Is it Icelandic??
also please tell what exactly do they mean by Indo-Aryan Languages? and how did these languages come into being.

It's pretty hard to say what the world's most difficult language is. For an English speaker, it wouldn't be Icelandic -- that's a Germanic language (as is English), and while it is apparently quite hard to learn, the basic grammar is likely somewhat similar. For an English speaker, the most difficult languages to learn would be ones that aren't Indo-European languages; Mandarin or Japanese or some other east Asian language would probably be the most confusing for an English speaker.

Indo-Aryan is a language sub-family that's present in the Indian subcontinent. Indo-Aryan is part of a much larger group of languages called Indo-European. That family includes Hindi, Farsi, Greek, English, Russian, Spanish, Icelandic and many other languages. Indo-European has many sub-families, like the Germanic branch, the Slavic branch, and the Romance branch (these groups compose the majority of languages spoken in Europe). Really, just check out the wikipedia page for a basic understanding.

How did they come into being? Uh, I'll leave that one for someone else...

Why the rolling eyes?

Why the rolling eyes?

that´s why I treat this as a troll post. "most difficult" is a very relative and therefor dumb expression. hamming distance might be a better description. the question should be, "which language has the biggest hamming distance to my mother tongue?" ..

Nice post. Learning spanish is not a difficult task now a days. You can learn in lot of different ways and the best is to learn spanish online with the help of live spanish tutor. For more information I suggest you to check www.lejoslearning.com and know more about the courses etc.. You can find a conversational spanish program too.

some experts point out that Sanskrit is the mother of all languages that are Indo-European. is it true?
plus , are these languages older than the Egyptian Languages during the times of Pyramids?

For an english speaker? I'd say that one of the Northeast Caucasian languages would be the most difficult.

They have up to 60 consonant sounds, up to 30 vowels, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Caucasian_languages

There is also Finnish and hungarian, which sound nothing like indo-european languages, and finnish has 16 noun cases if I remember correctly.

Actually, Zay, I'd say the hardest language to learn for any person on Earth would be Basque. After countless decades of linguistic investigation, analyzing everything from the Vedas to Sumerian to Japanese, it has been determined that there are absolutely no languages on the face of the earth related to Basque.

It's actually believed Basque is the last remaining language of pre Indo-European origin in Europe.

Actually, Zay, I'd say the hardest language to learn for any person on Earth would be Basque. After countless decades of linguistic investigation, analyzing everything from the Vedas to Sumerian to Japanese, it has been determined that there are absolutely no languages on the face of the earth related to Basque.

It's actually believed Basque is the last remaining language of pre Indo-European origin in Europe.

Interesting idea. Out of curiosity, have you read anything about possible links between the Etruscans and the Basques? I don't mean to patronize anybody, but in case you didn't know, the Etruscans were a tribe situated on the mid-northern Italian peninsula (not terribly far from northern Spain...) -- they eventually got wiped out by the Romans, c. 400-500 BC. They spoke a thus-unidentified language called... Etruscan. It seems there may have been a "native" language family in Europe long before any Indo-Europeans inhabited the continent.

Still, are we completely throwing away the idea of Mandarin? I've not even tried to delve into it, but I know people who do speak it, and they say it is next to fucking impossible to comprehend until you've studied it consistently for 2 years. I suppose these Caucasian languages may be very hard for a native Anglophone, but from what I know, they at least use a phonetic alphabet...

Interesting idea. Out of curiosity, have you read anything about possible links between the Etruscans and the Basques? I don't mean to patronize anybody, but in case you didn't know, the Etruscans were a tribe situated on the mid-northern Italian peninsula (not terribly far from northern Spain...) -- they eventually got wiped out by the Romans, c. 400-500 BC. They spoke a thus-unidentified language called... Etruscan. It seems there may have been a "native" language family in Europe long before any Indo-Europeans inhabited the continent.

Still, are we completely throwing away the idea of Mandarin? I've not even tried to delve into it, but I know people who do speak it, and they say it is next to fucking impossible to comprehend until you've studied it consistently for 2 years. I suppose these Caucasian languages may be very hard for a native Anglophone, but from what I know, they at least use a phonetic alphabet...

