, letters and sounds, which is formed during the entire history of the people. This is not to say that there are languages ​​that are very easy to learn. It is more difficult for us in Russia to learn the Korean language than, for example, for the Chinese. The same can be said about which language is the most difficult in the world. It is very difficult to determine one among them. However, it is possible to create a rating. It will consist of several language systems, which are considered the most difficult to study in the world.

10. Finnish

The Finnish language is in tenth place, but this does not mean that it is easy. Its simplicity lies only in which, unlike the Russian language, the words in it are written exactly the same way as we hear them. But in terms of the number of case endings in words, Finnish is one of the record holders - there are 15 cases in the language. It also has such a feature as different standards for the colloquial and literary versions. The literary standard is used in the media, education and politics, while the colloquial standard is used in the work environment, interpersonal communication and some types of more informal means. mass media, for example, on radio and TV.

The alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, but with features in writing and pronunciation, which make it difficult to learn.

9. Icelandic

The biggest challenge when trying to learn this language system comes from oral speech. Due to the fact that there has been no historical European influence, the language has remained virtually unchanged since its origins, and only the native Icelanders can pronounce the words correctly.

When new words appear in Iceland, they are often simply copied and pronounced with their own peculiarities . And some Icelandic words in other language groups they have long gone out of use.

8. Hungarian

For those learning Hungarian, Finnish may seem simple. In Hungary, words have as many as 35 cases, and the pronunciation of vowels is distinguished by a long and drawn-out sound. Another feature - this is the richness of the language phraseological units and speech patterns understandable only to Hungarians. Even a literal translation is sometimes powerless when trying to understand what the Hungarian meant. And in the Hungarian language there are separate signs for writing words of foreign origin, which are not used in non-borrowed words.

The easiest thing about learning Hungarian is that Hungarians do not use the present tense, only the past and future.

7. Basque

Some part population of modern and France speaks Basque. There are about a million of its speakers, which is not so little. But even among speakers, several distinct dialects can be distinguished. This system is isolated from other language groups and is considered one of the most difficult in the world.

The alphabet consists of 22 letters, the stress in a word can be either singular or multiple - on several syllables, depending on the length of the word. There are more than 20 cases, with the help of which words are connected with each other.

6. Polish

What this language is famous for is the number of exceptions to absolutely any rule. This applies to grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Not everyone can learn them all during the learning process. By its sound Polish language resembles Russian, but only at first glance. It seems that words that are familiar to us can mean completely opposite things.

To understand Polish written speech, you first need to learn conversational language and understand what the Poles are talking about.

5. Eskimo

The language of these northern peoples It is even listed in the Guinness Book of Records for the most complex alphabet. Verbs in Eskimo have as many as 63 forms and this is only in the present tense. Only the carrier can deal with them.

In the Eskimo language there is such a concept - inflections. This different shapes endings after the root, with the help of which a new word is formed. So in this language system there are 252 such inflections for the singular noun.

4. Tuyuka

It is spoken small peoples, living along the banks of the Amazon River. Tuyuk has few sounds, but they are used to construct entire sentences. That is, a person, by uttering just a couple of sounds, can tell a whole story! Even the gender of a noun changes with the help of sounds. And each noun differs in gender: masculine, feminine and neuter. According to linguists, there are about 130 genders in the Tuyuki grammar.

The most simple shapes in a Tuyuki sentence they look something like this: instead of saying the phrase “the girl is going to the river,” they say “the girl is going to the river, and I say this because I saw her going there.”

3. Russian

The biggest difficulty in learning Russian for foreigners is the stress in words. According to the students, they are located chaotically and are completely independent of either the part of speech or the time. What else is difficult for foreigners to understand:

The list of reasons why Russian can be included in the “Top Most Difficult Languages ​​in the World” rating can be continued for a very long time. But to us, our native language does not seem so difficult.

2. Arabic

Everyone is familiar with such a feature of the Arabic language as writing text from left to right. But that's not all the complexity. One character in the alphabet Arab countries can be written in four different ways. When writing, you need to move words to a new line completely, without dividing the word into 2 parts.

The writing system is complicated by the fact that, in addition to the plural and singular, there is a dual number.

There are also phonetic difficulties: when pronouncing, it is important to choose one of the four tones for each sound, otherwise the meaning of the word may be completely different from what you originally intended. In Arabic, no two words sound the same, unlike Russian words, for example, “onion” and “meadow”.

