So (ignoring the list in the OP), ther candidates are:
- Albanian
- Armenian
- Basque
- Czech
- French ????
- Greek
- Maltese
- Polish
- Swedish
- Albanian
- Armenian
- Basque
- Czech
- French ????
- Greek
- Maltese
- Polish
- Swedish
Toughest European Language
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From major European languages, I think French is quite hard; everything from the sounds to the conjugations to the spelling is pretty difficult.
And no, I'm not a "Hispanic fanatic", I'm just giving my honest opinion.
And no, I'm not a "Hispanic fanatic", I'm just giving my honest opinion.
"I think French is quite hard"
French is easy. French conjugations is probably the easiest amongst the romance language
here is an example
FRENCH SPANISH
Je parl (e) hablO
tu parl (es) hablAS
il/elle parl (e) hablA
nous parlons hablamos
vous parlez hablàis
ils/elles parl (ent) hablaAN
French is easy. French conjugations is probably the easiest amongst the romance language
here is an example
FRENCH SPANISH
Je parl (e) hablO
tu parl (es) hablAS
il/elle parl (e) hablA
nous parlons hablamos
vous parlez hablàis
ils/elles parl (ent) hablaAN
The opinion of anyone who quotes a large number of cases as ample reason for a language being the toughest in Europe can be discredited without further deliberation.
<<The opinion of anyone who quotes a large number of cases as ample reason for a language being the toughest in Europe can be discredited without further deliberation.>>
Doesn't it depend on how the cases are used and formed. What if:
1) There were 30 cases, 10 genders (or classes) and 6 numbers.
2) Suppose inflected nouns and adjectives followed patterns that loosely resembled each other, but there were no hard and fast rules for forming the n-th case, m-th gender, and p-th number (there's no such thing as a "regular" noun).
3) Perhaps the inflection depends on other words around it, and how important it was in the sentence, so a single noun or adjective could be inflected in many different ways.
4) Perhaps the inflection patterns are not done with prefixes or suffixes, but mostly by a mixture of complex vowel and consonant changes?
5) There are no good rules to select what case is used in a given sentence. Only native speakers could ever get a "feel" for what case was appropriate in a given situation.
Wouldn't such a language be hard to learn, and far more difficult than a language like English, which is without genders, cases, and almost without number and inflected tenses.
Doesn't it depend on how the cases are used and formed. What if:
1) There were 30 cases, 10 genders (or classes) and 6 numbers.
2) Suppose inflected nouns and adjectives followed patterns that loosely resembled each other, but there were no hard and fast rules for forming the n-th case, m-th gender, and p-th number (there's no such thing as a "regular" noun).
3) Perhaps the inflection depends on other words around it, and how important it was in the sentence, so a single noun or adjective could be inflected in many different ways.
4) Perhaps the inflection patterns are not done with prefixes or suffixes, but mostly by a mixture of complex vowel and consonant changes?
5) There are no good rules to select what case is used in a given sentence. Only native speakers could ever get a "feel" for what case was appropriate in a given situation.
Wouldn't such a language be hard to learn, and far more difficult than a language like English, which is without genders, cases, and almost without number and inflected tenses.
<<Wouldn't such a language be hard to learn, and far more difficult than a language like English, which is without genders, cases, and almost without number and inflected tenses.>>
Not necessarily. It depends on the language and on the native language of the speaker. My point was that cases are not inherently difficult and are usually only difficult and strange to speakers of languages without cases. Also, not all cases are the same, one language's cases are not the same as another language's cases. So a language with 10 cases may well be more difficult than a language with 3 cases, who knows. It all depends on the usage and the native language of the speaker. Also, many languages with a high case count only have that many cases in theory, and in practice have a much smaller number.
In any case this is a ridiculously stupid thread. Maybe it should be remade with the question about which is the most difficult for native English speakers or something. Hmm. the original poster asked about which would be more difficult for a 'complete outsider'. But not many of us are well-placed to judge for complete outsiders. We all know English so are biased towards caseless languages. And surely speakers of Japanese, Korean, Chinese etc will all have their own specific difficulties when learning any given language since Japanese, Korean and Chinese are not even related.
Not necessarily. It depends on the language and on the native language of the speaker. My point was that cases are not inherently difficult and are usually only difficult and strange to speakers of languages without cases. Also, not all cases are the same, one language's cases are not the same as another language's cases. So a language with 10 cases may well be more difficult than a language with 3 cases, who knows. It all depends on the usage and the native language of the speaker. Also, many languages with a high case count only have that many cases in theory, and in practice have a much smaller number.
In any case this is a ridiculously stupid thread. Maybe it should be remade with the question about which is the most difficult for native English speakers or something. Hmm. the original poster asked about which would be more difficult for a 'complete outsider'. But not many of us are well-placed to judge for complete outsiders. We all know English so are biased towards caseless languages. And surely speakers of Japanese, Korean, Chinese etc will all have their own specific difficulties when learning any given language since Japanese, Korean and Chinese are not even related.
What about verbal moods? I think it's one of the most difficult aspects in a language, fortunately you don't need to learn them properly at a basic level, unlike cases...
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