Well, no offense taken; you raised an interesting point. I know that there have been many artifacts found in ancestral Etruscan lands engraved with what seems to be an alphabetic script, as of yet barely readable. It seems that although the Etruscans had Near-Eastern genetics (Anatolian), they spoke an Indo European tongue.

I looked it up, and it seems that other pre Indo-European languages in Europe, like Iberian, were completely unrelated to Basque, yet neither were Indo-European. Odd...

Anyways, I was talking to a friend about Chinese (Mandarin to be precise), and it seems that after you get over their script, it's a relatively easy language to learn. The grammar is incredibly simple: There are no tenses, no genders, nor a system for differentiating amounts (singular, plural).

But, on the other hand, they have a set of grammatical rules different from our own.

Anyways, I was talking to a friend about Chinese (Mandarin to be precise), and it seems that after you get over their script, it's a relatively easy language to learn. The grammar is incredibly simple: There are no tenses, no genders, nor a system for differentiating amounts (singular, plural).

But, on the other hand, they have a set of grammatical rules different from our own.

Did you mean for pronouns for something else? They do differentiate between singular and plural and pronouns, but it is extremely easy. Woa/I Woa-min/us/we. ta(he,she,it)-ta-min(they). Chinese grammar is very simple, and if you're learning just for the sake of conversation and not studying the written language, the only obstacle is the fact that the words sound like nothing in your own language. Other than that nothing is particularly hard to pronounce.

The language of the fleas.

Actually, Zay, I'd say the hardest language to learn for any person on Earth would be Basque. After countless decades of linguistic investigation, analyzing everything from the Vedas to Sumerian to Japanese, it has been determined that there are absolutely no languages on the face of the earth related to Basque.

It's actually believed Basque is the last remaining language of pre Indo-European origin in Europe.

Heh. I taught these 2 Spanish girls that were fluent in Spanish and Basque. They would write notes to each other in it during class...I thought it would be similar to Spanish, but holy shit...really different.

people from other countries say the hardest language to know is...surprisingly english.

people from other countries say the hardest language to know is...surprisingly english.

From what I understand, it's simple to get the basic usage down but really difficult to be able to use the language in a native manner. Seriously, look at our conjugation for "to be" in present indicative:

I am
You are
We are
They are

Assuming you already know I / You / We / They, that's only two words to remember, and this pattern is pretty common in conjugations of a lot of English verbs. A language like Spanish (which most people consider relatively easy to learn) you will have six conjugations for "ser" in present indicative. We do have, however, some pretty ridiculous constructions and a notorious abuse of the Latin alphabet and pronunciation rules.

I'm glad English is my native language... I wouldn't want to have to study it; it's such a strange language.

Heheh, I think our abuse of the alphabet is quite possibly the worst in the world. The Poles RAPED the Latin script, but they at least developed some consistent rules they follow. (ie. if you learn how they changed the alphabet, then you're golden)

Anways...I can definitely see reasons why English isn't as easy as its grammar would suggest, but I think it's a LONG way from being the "hardest". Most of the popular languages are Romance languages, and if you already speak one of those (as most people do, counting Central and South America, parts of Africa, and most of Western Europe), then learning other ones is relatively easy. So...they probably indeed had the most trouble with English, but it's relative to the "easy" languages they studied.

Aside from our fucked up pronunciation/spelling rules...I suppose our wide variety of accents and our slang might pose difficulty. But then again, all languages have different accents and slang. Heck...Russian (and some other Slavic languages too, I think) practically has a complete dialect of swearing, from what I understand.

DerDrache, I don't think we as English speakers bastardize the Latin alphabet as much as Poles. Fucking impossible consonant clusters...

Well, Zay had a good point. Chinese grammar is pretty simple, but their writing system is a whole different thing altogether. God, how I hate logographs. I believe that when Mao took over in '49 it was his intention to switch Chinese script over to Latin, but that it proved to complicated. Instead, he simplified their characters.

