The superpower of it all is that language can connect people, bridge differences and create understanding as one. However, not all languages are made equally simple to learn. Some are very easy languages to learn, others reputedly hard mean even the most patient linguists and language enthusiasts will find their work cut out. Below, we look at some of the hardest languages in the world — why they are so difficult as well and what makes them attractive to those learners who just cannot resist a challenge.
1. Why is a language difficult?
First, we will understand factors that determine whether a language is difficult to learn or not before going into different languages. There are many reasons why a language can be difficult to learn:
Grammar: Many languages contain complex grammatical rules, such as nonregular verbs or noun cases and a set word order in sentence formations.
Phonetics: languages that make use of many different sounds or tones, hard/complex pronounciation opener [exemple]
Writing System: Another relatively easy way to make your language resemble an alien one is simply have it use a different writing system, especially true if the default writing systems are alphabets.
Vocabulary: A language may have a huge and complex vocabulary, colloquialisms, expressions related to culture can be challenging.
Cultural context (knowing the culture which a particular language is used in, will help your mastery of it)
2. Chinese, amen to the mother of languages: Mandarin Chinese
It is probably not surprising that native Indo-European language speakers find Mandarin Chinese one of the hardest languages to master. So many reasons why Mandarin is hard to learn:
Tones: Mandarin has four main tones, and getting these right is essential to being understood.
Characters: The Chinese writing system is based on characters (as opposed to an alphabet). The complexity of the characters that have to be memorized in order to read and write Mandarin is incredible.
Grammar and Syntax: Mandarin grammar is somewhat more manageable than some other languages, but it can still be a shock to learners who are used to verb conjugations and tenses.
3. Rich, Complex and Ancient — Arabic Language
Arabic often features on lists of the most difficult languages to learn, too. Not only is it the national language of more than 20 nations but also has a deep cultural and religious value. THE difficulties OF gaining knowledge of ARABIC:
Script and Writing System: Written in a cursive script read right-to-left, which takes getting used to for those who are used to writing systems left-to-right. There are also several letter forms that indicate the positioning of a particular word.
Arabic Pronunciation: Arabic uses many sounds, such as the emphatic consonants and guttural sounds (ع ، حث).
Vernacular and dialects: The Arabic language is a macrolanguage with 27 sublanguage groups or lects, though some of these such as Egyptian are mutually unintelligible. For most parts, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is used in written and formal settings but each country has their own dialect which makes it more difficult to learn for beginners.
4. The Japanese — mix of simple and complicated
It provides English speakers with a unique set of difficulties, being considered one of the hardest languages to learn in existence.
Writing System — In Japanese, there are 3 writing systems: Kanji (Chinese characters), Hiragana and Katakana. This is especially true for kanji, which are reminiscent of Chinese logograms and bear more than one pronunciation and definition, amounting to thousands in total to memorize.
JapanesePoliteness: Japanese has many levels of politeness, and how formal you need to be with your speech will depend on the social context.
Sentence structure (often subject-object-verb) and the use of particles: Japanese grammar is quite different from English not only in terms of word order—whereas typical English sentences are structured subject-verb-object, many Japanese sentences go object-subject-predicate—but also with respect to the specific functions that words serve.
5. Korean: 가 (하게) honorifics용 ())
Korean often gets lost in the conversation of hardest languages, but this language is tough to pick up for:
Korean has a robust honorific system, as Korean culture emphasizes respect and hierarchy in the language. The system has a number of honorifics, and varying levels of deference blow the line towards rudeness.
Grammar and Syntax: Korean uses an agglutinative system of grammar, which means that pieces (affixes) are added to the root word in order to form words. It is difficult for English speakers with the reversed subject-object-verb sentence structure.
Hangul and Vocabulary: The Korean alphabet (or Hangul) is very easy to learn, however the language has a lot of Sino-Korean words that came from Chinese characters, this can be intimidating so it becomes hard for them to memorise vocabulary.
6. Russian — one of the most difficult languages in terms of cases and consonants
They keep describing Russian as one of the hardest languages for an English speaker to learn because its grammar and pronunciation are so complex:
Russian cases – in Russian, nouns, pronouns and adjectives change their endings to show case relations. Russian has six cases, each of its own set of rules, and exceptions.
Alphabet: Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which is a new for most English speakers. It is that initial learning to read and write in Cyrillic which can be the biggest barrier for the beginner.
Accent: Russian speech contains many constanant clusters and sounds that are unfamiliar to non-native speakers.
7. Learning the World´s Hardest Language: Icelandic
As you can see, Icelandic is a captivating language with an intriguing story in history. It is possibly one of the most conservative languages in the world, as much closer to Spear-Danes time than it seems compared HeinHaldsens or Halfdan or Halvarsons. This is because there are a few challenges to learning Icelandic, such as:
Complex Grammar: Icelandic has 4 case system, Three gender and verb conjugations. Grammar is a harsh mistress — there are not many exceptions on the dance floor.
If you ever found it difficult to learn new words, this is doubly so for Icelandic as they have a huge vocabulary and many of their words are not the same yet. It also has a tendency to coin new words for modern concepts, instead of simply borrowing from other languages which can make their learning vocabulary challenging.
Language: Spoken Icelandic is hard to pronounce for English speakers, it has sounds that do not exist in the language.
8. Finnish, the Language of One Thousand Lakes
The language with one of the histories least known to English speakers is also among the most difficult for them, as Finnish has many differences in both vocabulary and syntax:
Finnish Grammar: Finnish is an agglutinative language i.e. words are formed by stacking suffixes one o the other on a root word. Finnish has 15 grammatical cases each having its own rules and exceptions.
Finnish vocabulary is largely merrily out of the scope with that of other European languages, thus making it harder to find cognates than you would like.
Pronunciation: Finnish pronunciation is quite easy, but the problem most people run into are vowels that have lengths; long and short versions of each vowel exist in some words resulting from different rules when they were formed.
9. Code Talkers: The Navajo Language
Navajo (or Diné) is a Native American language legendary for its complexity and distinct structure. It became famous during World War II when the Navajo Code Talkers used it to form an unbreakable code. Some of the challenges with learning Navajo_LANGUAGE_NAME:
Complex verbs: Navajo verbs are relatively complex, which often change the verb in meaning based on their prefix and suffix. The pattern of verbs are complicated with adepts and needs a lot of practice.
Tone: Navajo is a tonal language, and as such uses pitch when pronouncing words to differentiate meaning.
Cultural Context: To truly speak Navajo fluently you have to understand the cultural context of it as well, because the teachings are all related back to who we he pray too.
10. And therein, of course, lies the beauty of linguistic diversity.
These are only a few of the numerous difficult and complicated languages spoken throughout the rest parts of the world. Indeed, despite their challenge in learning, this directly results the immense reward that these languages offer learners; increasing further understanding for a certain culture including history and collective thought process. The challenge of a language is not an obstacle but an initiation into the infinite garden of human expression.
Whether you want to learn one of these languages, or even if the idea that learning a new language sounds like fun is just fascinating in and of itself…understanding what makes a language difficult can do wonders for your appreciation for this arcane art-slash-science called linguistics. Everyone knows that a language, whatever it is and however difficult to learn will be fluent in his speakers soul.