1. Chinese

Most linguists believe this the most difficult language. Among the main difficulties in studying it are:

• Hieroglyphs. Their writing will baffle anyone who tries to copy them for the first time. Each hieroglyph is a word. It follows that their number reaches almost 90 thousand pieces.
• Tones. As in Arabic, in Chinese, each sound has 4 tones, and their correctness directly affects the meaning of what you say.

Many students choose to study Chinese only because it is different from all other existing language systems in the world. Competent Chinese translators are in great demand and there are not many of them.

These are just 10 examples of language systems that considered the most difficult languages ​​in the world. The rating can easily be expanded with a couple dozen more interesting and unique dialects, adverbs and languages. Our planet is multifaceted, and the people living on it express their thoughts in the most different ways.

It is interesting to find out which language is more difficult to learn - Spanish, English or some other. Russian is considered one of the most difficult languages, and English is the most common.

Is English difficult?

Very often we hear about the question of the difficulty of learning English. It must be admitted that English is far from the most difficult language in the world. When comparing it with Polish, Chinese, Arabic or Russian, it is easy.

Why is it so difficult for Russian-speaking people to master the English language? This is due to the fact that Russian is an inflectional language, that is, words can be placed in a sentence in any way you like, while in English each word is in its specific place.

Some words are known to us due to the fact that they are used in Russian, as borrowed from English. These are words such as elevator, rails, manager, finish, as well as jeans, content, and so on. In addition to such words, there are international words that sound the same in many languages. These are the words satellite, microscope, republic, police, etc.

If you believe the conclusions that British researchers once made, English is the most positive and simple language in comparison with other world languages.

The skeleton of every language, as we know, is grammar. From a grammatical point of view, English is one of the most logical and simple European languages. Due to the fact that there are practically no personal endings in English, it can be classified as an analytical language. Due to the lack of personal endings, it has a wide structure of grammatical tenses.

The main thing when studying is to understand that knowledge of times does not mean knowledge of the language. Many people become afraid of the times, which prevents them from continuing their study.

The real difficulty in learning English is the numerous prepositions. They have to be taught for a long time and conscientiously, they have noticeable semantic separating functions, prepositions are used very actively in the language.

However, learning a language of any complexity will require you to spend both time and effort. It is impossible to learn any language both well and quickly. By the way, according to the site, the longest word in the world is in English language. You can read more about the longest words in the world.

Difficult Russian language

All those who have decided to study Russian report considerable difficulties. Comparing Russian with other languages, we can confidently say that it has features that are absent in many other languages. The most common thing that confuses people in Russian is the order of words in a sentence, this is due to the fact that it is not fixed. So, words can come in completely different sequences, the most important thing is that the meaning and logic of what is said does not change.

The difficulty in learning the Russian language by foreigners is caused by the case declension. Another difficulty is the very long spelling of some words. What also causes difficulties is that Russian has a considerable number of rules and larger number exceptions from them. This language is difficult not only for foreigners, but also for ordinary students for whom it is native.

Is Spanish difficult?

A common question about complexity Spanish, this is how it is taught in universities and schools in many countries. Being a Romance language, this language is similar to Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and French. They have a lot common features. This melodic language is not considered difficult to learn.

If you compare Spanish grammar with Russian grammar, it is simpler. To master it, with persistent practice, even one month is enough. In the same month, it is quite possible to learn a thousand words. This will be enough for simple communication.

It is believed that learning Spanish is much easier for speakers of an Indo-European language, for example, Russian or Icelandic. When communicating with Spanish speakers, it is difficult to get used to the fact that they pronounce consonants unclearly. Having mastered elementary grammar and having some vocabulary, it is often recommended to start communicating with a Spanish speaker, which will significantly speed up learning Spanish.

The most difficult foreign language in the world

When learning any foreign language, you should not take into account many myths. We often hear that a language must be learned with early childhood. There is also a myth that the teacher must be a native speaker of the language being studied. Another myth is that you need to learn a language in the country where it is the state language.

It is known that, according to conservative estimates, there are no less than forty thousand languages ​​and dialects in the world. The eastern groups of languages ​​are considered one of the most complex. Both Arabic script and hieroglyphs cause problems when studying. However, it is impossible to say unequivocally which language is the most difficult. This is influenced by several factors, including the degree of complexity depending on what language dear to man who started studying foreign language.