They do, however, use a system of writing called Hanyu Pinyin; it's really quite effective for learning Chinese. Actually, Japanese seems to be more complicated than Chinese, or possibly Arabic. I've learnt their script, but I still can't read a damn word. That whole "no vowel shtick is pretty odd.

Chinese grammar is pretty simple

they have one?

DerDrache, I don't think we as English speakers bastardize the Latin alphabet as much as Poles. Fucking impossible consonant clusters...


They basically modified the alphabet into a new one, with consistent rules. In other words, it looks like our alphabet, but our sounds don't correspond to theirs. Why they didn't use the Cyrillic script, which already has a lot of Polish sounds in it, is beyond me, but...within the confines of their rules, their writing system works fine.

http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/firstyear/

East-grundelston splic-splack


edit for anti-trollness: what i mean to say, is that its silly to classify one language as the most difficult...most difficult for who? whats difficult about it? All these variables change with changes in perception....and this planet has many, many different perceptions.

I'd say arabic is pretty hard, just because the grammar is so alien compared to most other grammatical constructions.

English is tough too because it's a Germanic language with all the standardization of Romance languages forced upon it, making it into a bizarre mélange of confusion.

DerDrache, I don't think we as English speakers bastardize the Latin alphabet as much as Poles.

Take a look at Welsh.))

I've wondered for some time now, how do languages reflect their speakers. Are some nations more musical perhaps because their language sounds more lyrical? Is it easier to create poetry in some languages than others? Can laguage affect mathematical capabilities (I'm thinking Japan here for some reason - their language sounds very structured and mathematical to me for some reason). German sounds very disciplined and harsh and I think it reflects their mentality.

Anyways, Estonian has been described as pretty difficult by some. Here's a fun story from some guy who lives in Estonia and struggles with the language. It rings true, I think. But there are some much more complicated languages out there, I'm sure.


The Origins of the Estonian Language
I just celebrated my fifth year in Estonia and my fifth fruitless year trying to figure out how to correctly speak Estonian. I mean really, it wouldn't be so bad if Estonians weren't so smug about it. Oh, they will congratulate you on your good Estonian even if you can speak a few words, but deep inside they really don't want you to learn it!
They are so happy with their secret code and you can see it every time someone asks you "Oh, are you learning to speak Estonian?". Then comes the sly grin, the "You've got a snowball's chance in hell of learning OUR language" grin. This is quickly replaced by a faked look of concern as they say "Oh, its a very difficult language isn't it?". I think after this, they go off and laugh uncontrollably and give high-fives to other Estonians, but I haven't actually seen it happen.
I have decided to write an expose on the Estonian language. One time I sent my brother a tape of Estonian language and he asked me if Estonians have an obsession with sex. There is terviseks and ostmiseks and kasutamiseks, teadmiseks, parandamiseks and armastamiseks. All kinds of "seks". That, plus the fact that after five years, little kids still laugh when I speak Estonian has made me decide to tell all. The real story behind why Estonian is the way it is.
A long time ago, about 1000 or 1100 A.D. there three Estonian guys sitting around the campfire. Their names were Billy, Ray and Duke (bet you didn't know that these are real ancient Estonian names). It was winter time and they were bored. Billy spoke first. "Ya know Ray, what we need is a new language". "Damn stright!" said Ray, "Talkin' this way is gettin' boring and besides everybody almost understands us. We need a language that's sooo crazy, soooooo complicated that nobody will ever understands what's going on!".
As the idea picked up steam, Duke piped up. "Lets do it this way, that you can't say he or she. That way you won't know if your talkin' about a man or woman. Also, we gotta think up names for people that give no clue to foreigners about their gender, names that change with the grammar so you never know what to call somebody". Ray nodded in approval "Yeah," he said thoughtfully "that's it. Then we can eliminate the future tense. Think of trying to ask someone out on date when you can't say the right name, whether it's a boy or girl or when it is going to happen!"
Billy, the smart one, was thinking in more technical terms already. "OK, let's make it this way, that when you learn a noun, you don't have to learn just one word but FOURTEEN. Yeah and instead of just saying that you are going to or from something, you have to change the noun in some weird way". Now Ray was excited and spilled his beer. "Yeah Yeah! And ... and ... the nouns can't change the same way, let's make like, a hundred different spelling groups that all change in different ways!". This appealed to Duke who added slyly, "Ya wanna make it real hard, a real nut-buster? Let's make it so all adjectives change, too. In boring old English, you say 'five small, red houses', 'small, red houses' and 'many small, red houses'. Small and red always stay the same but in our new language? Whoaaaa Nellie!". They exchange high fives all around and cracked a few beers. After that they started practicing how to say 'Oh, you're learning Estonian' without busting up laughing.

