There is a myth that the Russian language is one of the most difficult in the world. However, in order to write a short summary about yourself in English, it will take a couple of months of training, but if you repeat this trick with Polish or Hungarian, then you will have to master them for almost a year. So what is the most difficult language in the world? Today we will remember the 10 most difficult of all existing.

We have compiled our list from 10 to 1, where 10th place is the easiest of the difficult ones, the place belongs to the most difficult language to learn.

We present you with a descending list: Icelandic, Polish, Basque, Estonian, Navajo, Japanese, Hungarian, Tuyuka, Arabic, Chinese. Today we will talk about three of them.

The most difficult language in the world, 10th

The simplest of the complex languages ​​was Icelandic, which retained words from ancient times. At least in Europe no one else uses them.

This language cannot be thoroughly learned without communicating with its native speakers, since transcription is not able to convey the sounds that Icelanders use.

To make it completely clear to you what we have just written about, just try to pronounce this word: Eyyafjallajökull. This is the name of one of the Do you want to learn this language?

The most difficult language in the world, 5th

There are three types of it: hieroglyphs, katakana and hiragana. And even in the very manner of writing, the Japanese distinguished themselves - they write from right to left, in a column. Local students were especially unlucky, because in order to get a diploma of higher education, you need to know 15,000 hieroglyphs.

The most difficult language in the world: 1st

In terms of complexity, Chinese is rightfully in the first place, but this does not prevent it from being considered the most common on the planet.

This language contains 87,000 hieroglyphs, although you can communicate if you know only 800, and someone who knows 3,000 hieroglyphs will be able to read newspapers.

The problem is that the Chinese language has more than 10 dialects, and writing can be both in a column and horizontally, in a European way.

Today you learned about the most difficult languages ​​in the world, the list of which would be incomplete without some kind of Slavic dialect. Unfortunately or fortunately, this turned out to be not Russian, but Polish. It turns out that his grammar has not so much rules as exceptions to them.

The most difficult peoples - Polish

Our advice to those who want to learn Polish thoroughly: start with a simple conversational language, and only when you master it, you will be able to understand the logic of grammar. Suppose there are 7 cases in this language, and it is possible to understand how they are used only in practice.

The alphabet consists of 32 letters, but many of them are pronounced in two or three versions, in different ways. This is especially interesting when the Poles pronounce the letter "l" as "v".

Therefore, we especially try to protect you from trying to understand Polish only from familiar words. In this country, our Russian words can have a completely different meaning.

If you don't want to rack your brains over complex languages, study European ones. They say that the brain of polyglots is much better developed, that their thinking and abilities are more perfect, but the main thing is not yet learning foreign words and pronunciation features.

Start with English, and then maybe get to Chinese.

Learning a new language is an exciting activity that promotes the development of memory and flexibility of thinking. However, you can't call it easy. And it can become even more difficult if you intend to master one of the most difficult languages ​​in the world. Indeed, in this case, it will be necessary to take into account not only the laws of the functioning of words and sentences, but also the cultural characteristics of native speakers.

Here are the top 10 most difficult languages ​​in the world that can make even an experienced linguist shudder. It is based on the study of specialized linguistic resources, as well as language records from the Guinness Book of Records.

Spelling and grammar are two areas that will give a Polish language learner a lot of trouble. Polish words are loaded with consonants, making them difficult to pronounce and write. For example, szczęście means "happiness" and bezwzględny means "ruthless".

Polish grammar has seven cases in the noun declension system. Plus there is one more - vocative. As one linguist put it, "It's like German on steroids."

But there is good news: Polish uses the Latin alphabet, so the letters will be familiar to those who are familiar with English.

It has a reputation for being a difficult language to learn, and with good reason. Nouns in it have 15 cases. Finnish is part of the Finno-Ugric language family, so it doesn't have any Latin or German influences to help you guess what a word means. In theory, the pronunciation of Finnish words is fairly straightforward, but they do have long vowels and consonants.