Neurophysiologists report that the most difficult language to master is the one that is difficult for the brain of the native speaker to perceive. They call the most difficult languages ​​Chinese and Arabic.

We can confidently say that the Russian language, which is very difficult for most, is easier to learn by Czechs and Ukrainians, but for the Japanese it can be too difficult. If we talk about the complexity of the language, assessing its writing, then the most complex languages ​​are considered to be Chinese, as well as Japanese and Korean.

Many agree that the Basque language is the hardest, since it is not related or similar to any other language. famous language, this applies not only to living languages, but also to dead ones. Its carriers are approximately six hundred sixty thousand people. Basque has an extremely complex word structure. Scientists conclude that it arose even before the appearance of Indo-European language group. The conclusion is that no matter what language a person is native to, it will be extremely difficult for him to master Basque. Eskimo, Chippewa, Tabasaran and Haida are also recognized as the most difficult languages.
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A person’s ability for languages ​​is laid in the very early period its development. If a child develops in society and masters the language of his environment, this means that he is, in principle, capable of mastering any other language that is not initially native to him. But what determines how difficult or easy it will be for a particular person to learn a particular language?

Difficulties in learning languages

Scientists have found that in learning a foreign language there are a number of difficulties for a person, both subjective and objective.

• With subjective ones, everything is more or less clear, despite the fact that they can be so diverse among different representatives of humanity. First of all, subjective simplicity or complexity in the perception and mastery of a language is determined by the degree of relationship of the language being studied with the native language. Also has important similarity or difference language categories. For example, a person whose native language is Russian will find it difficult to perceive such features of Russian as declensions and gender of nouns, the category of verb aspect, that is, everything that is absent in the English language. The fact that the Russian language, like English, belongs to the group of Indo-European languages, does not in any way contribute to simplifying its perception by native speakers.
• Also a subjective factor in comprehending languages ​​are individual characteristics personality: for example, exceptional visual memory, which allows one to remember the complex spelling of the target language on the fly, even though the individual’s native language has no similarities with it. Or developed mathematical abilities, which will always give their owner a head start when studying languages ​​of the analytical type, again, regardless of the rules and characteristics of the native language.
• But over objective difficulties, battles among linguists are still ongoing. What is considered such difficulties is clear. But on what scale should we evaluate them? There is no consensus today. What should be taken as a universal unit of complexity: the number and variety of vowels or consonants of a language, grammatical structure, plurality of verb forms, or something else? The Hungarian language has 35 cases, but the Eskimo language has 63 present tense forms, so how can you determine which one is more difficult? In other words, how do you measure the complexity of a language?

Gradations of language complexity

American scientists from the Foreign Service Institute of the US State Department took the amount of time required to master the basics of a particular language as a unit of complexity, and determined the following gradations of difficulty in learning languages.

• The first category included enough simple languages, which require approximately 600 hours of classroom instruction to master. These are Spanish and Swedish. That is, if you devote two hours a day, 6 times a week, to studying one of the above-mentioned languages, then in a year you can actually master it quite well. high level. Why not?
• Icelandic and Russian fell into the next category - more complex languages. It will take at least 1100 hours to master them.
• Japanese, Arabic and Chinese classified as one of the most difficult languages, as it takes 2200 or more hours to master them. Scientists include Estonian, Finnish and Hungarian in this very complex group of languages.

Do you agree with this system of grading the complexity of languages?

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Guinness Book of Records

And here is information about complex languages ​​according to the Guinness Book of Records.

1. The Chinese language is due to the hieroglyphic writing system, which does not directly correspond to the sound of the words and concepts conveyed by the hieroglyphs. And also because of the system of semantic tones, of which there are 4 in the Chinese language. If you pronounce a certain word in an inappropriate tone, then this word can become completely opposite meaning, or even completely lose its meaning.
2. Tabasaran language, which is one of the state languages Dagestan, which has 48 cases of nouns.
3. The language of the Haida Indians living in North America, is recognized as the most complex due to the record number of prefixes (prefixes) - more than 70 of them.
4. A North American Chippewa Indian language with approximately 6,000 verb forms.
5. The Eskimo language includes 63 present tense forms and 252 noun endings.