In regard to math and langauge, you're right about Japanese. Some study showed that they were better at simple arithmetic or learned it easier or something. Eleven, for instance, is literally "ten one", if I recall correctly, so that type of numbering system gave them an advantage.

Estonian sounds interesting. What's this about no "he" or "she"?

Ebonics.

Well, we use "tema" (or "ta" in short) for both genders. So when I want to say "he is..." or "she is...", I will always say "tema on...". If I want to be specific on the gender I'll have to point out whether I'm talking about a man or a woman.

Take a look at Welsh.))

Actually Welsh uses the latin script in a very logical and easy to understand way, once you actually start learning it.

Although from the outside it looks like they just throw random clusters of letters together, I'll grant you :p.

And to those talking about Chinese - it's easy as ass. I'm doing a degree in it right now, and surprisingly enough I'd count it as far easier than German, which was the last language I attempted.

The two difficult points about it:

The script, obviously. You need 3-5000 characters to be able to read a basic newspaper.
Actually absorbing the vocabulary.

The vocabulary is difficult not only due to the fact that the words aren't even close to English, but also because of the fact that each has to be said in a specific tone, otherwise it's incomprehensible, or can mean something else entirely.

For example, "mā mà mă ma?" = "Did mom shout at the horse?"

Thankfully the grammar is partically non-existant, and the pronounciation is easy enough.

English obviously. Hell, most of us native speakers can't even use it properly.

EDIT: Maybe one of those African languages with the clicking...

English obviously. Hell, most of us native speakers can't even use it properly.

EDIT: Maybe one of those African languages with the clicking...

Because clicking is hard? I don't know why people make such a big deal out of it. Slavic languages use their tongue in an unusual way to make soft sounds. French, Arabic, and Russian speakers have the rough "kh" sound. Clicking is just another way of using your mouth, and it's easy as hell too.

Anyways, Zulu has clicking in it, and it's one of those most spoken African languages, I think. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_language#Grammar

Interestingly, the grammar actually looks a bit like Russian, with suffixes adding several levels of meaning to a stem (whereas in Russian it's prefixes), and with a aspectual verb pairs. This language might just end up next on my list.

Because clicking is hard?

To make the appropriate sounds, possibly yes. Languages in the Khoisan family have over 30 different click consonants, not counting clusters, among perhaps 90 phonemes, which include strident and pharyngealized vowels and four tones.

That sounds pretty hard.

To make the appropriate sounds, possibly yes. Languages in the Khoisan family have over 30 different click consonants, not counting clusters, among perhaps 90 phonemes, which include strident and pharyngealized vowels and four tones.

That sounds pretty hard.

I just did some more reading on it; you're right. That does sound like a bitch.

Sorry.

from personal experience, Arabic is a BITCH

from personal experience, Arabic is a BITCH

How so, speciifcally?

I have heard that the Caucasian languages are difficult. (as the people are))))

I don't think it's possible to really say what is the most difficult language because different people with different linguistic backgrounds might have different opinions.

For example, someone from a non-European-speaking country might find English/European languages to be very difficult.

Personally I find that of the two languages I speak, English is easy to learn, but difficult to master.

I don't believe Icelandic is a great deal harder to learn than German, it is still a Germanic language like English and has many similarities. It's not easy, but it certainly isn't the hardest language to learn. However, I would say the most difficult language would be Tsez, a Caucasian language.