And if you are intrigued by a place with such a complex language, then we recommend visiting Helsinki, recognized as one of.

This language is so little known and unusual that during the Second World War, the US Air Force called in the Navajo cipher clerks. They used their native language to communicate by telephone and walkie-talkie. If you are interested in the history of these cryptographers, we recommend that you watch the John Woo film Windtalkers, filmed in 2002.

The Navajo language has only 4 vowels, but many consonants. Moreover, in one word there can be either only hissing consonants, or only whistling consonants. This is called "consonant harmony".

In addition to all the complexities, there are sounds in the Navajo language that have no counterpart in European languages.

The Thai language is not complicated by its grammar, but by its pronunciation, in which there are five different tones, as well as long and short vowels. The Thai alphabet has a staggering 44 consonants, 28 vowel forms and 4 diacritics for tones.

The Thai alphabet does not use letters from the Latin alphabet. It comes from the Khmer alphabet and has a peculiar rounded appearance. At the same time, unlike the Cyrillic or Latin alphabet, in the Thai language there are no differences between lowercase and uppercase letters. The sentences are separated from each other by a space.

Still not impressed? Then here's another fact for you: there are several registers of speech in Thai.

• Street or colloquial - it is spoken with friends.
• Elegant or formal - it is spoken with strangers.
• Rhetorical - for public speaking.
• Religious - used to address the clergy.
• Royal - to discuss actions or address the royal family. The royal family in Thailand enjoys the deepest respect, and there is a very big difference between the royal and colloquial styles of speech.

The Eskimo language, which was included in the Guinness Book of Records, probably refers to the Eskimo branch of the Eskimo-Aleut languages.

Those who decide to learn the language of the "children of frost" (as Jack London called the Eskimos) will have to learn sixty-three forms of the present tense. But these are still flowers. And berries are 252 endings (inflections) for simple nouns.

Eskimo speakers think figuratively. And this imagery is vividly demonstrated by the word "ikiaqqivik". It translates as "travel through layers" and refers to the Internet.

Learning the language of the Chippewa (Ojibwe) Indian people living in the United States will bring real pleasure to the lover of “burning with a verb”. After all, it contains about 6 thousand verb forms.

The Chippewa language does not have a single standardization, as it exists as a chain of interconnected local varieties commonly referred to as dialects. However, a couple of words are known to every lover of stories about cowboys and Indians - these are “wigwam” and “totem”.

Due to its complexity, the Chippewa language has been included in the Guinness Book of Records.

This endangered language is spoken by the Haida people living in America and Canada.

The complexity of this language (listed in the Guinness Book of Records) is due to the fact that it has seventy prefixes. The Haida language once had over 30 different dialects. Only three of them remain today. The tone system used depends on the dialect.

The Haida language is remarkably detailed and varied. For example, there are approximately 50 different ways to describe how someone falls, depending on how they landed and what caused the fall.

This is the most difficult of the state languages ​​of Dagestan. A significant difficulty for those who decide to study the Tabasaran language is the cases of nouns. There are, according to various estimates, from 44 to 52.

Add to this ten more parts of speech, among which there are no prepositions (their place was taken by postpositions) and three dialects and you will understand why Tabasaran is included in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the most difficult languages ​​in the world.

There are dozens of varieties of Arabic, which are usually classified by region or country. Moreover, these varieties can be radically different from each other. So the first step is to choose the dialect you want to learn, but that's the easy part.

Arabic is a language with a non-Latin alphabet. Its 28 letters are easier to understand than thousands of Chinese characters, but you still have to get used to the new writing system - from right to left.

What makes reading and writing Arabic especially difficult for beginners is the elimination of most vowels in words. There are also features of spoken Arabic that make it difficult to learn. Some of the sounds used are simply unfamiliar to Russian speakers.

1. Chinese Mandarin

When asked what is the most difficult language in the world, and many linguists and the Guinness Book of Records give the answer: "Chinese". We are talking about the Northern Chinese language (aka Putonghua, aka Mandarin in Western literature), which includes closely related Chinese dialects. They are spoken by the population of most of Northern and Western China.