Conclusions of neurophysiologists

Neuroscientists have come to the conclusion that the most complex languages ​​are those that are difficult for the brain to comprehend even for native speakers of such languages. Among such languages, scientists name Chinese and Arabic. An interesting fact is that when using these languages, the mechanisms of both the left and right hemispheres of the brain are activated in the brains of their speakers, while when communicating in all other languages, only one of the brain hemispheres is activated.

Therefore, if you want to effectively develop your brain, start learning Arabic or Chinese. Fortunately, in last years they are increasingly in demand on the world stage.

Motivation is everything

No matter how difficult the language you are going to conquer is, it can turn out to be much easier and more interesting for you, provided you have a strong motivation to study it. The result depends only on you, your perseverance and passion. As they say, if there is a desire!

What do you think: what is the most important thing for effective language acquisition and what importance does its complexity or simplicity have?

October 25, 2013

World languages

There are about 5 - 6 thousand different languages ​​on our planet, approximately 40 from this list are spoken by two-thirds of the total population globe. The most popular of them are: English, Chinese, Spanish, etc.

Among all this diversity, there are languages ​​that are spoken by billions of people, and there are also those that are unknown to a large number of of people. Each language uses its own letters, rules for writing words and phrases, rules of pronunciation, and much more. This is what distinguishes them all from each other. Some of them are very complex. Let's take a closer look at the language complexity rating.

Language for encryption

So, the well-known Icelandic language opens the top ten. It is characterized by its complex grammar and pronunciation. Some sounds have no analogues in other languages, even in English, so it will be very difficult for a beginner trying to learn it. In addition, Icelandic has many very old declensions and conjugations.

Polish is in ninth position. Despite the fact that not many countries speak it, the language has as many as 7 cases. It should also be noted that it does not lend itself well to any grammatical rules and words - there are a lot of exceptions in it. All of them have to be memorized, otherwise there is no other way. Great importance It also has a pronunciation. Only true Poles can speak without an accent, while foreigners cannot fully learn the pronunciation of words. All this makes Polish difficult to learn.

In eighth place is the Basque language. It has 24 cases and is very, very old. Its distinctive feature is that the connection between words lies in the designation of case endings. Some well-known moods are also present here, for example, potential. In general, this indicates complex grammar and word formation.

The Estonian language is in seventh place. It also has a lot of cases - 12. In addition to all this, words can have several meanings at once. The Estonian language also has a large number of exceptions, which makes it difficult to remember.

Sixth place rightfully belongs to the Navajo language. During World War II, this language was used by radio operators to encrypt messages. A very interesting fact is that there have never been any official textbooks or aids for its study. Its grammar is also complex. For example, if you compare it with many Slavic languages, then the persons in it differ not by suffix, but by prefix. There are many similar examples that can be given.

Top five

The top five is opened by Japanese. It is very interesting because children have to master writing and pronunciation separately, since the pronunciation and spelling of words are different. In addition to all this, you need to learn 10 - 15 thousand hieroglyphs, a bunch of borrowed words and all the grammar. There are practically no rules in it.

The fourth position is occupied by Hungarian. It has 35 cases, which already says a lot. The alphabet has many vowels, which makes it difficult to learn.

Another little-known language was in the top three - Tuyuka. It has many classes of nouns, and one word can mean an entire phrase. This is the language of the Amazon. Another peculiarity is that here it is necessary to use special verb endings, which make it clear where the speaker learned about this fact.

Arabic and Chinese

Arabic takes second place.

Here, many letters can be written in different ways, in four different versions. There are more numbers here; another dual number is added. The present tense has 13 forms. Pronunciation is also important here. Therefore, in some countries, speaking the same Arabic may look different.

The first place undoubtedly goes to the Chinese language. There are no other languages ​​like them in terms of complexity. It contains many very ancient and complex hieroglyphs that cannot be read, but you can only remember their meanings. There are also 4 tones here. All this makes the Chinese language unique. Despite its features, there are many people in the world who are trying to comprehend it, but not everyone succeeds.

As for the Russian language, it is not among the ten most difficult languages, but stands slightly behind. But nevertheless, thanks to its complex grammar, Russian is not an easy language.

Based on all of the above, we can conclude that Chinese has been the most difficult language for many years. It is followed by Arabic, which is spoken by many Muslims.