More information can be found in it's Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsez_language

Heheh, I think our abuse of the alphabet is quite possibly the worst in the world. The Poles RAPED the Latin script, but they at least developed some consistent rules they follow. (ie. if you learn how they changed the alphabet, then you're golden)

...Heck...Russian (and some other Slavic languages too, I think) practically has a complete dialect of swearing, from what I understand.

Polish is a fucker to learn!
My missus is Polish. My grandfather was Polish aswell so I have a thing for learning the language. Only problem is it's a fucker to learn!
The alphabet I'm okay with. My uncle wrote it out for me when I was a kid and I read it a few times for some reason. Years later I'm looking at Polish words, pronouncing them correctly (or correctly enough for an English speaker) and watching the jaws of present Polacks hit the floor and hearing "Kuuurwa..." :)

There are plenty of things about it that I'm finding confusing though...
Male or female words, endings to words in various contexts, general grammar....Confusing stuff.

And I agree...Slavs do like to use the cuss words! If they banned the word Kurwa (basically shit, cunt, fuck, etc all rolled into one) in Polish nobody would speak!

How so, speciifcally?

basically, the alpabet was alright to understand. It was just the subtle vocalizations between the different letters that made it difficult

I don't believe Icelandic is a great deal harder to learn than German, it is still a Germanic language like English and has many similarities. It's not easy, but it certainly isn't the hardest language to learn. However, I would say the most difficult language would be Tsez, a Caucasian language.

More information can be found in it's Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsez_language

Hahahahaha.

Look at how those bastards use clauses:

English: "The father knew that the boy wanted bread"

Word-for-word Tsez translation: "Father boy bread want know"

I'm at a loss for words. This may just trump Basque in difficulty.

Chinese grammar is pretty simplethey have one?

From a dicktionary :

GRAMMAR = - Noun; The branch of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology (and sometimes also deals with semantics)

Therefore,...EVERY LANGUAGE HAVE THEIR OWN GRAMMAR,...be they terrestrial or extra-terrestrial in nature or origin....

Your inability to comprehend simple term such as "grammar" is in itself :

[a] embarrassing ;
[b] lolable ;
[c] demodable...
[d] pathetic ....
[e] tarnishing the classy image of totseans.....

and last but not least....

[f] [censored]

From what I understand, it's simple to get the basic usage down but really difficult to be able to use the language in a native manner. Seriously, look at our conjugation for "to be" in present indicative:

I am
You are
We are
They are

Assuming you already know I / You / We / They, that's only two words to remember, and this pattern is pretty common in conjugations of a lot of English verbs. A language like Spanish (which most people consider relatively easy to learn) you will have six conjugations for "ser" in present indicative. We do have, however, some pretty ridiculous constructions and a notorious abuse of the Latin alphabet and pronunciation rules.

I'm glad English is my native language... I wouldn't want to have to study it; it's such a strange language.

Yeah.

I just want to add that in this aspect, German is similar to English, except that it's even harder and more complicated. I believe (if I am not mistaken), you can have different verbs for different kinds of nouns, or something like that. It is so hard that I actually don't even remember what exactly made it hard, the only thing I know is that I walk away thinking "wow that was hard".


[c] demodable...


lol..

Also, to contribute to topic:

As a non-native speaker of English, I personally find that one of the most difficult parts of the language is that it's uhm, overly versatile. What I meant by that is that there can be multiple meanings for a word (oftentimes it's a verb), and on top of that, if you put something else behind it (usually a preposition) it gains yet another six million uses.

For example, the word "give" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/give%5B1%5D). As if it were not bad enough, you can also put "out" after it, then it takes on another whole bunch of meanings: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/give%20out

That being said, I thoroughly love the English language. I have so much fun with it. My thought on it is that it's got a lot of very vivid verbs. Next time you see a good post/article/read you will notice that the authors almost invariably have a way with the verbs. Verbs are what breathes life into a language is what I believe. Just to give you an example, consider the word/verb "hit". "Hit" is a plain verb that denotes the action of delivering a blow to someone/something. If one were to say, "hit repeatedly" it just didn't quite have the effect that one was looking for. However, if one were to use "pummel", then eureka! (also, is it just me or can any of you see the word "pummel" and not want to laugh?)

