what is the most "weird" language you learnt or just started studying and why?
most weird language
to be a bit more precise, I mean Basque, Georgian, Korean Finnish or something like that :-)
Weirdest language? Probably a linguist (the kind who surveys several languages at school, not the polyglot type) could help you out with that one.
Soundwise, I find it interesting that Welsh and Navajo share a sound that I haven't encountered in other languages. The tones in Vietnamese are curious to me. I find articles in Romanian, Norwegian, and Danish to be different, perhaps not truly weird.
The fact is once you get used to a language it isn't that weird anymore. Take Japanese, for example. It uses Chinese characters, two syllabaries, and uses the latin/roman alphabet. It uses all these symbols for a language that doesn't have many sounds. It mixes the first three types of writing all the time. It is written left to right when horizontal and right to left when vertical.
That's enough to shock a die-hard anime fan from becoming a Japanese wannabe.
Soundwise, I find it interesting that Welsh and Navajo share a sound that I haven't encountered in other languages. The tones in Vietnamese are curious to me. I find articles in Romanian, Norwegian, and Danish to be different, perhaps not truly weird.
The fact is once you get used to a language it isn't that weird anymore. Take Japanese, for example. It uses Chinese characters, two syllabaries, and uses the latin/roman alphabet. It uses all these symbols for a language that doesn't have many sounds. It mixes the first three types of writing all the time. It is written left to right when horizontal and right to left when vertical.
That's enough to shock a die-hard anime fan from becoming a Japanese wannabe.
You mean unusual, exotic? And 'weird' is a matter of opinion. Perhaps to a Japanese speaker French is weird, but to a Spanish speaker it's normal.
But I know what you mean, and mine would be Chinese - although after having studied it for one year, it's no longer weird!
It has a tonal system with 4 tones plus one unstressed one. It has a character system with 20,000 characters in common usage.
On the other hand, it has no verb conjugations, no tenses, few irregularities (I can only thing of one: 二 changes to 两 when expressing a quantity. It's difficult for a language that has no conjugations whatsoever to have irregularities.
So, on one hand, it's extremely difficult, and on the other it's extremely easy. Now, that's what I call weird!
But I know what you mean, and mine would be Chinese - although after having studied it for one year, it's no longer weird!
It has a tonal system with 4 tones plus one unstressed one. It has a character system with 20,000 characters in common usage.
On the other hand, it has no verb conjugations, no tenses, few irregularities (I can only thing of one: 二 changes to 两 when expressing a quantity. It's difficult for a language that has no conjugations whatsoever to have irregularities.
So, on one hand, it's extremely difficult, and on the other it's extremely easy. Now, that's what I call weird!
Maybe I understood your post incorrectly, but are you saying that there is a language called Korean-Finnish?
Some of the really weird languages are:
1)Hungarian (with its ridiculous number of cases and really tough pronunciation)
2) Finnish (also very very hard)
3) Khoisian language - an african language that is just impossible to learn (with more than 50 clicks and 17 phonemes!!!)
4) Telugu - an indian language with over 20 cases and agglutinative in nature (like Finnish and Hungarian)
1)Hungarian (with its ridiculous number of cases and really tough pronunciation)
2) Finnish (also very very hard)
3) Khoisian language - an african language that is just impossible to learn (with more than 50 clicks and 17 phonemes!!!)
4) Telugu - an indian language with over 20 cases and agglutinative in nature (like Finnish and Hungarian)
"It has a tonal system with 4 tones plus one unstressed one. It has a character system with 20,000 characters in common usage."
Really? From what I've read and heard from people familiar with Chinese it takes from 3000 (Average) to 6000 (More technical things) to master Chinese characters. I started studying Chinese after reading Japanese (I can read about 3000 Japanese characters) without problems and can tell you that I haven't seen many new characters in Chinese. Rather, I have been trying to figure out what has been simplified like 发(発）、书（書） 车（車） 动（動） 东（東） 门（門） etc
Sources:http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese.htm
http://www.aproposinc.com/pages/asiantrm.htm
Really? From what I've read and heard from people familiar with Chinese it takes from 3000 (Average) to 6000 (More technical things) to master Chinese characters. I started studying Chinese after reading Japanese (I can read about 3000 Japanese characters) without problems and can tell you that I haven't seen many new characters in Chinese. Rather, I have been trying to figure out what has been simplified like 发(発）、书（書） 车（車） 动（動） 东（東） 门（門） etc
Sources:http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese.htm
http://www.aproposinc.com/pages/asiantrm.htm
I'll try to formulate my question again in a more correct way:
what is the most unusual and exotic language you have ever learnt and why? (from a grammarical, phonological, morphological point of view and so on) When I wrote the "weirdest" language I meant these features.