Mandarin Chinese is a real challenge for polyglots for a number of reasons:

• First of all, the Chinese writing system is extremely complex for people who are used to the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. Chinese learners have to memorize many characters that look like intricate drawings. Moreover, hieroglyphs are not words, but concepts.
• A lighter writing system (pinyin) makes it easier to write characters. But this is just another system that those who want to read and write Chinese will have to learn.
• Writing is not the only difficult part of learning Mandarin. The tonal nature of the language is also very important. Mandarin Chinese has four tones, so one word can be pronounced four different ways, and each pronunciation has a different meaning. For example, the word ma can mean “mother,” “horse,” an interrogative particle, or “swear,” depending on how you use it.

However, for many Chinese (and other foreigners as well) it is just as difficult to learn Russian as it is for a Russian person to learn Chinese.

When it comes to learning a foreign language, its difficulty mainly depends on how different it is from the languages ​​you are already fluent in. However, any of the languages ​​mentioned in this list can be learned without much difficulty. The main thing is to make a lesson plan and find a good teacher (ideally, a native speaker). In addition, in learning a language, as in any other matter, motivation plays a huge role. Lack of interest will make any language incredibly difficult, regardless of your native language and the differences between it and what you are learning.

Language is a sign system consisting of sounds and words. Each nation has its own unique sign system due to its phonetic, grammatical, morphological and linguistic features. Moreover, there are no simple languages. Each of them has its own difficulties, which are immediately revealed in the process of studying. Below are the most complex languages ​​​​of the planet, the rating of which includes ten sign systems.

# 10 #

Finnish language

Finnish language is considered one of the most difficult sign systems in the world and deservedly so. It has up to 16 cases and several hundred verb forms and conjugations.

Here, graphic signs convey the phonetics of the word completely (everything is pronounced as it is written). This simplifies the language a bit. In Finnish grammar, there are several past forms at once and there are no forms of the future tense at all.

# 9 #

Icelandic

Icelandic It is one of the most difficult languages ​​to pronounce. Its sign system is considered associated with one of the oldest languages ​​in the world. It contains such linguistic units that are used only by native speakers themselves.

Phonetics is a big challenge for learning Icelandic. Only native speakers can accurately convey it.

# 8 #

Hungarian

Hungarian ranks among the top ten hardest languages ​​in the world to learn. It has 35 case forms and a lot of vowels, which are quite difficult to pronounce with their length.

The sign system of the Hungarian language has a complex grammar. It has an innumerable number of suffixes and set expressions that are characteristic only for this language. The vocabulary system of this language is distinguished by the presence of only two tense forms of the verb: past and present.

Many people ask which language is the hardest to learn. Well what can we say? Many languages ​​are difficult. Below is a list of some of the most difficult languages ​​to learn. But you must remember that some language may be difficult for you for certain reasons. So after reading this article, you can make your own list of the most difficult languages ​​to learn.

What is the most difficult language in the world?

Many people ask which language is the hardest to learn. Well what can we say? Many languages ​​are difficult. Below is a list of some of the most difficult languages ​​to learn. But you must remember that some language may be difficult for you for certain reasons. So after reading the article, you can make your own ranking of the most difficult languages ​​to learn.

Rating: 10 most difficult languages

Arabic, Chinese and Japanese are considered most difficult languages according to the Institute of the Diplomatic Service of the State. US department. Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian are also among the most difficult - because of the huge number of cases. Pronunciation in them is more difficult than even in Asian languages, since they have a set of long mind-blowing consonants. But our list is not limited to these languages. Here is our list of ten candidate languages, with explanations of why each language made it to the list. Your personal list may differ from this.

