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maderrWent to a panel this morning on language in fantasy/sci-fi stories. It sort of wandered. I never got to ask how they come up with curse words, but I don't know if they would have been amuzed, anyway.
But! They did mention an interesting study that was done x number of years ago. I'm sure the linguists on my flist have heard of it. I had not.
A group studied languages, I guess, and decided that if someone from totally outside came in and had to learn a language, the three hardest on the planet would be Russian, Chinese, and English.
Russian for the grammar, Chinese for the complexity of the written language, and English for the number of exceptions.
The only one which surprised me was the Russian, but my pov is perhaps distorted--Sammikins never seemed to have trouble with it, and quite loves it, or so was always my impression. Me, I suck at foreign languages. I am in constant awe of those who can speak more than one.
But, thoughts? What do you think would be the hardest language to learn, if you knew none of them?
But! They did mention an interesting study that was done x number of years ago. I'm sure the linguists on my flist have heard of it. I had not.
A group studied languages, I guess, and decided that if someone from totally outside came in and had to learn a language, the three hardest on the planet would be Russian, Chinese, and English.
Russian for the grammar, Chinese for the complexity of the written language, and English for the number of exceptions.
The only one which surprised me was the Russian, but my pov is perhaps distorted--Sammikins never seemed to have trouble with it, and quite loves it, or so was always my impression. Me, I suck at foreign languages. I am in constant awe of those who can speak more than one.
But, thoughts? What do you think would be the hardest language to learn, if you knew none of them?
