Learning foreign languages broadens the mind, improves memory and thought processes. But if in order to independently compose an orally and in writing a short story about yourself in English, it will take several months of training “from scratch”, then for the same result in Hungarian there may be not enough years.
Today we offer Top 10 most difficult to learn languages. Compared to many of them, Russian seems to be one of the simplest.
10. Icelandic
This language has preserved many ancient words that are no longer used anywhere in Europe. Many Icelandic sounds have no exact analogs, so you can learn them only by listening to a native speaker. The proper names testify to the complexity of Icelandic. For example, in 2010 the whole world was trying to remember the name of the awakened volcano Eyyafyadlayokyudl.
9. Polish
Polish grammar has more exceptions than rules. To study the seven Polish cases, it is easier to first learn a spoken language, and only then try to understand the logic. The Poles have 32 letters in the alphabet, many of which have 2-3 pronunciation variants. Despite the fact that many words seem familiar to the Russian rumor, they often have completely different meanings. By the way, the name of the city L’o’dz ’, which we know as Lodz, is pronounced by the Poles as“ Wuj. ”
8. Basque
In the language of the northern regions of Spain there are 24 cases. This is one of the oldest languages in Europe. Word formation in it occurs by adding prefixes and suffixes to the base. So, verb forms for different tenses are difficult to remember, because not only their ending, but also the beginning changes.
7. Estonian
There are 12 cases in this complex language. In addition, the same word can have 3-4 meanings, many of which date back to the 12th-13th centuries, when the Estonian language was formed. Vowels in the language have 3 degrees of longitude, but only two of them are displayed on the letter.
6. Navajo
This language of the American Indians was used by the United States to broadcast radio messages during the Second World War. The Japanese could not decrypt the intercepted message, because There were no published Navajo dictionaries. Today, about 180 thousand people speak the language.
5. Japanese
Learning to read Japanese does not mean learning to speak it, because the hieroglyphs from books do not give a clue about the pronunciation of words. In addition, there are 3 writing systems in the language. Kanji uses Chinese characters, katakana - the syllable alphabet for borrowed words, and hiragana - the alphabet for writing suffixes and grammatical particles. Until 1959, Japanese writing was conducted from right to left and from top to bottom. A student who wants to get a diploma of higher education must memorize 10-15 thousand characters.
4. Hungarian
This complex language is the leader in the number of cases, in Hungarian there are 35. In addition, the language has many suffixes and expressive idioms. Many vowel sounds are difficult to repeat, as they are pronounced deep in the throat.
3. Tuyuka
One of the Native American languages is spoken today only in areas of the Eastern Amazon. One of the main difficulties is the system of verb endings, indicating how the speaker knows about an event. For example, “Diga ape-wi” means that “the boy played football (I know this because I saw it)”.
2. Arabic
The first difficulty of the Arabic language is writing. Many letters have 4 different spellings depending on the position in the word. Vowels are not included when writing, hyphenation is not allowed, capital letters are absent. In addition, the Arabs write from right to left. Grammar is complicated by unusual features. So, in addition to the singular and plural in Arabic, there is a dual number.
1. Chinese
Despite all the complexity, it is this language that leads the Top 15 most widely spoken in the world. The main difficulty of the Chinese is 87 thousand characters. True, for elementary communication, 800 will be enough, and knowing 3 thousand hieroglyphs, you can read newspapers. Another difficulty is dozens of dialects that are not alike. By the way, in some regions of China they write from top to bottom from right to left, while in others the European style of the horizontal writing familiar to us is accepted.
