I hate languages with a passion.

[Axe Shredder]

Okay so, I'm hoping to learn another (Or two) new languages, mostly because of a bet with various family members but anyway.

Stupid languages I can't find any stuff about them, anyone in the UK that speaks them and the only people I know who speak them won't teach me because the bet is I can't learn them and this helps them win.

So now I just need to find some Sami people who speak the correct Sami language.

So I look on wiki now and there's ~500 speakers in the world.

I hate languages.....

So, talk languages....... now!

[chaoticag]

A lot of people complain about the Arabic language as being too gramatically complicated, in fact, its increadibly structured to the point that there are spelling rules on which type of "A" to use despite sounding the same both ways. That is not where I would complain most about. The most annoying thing about it all is typing in the language. I once spent hours trying to type up 100 words (keep in mind that most Arabic words are smaller than English, especially if you ignore accents.)

Another annoying thing about it is that sometimes a word that means two things that is distigushed by changes in accent is left unaccented in text. This can be incredibly embarrising when it turns out that the old-arabic word for blade (also white) means testicals if said slightly differently. (That was from part of a poem where a guy was talking about the times he was hit repetedly by blades, so my tutor burst into laughter before explaining what it meant).

[juneloveslotr]

Japanese is fairly easy if you can get over have no resemblance to your home language. The spelling is really easy, but you have to learn two alphabets and Kanji which is a character based form of writing and you can use all three in one sentence. But an least it follows it's rules, unlike English. I hate English, but I'm glad it was my first language. It would be even harder as a second language.

[Pieman]

Learn pig Latin.

[Drakey]

Another annoying thing about it is that sometimes a word that means two things that is distigushed by changes in accent is left unaccented in text. This can be incredibly embarrising when it turns out that the old-arabic word for blade (also white) means testicals if said slightly differently. (That was from part of a poem where a guy was talking about the times he was hit repetedly by blades, so my tutor burst into laughter before explaining what it meant).

Best.
Story.
Ever.

[Poltaap]

I heard that swedish is one of the hardest languages to lurn, probalby because we got 3 exta letters (Å, Ä, Ö) and alot of words that got similar spelling. (ex: there is only one letters diferent between congratulation and free.)

[Orangey]

Eh, spanish has four extra letters (ñ, ch, ll, rr), and it's a pretty easy language. Except the subjunctive tense.


DAMN YOU SUBJUNCTIVE TENSE!

[Torg]

But the number of "extra" letters shouldn't matter anyway, since it assumes a single letter system from which all other systems are made. This is false. Asian languages share no letters with the European ones. Chinese, if I understand correctly, has thousands of symbols that aren't really based on any rules, so by that logic Chinese is almost literally impossible to learn. Yet it is clearly easier to learn than the subjunctive tense in Spanish.

[Orangey]

That was rather my point, Grotty One. Proof by selected example if you will.

Besides, there's not much of a metric to measure a language's relative difficulty.

[juneloveslotr]

Yes there is, isn't called the "Shakespeare,"  and American English is rated at 15 Shakespeares. Funny enough, Shakespearean English is rated at 13.

[the Scarf]

Grammar structure and extra letters aren't what I don't like about languages. What I don't like is that learning them requires learning an entirely new vocabulary. I have enough trouble remembering simple english words, and I like using awesome words instead of regular ones.
We didn't get a flash card for 'canyon,' 'cliff,' or 'hang gliding.' It made talking about my imaginary place quite difficult.

[Axe Shredder]

Norwegian has 3: Æ    Ø    Å

The language I'm trying to learn (Southern Sami)  has the alphabet of:

A/a, B/b, D/d, E/e, F/f, G/g, H/h, I/i, (Ï/ï), J/j, K/k, L/l, M/m, N/n, O/o, P/p, R/r, S/s, T/t, U/u, V/v, Y/y, Æ/æ, Ø/ø, Å/å

But the real problem is finding speakers to teach me.

But it is unlike other languages I speak so....

[the Scarf]

We're singing a song in norwegian. I would do all the fancy letters but I don't have enough time/I'm lazy.

[Pieman]

Æ/æ

This is used in English, although probably only for the word "Encyclopædia".

