Article by Sushmita Ghosh
Every language has its own meaning and importance in the world. Different country speak different languages but the most common form of language spoken is English. There are many people who are from different country but speak the language of some other countries too. These languages learnt are considered to be the easiest languages due to use of Roman alphabets and grammar but there are even toughest languages present in the world which because of the use of Foreign alphabets and grammar which becomes difficult for a person to be fluent in.
10. POLISH
This language consists of exceptions more than rules and has seven grammatical cases. For instance, German language has 4 cases which have logical rules but in Polish language those 7 cases need a lot of effort or say often used arbitrarily to learn their logical rule of high level which means that we need to be aware of the whole language.
Since polish people speak and hear less of English, so a person speaking to a Polish needs to have a clear pronunciation in the language which can be done only through practice and study.
Since polish people speak and hear less of English, so a person speaking to a Polish needs to have a clear pronunciation in the language which can be done only through practice and study.
9. KOREAN
It is the official language spoken in the nation of North and South Korea. It seems to be easier than any other East Asian languages due to absence of any tone or pictorial writing system. Writing and reading this language by the English speakers can be easy but the task of speaking and listening is the toughest thing to happen. The hardest challenge is the grammatical structure. Korean language consists of verbs and adjectives that are conjugated in hundreds of ways. It even has two different number systems quite different from one another.
8. FINNISH
It is a language that has no Germanic or American influence so it is completely a unique and different language along with a different vocabulary thus not related to any major language group. Finnish is a part of the Finnish-Ugric group of family. It is considered to be having the most difficult grammar making it more complicated. Since it consists of 15 noun cases even a small noun difference can change the whole meaning resulting in a huge difference.
But because of the writing which is said to be in Roman alphabet a person will be at least able to read the words.
But because of the writing which is said to be in Roman alphabet a person will be at least able to read the words.
7. ESTONIAN
It has a very rigid case system where case means a grammatical system under which words inflect based on their grammatical function in a sentence. Estonian language consists of 12 cases considering being having more than two times of the cases in any other Slavic language which means a lot needs to be kept in mind.
This language is said to be the toughest to learn by the English speakers because of the presence of the grammatical rules and the words which form different meanings. It even is not praised for its presence of vowel and irregular system of adjectives. Words in the sentence can be placed in any order making this language more complex.
Estonian is also a part of the Finno-Ugric group of family just along with the Finnish language.
This language is said to be the toughest to learn by the English speakers because of the presence of the grammatical rules and the words which form different meanings. It even is not praised for its presence of vowel and irregular system of adjectives. Words in the sentence can be placed in any order making this language more complex.
Estonian is also a part of the Finno-Ugric group of family just along with the Finnish language.
6. MANDARIN CHINESE
Like Cantonese, Mandarin is a tonal language which lacks phonic connections making it difficult for the English speaker to learn. Written Mandarin is a pictorial language containing 20,000 characters. This also means that a misused change in the sound or inflection can completely change the meaning of the same sound.
For instance, the word “Ma” represents different meanings such as mother; horse, depending on their tone which could lead to difficulties.
But in context to grammar, mandarin considered to be more simpler form than other Indo- European languages because most of the words consist of only one grammatical structure which can be used through word order , prepositions etc. but forming them is time taking and the Mandarin adverbs also don’t have any English translation.
In 1950s, Chinese government introduced a translating system named “Pinyin” which uses Roman alphabets to present language phonetically that helped to standardize the language.
For instance, the word “Ma” represents different meanings such as mother; horse, depending on their tone which could lead to difficulties.
But in context to grammar, mandarin considered to be more simpler form than other Indo- European languages because most of the words consist of only one grammatical structure which can be used through word order , prepositions etc. but forming them is time taking and the Mandarin adverbs also don’t have any English translation.
In 1950s, Chinese government introduced a translating system named “Pinyin” which uses Roman alphabets to present language phonetically that helped to standardize the language.
5. NAVAJO
This fascinating and unique language was used during the period of IInd World War by the American forces in the Pacific battle against the Japanese. It was a code created by them in the Navajo language using bilingual Navajo Code Talkers for sending secure military messages over radio as fastest way of communication. But the Japanese were never able to decipher this Navajo code.
Navajo is a verb centered language as the descriptions or information were provided through the use of verbs only and no translation of the English adjectives were possible in Navajo.It also has 25 kinds of prenominal prefixes which can be changed onto one another.