As for Hungarian I have been learning it for a few years and I don't think it's that tough, neither its grammar nor the pronunciation. It's just totally different from the indo-european languages
Korean and Finnish are two distinct languages
what is the most unusual and exotic language you have ever learnt and why? (from a grammarical, phonological, morphological point of view and so on) When I wrote the "weirdest" language I meant these features.
As for Hungarian I have been learning it for a few years and I don't think it's that tough, neither its grammar nor the pronunciation. It's just totally different from the indo-european languages
Korean and Finnish are two distinct languages
Rather than "weird" I think that "different" would sound better.
Either way, the language that really blew my mind was Swahili because all the European and Asian language didn't help AT ALL when trying to learn it.
I would also see as "different" Xhosa because of the "click" kind of pronunciation.
Asante sana na kwaheri kwa sasa!!
Either way, the language that really blew my mind was Swahili because all the European and Asian language didn't help AT ALL when trying to learn it.
I would also see as "different" Xhosa because of the "click" kind of pronunciation.
Asante sana na kwaheri kwa sasa!!
By the way, I found the interesting video about the Xhosa language:
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=KZlp-croVYw&feature=related
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=KZlp-croVYw&feature=related
>>It is written left to right when horizontal and right to left when vertical.
Anything wrong with that?
>>It's difficult for a language that has no conjugations whatsoever to have irregularities.
不 and 沒 are hardly a pair of irregular verbs. When you say to an average Chinese kid that Chinese has irregular verbs... as what it goes on FX's site, s/he will stare at you as if you were Freddy Krueger...
>>Some of the really weird languages are:
1)Hungarian (with its ridiculous number of cases and really tough pronunciation)
2) Finnish (also very very hard)
It's natural for a not very popular language to be weird. What if the States spoke Hungarian? Then it's hardly weird.
English is also weird. I'm "a very strong script learner" with my own linguistic background, but I do think its spelling is appalling. Is it still better than having nothing phonetic to write? Probably.
Anything wrong with that?
>>It's difficult for a language that has no conjugations whatsoever to have irregularities.
不 and 沒 are hardly a pair of irregular verbs. When you say to an average Chinese kid that Chinese has irregular verbs... as what it goes on FX's site, s/he will stare at you as if you were Freddy Krueger...
>>Some of the really weird languages are:
1)Hungarian (with its ridiculous number of cases and really tough pronunciation)
2) Finnish (also very very hard)
It's natural for a not very popular language to be weird. What if the States spoke Hungarian? Then it's hardly weird.
English is also weird. I'm "a very strong script learner" with my own linguistic background, but I do think its spelling is appalling. Is it still better than having nothing phonetic to write? Probably.
Some linguistic elements from the academic perspective also prove to be weird. In practice, though, native speakers use them as their first nature, and fluent foreign learners their second nature.
For example, how come Chinese has irregular verbs? The affirmative statement itself is already weird, because practically no ordinary Chinese know this. They just use two irregular verbs all the time without knowing them.
What about all those anomalous verbs in English? How come German uses do not, come not, eat not, etc, but English uses do not, do not come, do not eat, etc? Why should there be double negatives in French?
And... warum ist die Banane krumm?
For example, how come Chinese has irregular verbs? The affirmative statement itself is already weird, because practically no ordinary Chinese know this. They just use two irregular verbs all the time without knowing them.
What about all those anomalous verbs in English? How come German uses do not, come not, eat not, etc, but English uses do not, do not come, do not eat, etc? Why should there be double negatives in French?
And... warum ist die Banane krumm?
Waarom zijn de bananen krom?
Omdat ze anders niet in hun schil passen.
Oh, I think Dutch is a weird language because I'm Dutch and still I can't explain why something is like how it is. :( But maybe that's just because I write sentences at feeling instead of knowledge.
Omdat ze anders niet in hun schil passen.
Oh, I think Dutch is a weird language because I'm Dutch and still I can't explain why something is like how it is. :( But maybe that's just because I write sentences at feeling instead of knowledge.