1. Chinese. This language made the list for many reasons. For example, the hieroglyphs used in writing are very complex and ancient. Each word is represented by a separate character - and not a phonetic one, so it doesn't give you the slightest idea how the word is pronounced. The tonal system does not make life easier either, because there are four tones in Chinese. And here's another reason: there are a huge number of homophones in Chinese. For example, the word "shi" is associated with thirty different morphemes. Some people try to learn Chinese just because it is so different from other languages ​​and so difficult.

2. Arabic. The first difficulty is in writing. Many letters have four different spellings, depending on their position in the word. Vowels are not included in the letter. Sounds are difficult, but words are even more difficult. An English-speaking student of a European language encounters a lot of words that look familiar. But the same student studying Arabic will no longer come across a single familiar word. The verb in Arabic usually comes before the predicate and object. A verb has three numbers, so nouns and verbs must be taught in singular, dual, and plural. The present tense has 13 forms. The noun has three cases and two genders. Another problem is dialects. Arabic in Morocco differs as much from Arabic in Egypt and from literary Arabic, as French differs from Spanish and Latin.

3. Tuyuka is the language of the eastern Amazon. Its sound system is not overly complex: simple consonants and a few nasal vowels. But here is the agglutination!!! For example, the word "hóabãsiriga" means "I don't know how to write". It has two words for "we", inclusive and exclusive. The classes of nouns (gender) in the languages ​​of the Tuyuk family range from 50 to 140. And the most surprising thing in this language is that you need to use special verb endings that make it clear how the speaker knows what he is talking about. For example, "Diga ape-wi" means "the boy was playing football (I know because I saw it)." In English we may or may not say it, but in Tuyuka these endings are obligatory. Such languages ​​make those who speak them think carefully about how they learned what they are talking about.

4. Hungarian. First, there are 35 cases or noun forms in Hungarian. This alone already places Hungarian on the list of the most difficult languages ​​to learn. Hungarian has a lot of expressive idioms, a lot of suffixes. The large number of vowels and the way they are pronounced (deep in the throat) make this language difficult to pronounce. You will need more effort to learn and maintain this language at a decent level than for many other languages.

5. Japanese. It is difficult primarily because the letter is different from the pronunciation. That is, you cannot learn to speak this language by learning to read it - and vice versa. Moreover, there are three different writing systems. The kanji system uses Chinese characters. Students must learn from 10 to 15 thousand characters (cramming, no mnemonic tricks will help). In addition, written Japanese uses two syllabaries: katakana for loanwords and hiragana for writing suffixes and grammatical particles. The State Department allocates three times as much time to Japanese students as it does to students studying Spanish or French.

6. Navajo. This amazing language also claims a place in the list of the most difficult languages. During World War II, this language was used as a code for sending messages over the radio (radio operators were bilingual Navajo speakers). The advantage of this method was that it was possible to encrypt information very quickly. The Japanese were unable to understand this code. Navajo was chosen not only because it is very complex, but also because there were no published dictionaries or grammars for this language, but native speakers did. In this language, almost everything is done differently than in English. For example, in English in a verb, we highlight only the third person singular (in the present tense) with a suffix. And in Navajo, all faces are distinguished in the verb by prefixes.

7. Estonian. Estonian has a very rigid case system. Case is a grammatical class that affects the behavior of words in a sentence. Estonian has 12 cases, twice as many as many Slavic languages. In addition, there are many exceptions to the rules, many words can mean several different concepts.

8. Basque is also in the top ten hardest languages ​​according to the British Foreign Office. It has 24 cases. It is not possible to link British to any Indo-European language. Possibly the oldest language in Europe. It belongs to agglutinative languages, that is, it uses suffixes, prefixes and infixes to form new words. It is more of a synthetic language than an analytical one. In other words, the language uses case endings to indicate relationships between words. It changes not only the end of the verb, but also the beginning. In addition to the usual moods of the Indo-European languages, there are some other moods in Basque (eg potential). The language has a complex system of designation of the subject, direct and indirect object - and they are all part of the verb.