It is my humble opinion that if one knows how to use verbs intelligently/creatively, one is very well on his way to mastering the English language.

Tamil from South India.

But I speaks it, yeeuh.

Tamil is older than sanskrit. Sanskrit was the first to have written letters though, but spoken wise.. Tamil is the oldest INDO-yurope language.

but of course the oldest languages(from Africa) on the earth arent spoken by anyone at all today.

The hardest language on Earth however is encrypted computer text. duh.

Assuming "INDO-yurope" means "Indo-European"... Tamil isn't Indo-European at all.

Assuming "INDO-yurope" means "Indo-European"... Tamil isn't Indo-European at all.

tard..

Yeah.

I just want to add that in this aspect, German is similar to English, except that it's even harder and more complicated. I believe (if I am not mistaken), you can have different verbs for different kinds of nouns, or something like that. It is so hard that I actually don't even remember what exactly made it hard, the only thing I know is that I walk away thinking "wow that was hard".

What the hell you talkin' about, WAN?

German grammar is relatively fucked, what with their use of cases. After 3 years of classes I've yet to master them. They got the accusatives, ablatives, datives... fuck it... There's other miscellaneous hardships to this language, but none to hard.

As for verbs, you've got me aghast. As far as I know, German verbs conjugate regularly, with a few irregulars thrown into the mix every now and then, as is the case in most languages.

Exhibit A: [Regular Verb: Sterben, to die]

Ich Sterbe----------------Wir Streben
Du Sterbst---------------Ihr Strebt
Er Sterbt-----------------Sie Streben

Exhibit B:

Ich Bin------------------Wir Sind
Du Bist------------------Ihr Seid
Er Ist----------------------Sie Sind

Now to form a basic sentence:[I] WAN, du wirst sein tod morgen

:p:p

:(









:rolleyes:

What the hell you talkin' about, WAN?

German grammar is relatively fucked, what with their use of cases. After 3 years of classes I've yet to master them. They got the accusatives, ablatives, datives... fuck it... There's other miscellaneous hardships to this language, but none to hard.

As for verbs, you've got me aghast. As far as I know, German verbs conjugate regularly, with a few irregulars thrown into the mix every now and then, as is the case in most languages.

Exhibit A: [Regular Verb: Sterben, to die]

Ich Sterbe----------------Wir Streben
Du Sterbst---------------Ihr Strebt
Er Sterbt-----------------Sie Streben

Exhibit B:

Ich Bin------------------Wir Sind
Du Bist------------------Ihr Seid
Er Ist----------------------Sie Sind

Now to form a basic sentence:[I] WAN, du wirst sein tod morgen

:p:p

:(


:rolleyes:

Cases aren't really that difficult; you just have to get used to them. For instance, Russian's cases take a huge shit over German's (in both quantity and usage), but after around 8 months of study, it seemed like an extremely logical, natural system. Of course, you can imagine my surprise to learn that Finnish has something like 15 cases...:p

Point being: German is basically an appetizer when it comes to languages with cases.

If I recall correctly, I found German's pluralization rules and prepositions to be the biggest pain in the ass.

Cases aren't really that difficult; you just have to get used to them. For instance, Russian's cases take a huge shit over German's (in both quantity and usage), but after around 8 months of study, it seemed like an extremely logical, natural system. Of course, you can imagine my surprise to learn that Finnish has something like 15 cases...:p

Point being: German is basically an appetizer when it comes to languages with cases.

If I recall correctly, I found German's pluralization rules and prepositions to be the biggest pain in the ass.

Are you sure about 15 cases? What the fuck kind of point are those Finns trying to make? Nice to know German grammar isn't the toughest cookie on the block. I take it you speak Russian? And yeah, there's other things about German that leave one with a sour taste in the mouth.

You know, those bastard Georgians have grammatical rules that force one to change around the verbs and possessives depending on whether the object in question is animate or inanimate :eek: And I thought modifying words into masculine or feminine forms was a bitch before.