Another interesting feature about this language is regarding Animacy where noun takes place certain verbs according to their animated hierarchy.For instance, nouns like humans and lighting come on top ,children and big animals come in middle and abstractions come at the bottom.Thus, it is considered to be tough to memorize.
Navajo is a verb centered language as the descriptions or information were provided through the use of verbs only and no translation of the English adjectives were possible in Navajo.It also has 25 kinds of prenominal prefixes which can be changed onto one another.
Another interesting feature about this language is regarding Animacy where noun takes place certain verbs according to their animated hierarchy.For instance, nouns like humans and lighting come on top ,children and big animals come in middle and abstractions come at the bottom.Thus, it is considered to be tough to memorize.
4. JAPANESE
For English speakers unlike Chinese language, Japanese language consisting of combinations of vowels and consonants is much easier to speak as it is fluent like that of English which makes it easy to understand. But the Written Japanese is the most toughest part to learn as it consists of 4 kinds of alphabets: Chinese influenced Kanji-Pictorial, 2 phonetic writing systems and the Roman alphabet-Romanji. Thus, this makes the language to be the most challenging to be learnt. More difficult part of this writing Japanese is that there are 2 irregular verbs, consistent structure with use of verbs at every end of sentence, nouns do not consist of numbers or genders but can function as adjectives and adverbs which makes it more difficult for the speakers to learn the language.
Since Japanese Written language is entirely different from that of spoken one, it may be easy for the speakers to read and write it but tough while speaking.
Since Japanese Written language is entirely different from that of spoken one, it may be easy for the speakers to read and write it but tough while speaking.
3. HUNGARIAN
Again Hungarian is also a part of Finno-Ugric group of family like the Finnish and Estonian language. In spite of using the Roman alphabets in writing like English, it is not easy to learn or pronounce the language. Firstly, it consists of 35 cases and noun forms. Secondly, unique vowel sounds-‘a,’e,’o,”o,’u,”u,’i and the consonant clusters-ty, gy, ny, sz, sz, dzs, dz, ly, cs makes it tough for the English speakers to read, learn and pronounce the Hungarian language.
Hungarian sentence structure is considered to be loose and flexible as the tense, possession, grammar and number are indicated through suffixes and not by order. But in reality, any sentence can form several meanings but with a slight changes in the suffixes. Thus, it needs more effort to learn the language because of it’s confusing pattern.
Hungarian sentence structure is considered to be loose and flexible as the tense, possession, grammar and number are indicated through suffixes and not by order. But in reality, any sentence can form several meanings but with a slight changes in the suffixes. Thus, it needs more effort to learn the language because of it’s confusing pattern.
2. ARABIC
The first challenged or difficulty faced by the English speakers is regarding the script which is phonetic consisting of 28 symbol alphabet. Most of the Arabic letters consist of 4 different forms which change shape depending on their position of the word where vowels are not included in the writing system. An English speaking person won’t be able to find similar grammar like other European languages.
The most complicated part comes in the written Arabic is that it is read from right to left and the verb generally comes before the subject and object representing them to be singular, dual and plural. Its present verb tense has 13 forms, 3 noun cases and 2 genders.
Second difficulty faced is about the dialects. While the English speakers study about modern Arabic, there are still different variations that are as different from modern standard Arabic such like Spanish and French spoken are from different English.
Thus, Arabic is considered to be the hardest or toughest language to learn by anybody.
The most complicated part comes in the written Arabic is that it is read from right to left and the verb generally comes before the subject and object representing them to be singular, dual and plural. Its present verb tense has 13 forms, 3 noun cases and 2 genders.
Second difficulty faced is about the dialects. While the English speakers study about modern Arabic, there are still different variations that are as different from modern standard Arabic such like Spanish and French spoken are from different English.
Thus, Arabic is considered to be the hardest or toughest language to learn by anybody.
1.BASQUE
According to the study by the British Foreign Office, Basque is considered and ranked to be the toughest language to learn by the English speaker but is the oldest language spoken in Europe. It consists of 24 cases each taking 4 forms making its grammar complex. Despite of being surrounded by Romance languages like Spanish and French, Basque language is said to be the only language with no syntactic parallels to English.
Like many other languages, Basque is known as agglutinative which means words are formed but then altered with prefixes and suffixes. It also makes use of case endings in order to indicate relationships between words.
Even if the language is tough for the English speakers syntactically, it has been written in Roman alphabet making the pronunciation easier for the speakers.
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