9. Polish. The language has 7 cases, and its grammar has more exceptions than rules. For example, there are 4 cases in German and they are all logical. Learning Polish cases will require more time and effort to learn (and discover) the logic and rules, you may have to learn the whole language first. In addition, Poles rarely communicate with foreigners who speak their language, so you have to be very careful with your pronunciation, otherwise you will not be understood.

10. Icelandic very difficult to learn due to its archaic vocabulary and complex grammar. It preserved all the ancient declensions of nouns and conjugations of verbs. Many Icelandic phonemes do not have exact equivalents in English. You can only learn them by listening to original recordings or talking to Icelanders.

But there is one more thing to keep in mind. The more a language differs from your native language (in spelling, grammar…), the more difficult it will be for you to learn it. If there is no logic in the language, it will also seem more difficult (for example, in English, the plural is formed by adding -s or -es at the end. In Arabic, the plural usually needs to be memorized, and this takes time). One thing is for sure: no matter how complex the language is, you will need the following: sufficient and appropriate resources, an understanding of what and how you learn, and a passion for learning!

Translation from mylanguages.org by Natalia Gavrilyasta.

In the world, according to various estimates, there are from 2000 to 6000 languages.

How to understand which of them is the most difficult? By what criteria is this determined?

Firstly, it is believed that it is very important which language is native for a person. And it will be easier for him to learn close languages. For example, it will be easier for a Pole to master Russian than, for example, Turkish.

Also look at the complexity of the grammar of the language. This is a very important indicator for determining what is the most difficult language.

The most difficult of the most common, according to linguists, are Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Interestingly, the perception of Chinese and Arabic by the human brain differs from the perception of other languages. For speakers of these languages, both hemispheres of the brain are involved in writing and reading, while for speakers of other languages, in this case, only one hemisphere works. Here we can conclude that the study of these languages ​​will help to greatly develop the brain.

What languages ​​are considered the most difficult to learn?

In Arabic, for example, besides writing from right to left, the pronunciation is complex, there is no logic in writing the plural, many letters have four different meanings.

The Chinese language is difficult, first of all, because you need to memorize a huge number of hieroglyphs. To more or less read, you need to know at least 3,000. And there are more than 50,000 of them in the language. Tonal system of pronunciation. That is, if you pronounce it without the desired intonation, you may get a completely different meaning. Plus, the hieroglyph does not give an understanding of how the word should be pronounced.

Japanese is a completely confusing language. Firstly, the letter in it differs from pronunciation, secondly, there are three writing systems, and thirdly, you need to learn a huge number of hieroglyphs.

The Hungarian language is considered very difficult. It has 35 cases, many vowels, many suffixes. And his pronunciation is quite difficult.

Estonian has 12 cases and many different exceptions to the rules.

The Polish language is also quite difficult. You need to watch your pronunciation, otherwise you may not be understood.

The Icelandic language has many archaic forms that need to be memorized.

There are still a lot of less common languages, also very difficult to learn, which should be mentioned.



For example, Eskimo (63 forms of the present), Chippewa (the language of the North American Chippewa Indians, the language contains about 6000 verb forms), Haida (the language of the Haida people living in the Northwest of North America, there are 70 prefixes in the language), Tabasaran (one of languages ​​of the inhabitants of Dagestan). These languages ​​entered the Guinness Book of Records for their complexity.



There are other complex languages: Tuyuka (language of the eastern Amazon), Navajo (spoken by bilingual people, there are no published articles on the grammar of this language), Basque (perhaps the oldest language in Europe), Czech, Finnish, Lao, Nepali , Modern Hebrew, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Sinhalese, Thai, Tamil, Turkish, Vietnamese.

The easiest languages ​​in the world

And the simplest are: Danish, Dutch, French, Haitian, Creole, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish. True, this is the data of American researchers. And they most correctly show the ease of learning a particular language for English-speaking students.

By the way, an interesting thing is that English is not at all considered the easiest language in the world. It has a lot of exceptions, a specific pronunciation, etc. There is an opinion that it became international by accident.