[Axe Shredder]

Encyclopædia and Encyclopaedia are interchangeable I believe.

But the latter I more common.

[Torg]

æ in general has been phased out recently in favor of either ae or a simple e. For example, it's encyclopedia here. See also: æon, æther, pædophile, præmium, primæval*. Dæmon is debatable, as by some definitions dæmon and demon refer to two distinct things, but that's mostly in fantasy so it doesn't count.



*Wikipedia has a list of many more obscure ones, some of which have just had the Siamese vowels separated, but I felt that pædophile in particular should be noted.

[Orangey]

The language I'm trying to learn (Southern Sami)  has the alphabet of:

A/a, B/b, D/d, E/e, F/f, G/g, H/h, I/i, (Ï/ï), J/j, K/k, L/l, M/m, N/n, O/o, P/p, R/r, S/s, T/t, U/u, V/v, Y/y, Æ/æ, Ø/ø, Å/å

There is no w. There is no x. My brain is broken.

[Torg]

Why?

[Orangey]

Most languages with that basic alphabet have said letters. Also, saying "my brain is broken" is moderately more amusing than "I find that odd".

[Pieman]

Letters that we could do without:  C, X, Q and any dropped letter.

[Poltaap]

the only time we use W and Q here in sweden is in peoples last name instead of a V  or K (Lindkvist= Lindqist, Vilhelmsson=Wilhelmson)

[Axe Shredder]

Letters that we could do without:  C, X, Q and any dropped letter.

They're all not in that alphabet!

Yay!

[juneloveslotr]

Letters that we could do without:  C, X, Q and any dropped letter.

Q with "u" in English does have a unique sound in words like "Quilt," but I definitely agree that C and X and useless. X is the combination of the "s" and "k" sounds and C is either an "s" of "k" sound depending on the word. Though it would be hard to have the "ch" without C. X is still useless, and overrated on top of that. Portland OR is abbreviated PDX because there's already a Portland MN. Why they chose to put an X on it, I have not the slightest. "Keep Portland Weird" as they say.

[Pieman]

Q with "u" in English does have a unique sound in words like "Quilt,"

Kwilt.

[chaoticag]

Heh, the Arabic language has almost no vowels. Accents are used extensively, and everything is spelt phonetically except the rules on both "A"s and spelling transformations. None of the 28 letters sound alike... I think, (really tired right now). Also, the entire thing is read from right to left which seems to drive people mad just thinking about it for some reason.

[juneloveslotr]

Right to left doesn't seen that hard, but I'm dyslexic, getting things backwards comes naturally to me.

Kwilt.

Pieman: 
"kw" isn't exactly obvious, and I was half a sleep at the time, so 

[Pieman]

Right to left doesn't seen that hard, but I'm dyslexic, getting things backwards comes naturally to me.

Being a southpaw, the same applies to me.

[lap_otter]

Letters that we could do without:  C, X, Q and any dropped letter.

I think we need C. I think we need to define C as being pronounced "ch"--therefore Spanish could get rid of "ch" as a letter--and never pronounce it K or S.

Techinically Q a X aren't necessary. But I like them.

Also, the entire thing is read from right to left which seems to drive people mad just thinking about it for some reason.

Japanese is read from the top-down first, then from the right to the left. So in collumns, and you start with the furthest-right collumn. I think I could do Arabic if I had any room left in my head for more alphabets. It might take a while to get used to writing that way, on second thought...

The thing I like about Japanese is that, while one must learn two different phonetic alphabets, once you do learn them you can tell something about what you're reading by what alphabet it's in. For example, if you see an unfamiliar word in hiragana, you would go to your dictionary and look it up. If you see an unfamiliar word in katakana, you would say it out loud, dropping various vowels, until it starts to sound like an English word or until you give up. Also Japanese is way prettier than Spanish, especially when comparing the written forms.

HAY LOOK AN INTERESTING BOARD I FOUND ONE I FOUND ONE YATTAAA

[juneloveslotr]

Your link didn't work if that was what you were after.

C is pronounced as "ch" in Italian, maybe it will spread.

[Poltaap]

you should all learn Swedish. why? because I say so