Languages

[metal_wrath]

I would go with German. I have been learning German for the some time now.

German is the major official language of more than one great country, and spoken to an extent throughout Europe. It is a great language and great to learn.

Btw, you might want to look into Esperanto.

 

[Vimana]

Esperanto is fail.

 

[metal_wrath]

Do you know anything about Esperanto? You probably think there are not alot of Esperanto speakers, but instead of making this point in your post, you decided to post some dumbass response.

Esperanto is a constructed language, which was created to be shared internationally not by any one country or group.
Esperanto is a real language in every sense, and at the same time is the easiest language to learn. The pronunciation, syntax, grammar is all very easy to grasp and reproduce.

 

[False Joe]

Grasp and reproduce like I did with your mother.

 

[Vimana]

Esperanto is a constructed language, which was created to be shared internationally not by any one country or group.
Esperanto is a real language in every sense, and at the same time is the easiest language to learn. The pronunciation, syntax, grammar is all very easy to grasp and reproduce.

I still have a bias against it because easy doesn't generally mean good in a language.

By the way, yes, I read about it. I still think if we ever make a worldwide constructed language we make one that is easily inflected, very little ambiguity, and with the ability to create more complex tenses with ease and without making everything more complicated.

 

[Space Butler]

Swedish?
Norwegian?

Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish are all mutually intelligible with each other, so if you learned one you could talk to people who knew one of the others. So maybe that is something to think about when deciding.

 

[Billenzimmer]

Alright, just so you have an idea of where I'm coming from; I studied French and German GCSE. Since then I've travelled around a lot, and have picked up Spanish to a level where I can read most of a menu, and can politely ask for a beer (but not much else) in 7 other languages.

Everyone who's said German is easiest (for an English speaker), they're right- gramatically it's one of the closest to English, and is also very consistent in it's grammer, verb conjugation, etc.

If you've studied French and Spanish, Italian should come pretty easily- a lot of the words look the same and the grammer is simliar to ther western European languages, as it has a simliar Latin grounding

The Scandinavian languages are similar to German, and a bit further removed from English, and as someone said, are all very closely related to eachother (for instance Norwegian only became a formal language after they got independance from Denmark in the 19th century).

The various Slavic languages (Polish, Slovacian, Slovenian, Albanian, etc.) are less like English, and are all broadly similar through common ancestry, so learning one can provide a spring board into others.

But, if you want to learn something difficult and completely unrelated to any other language on Earth, try Hungarian, or perhaps Basque. Both are unique.

Hope this helps you out some.

 

[metal_wrath]

I still have a bias against it because easy doesn't generally mean good in a language.

By the way, yes, I read about it. I still think if we ever make a worldwide constructed language we make one that is easily inflected, very little ambiguity, and with the ability to create more complex tenses with ease and without making everything more complicated.

There isn't going to be a language created by the people for the people. There isn't going to be an perfect international language created by any group. Esperanto is very easy to learn & to use but that doesn't make it more ambiguous or complicated imo.

Grasp and reproduce like I did with your mother.

FOAD

 

[Blind Guardian]

But, if you want to learn something difficult and completely unrelated to any other language on Earth, try Hungarian, or perhaps Basque. Both are unique.

Hungarian is pretty close to Finnish and Estonian.

 

[metal_wrath]

Alright, just so you have an idea of where I'm coming from; I studied French and German GCSE. Since then I've travelled around a lot, and have picked up Spanish to a level where I can read most of a menu, and can politely ask for a beer (but not much else) in 7 other languages.

Everyone who's said German is easiest (for an English speaker), they're right- gramatically it's one of the closest to English, and is also very consistent in it's grammer, verb conjugation, etc.

If you've studied French and Spanish, Italian should come pretty easily- a lot of the words look the same and the grammer is simliar to ther western European languages, as it has a simliar Latin grounding

The Scandinavian languages are similar to German, and a bit further removed from English, and as someone said, are all very closely related to eachother (for instance Norwegian only became a formal language after they got independance from Denmark in the 19th century).

The various Slavic languages (Polish, Slovacian, Slovenian, Albanian, etc.) are less like English, and are all broadly similar through common ancestry, so learning one can provide a spring board into others.

But, if you want to learn something difficult and completely unrelated to any other language on Earth, try Hungarian, or perhaps Basque. Both are unique.

Hope this helps you out some.

Actually German grammar can be very difficult for English speakers. There are many differences with English and has more rules to memorize, and actually has alot of irregular verbs.

No language is completely unrelated to any other language on earth. Hungarian is in the same family as Finnish btw.

I was thinking of learning Basque in the future. Also I enjoyed some Basque folk music that I heard.

 

[Vimana]

There are languages that are completely unrelated to other languages. They're called language isolates.

 

[Vimana]

There isn't going to be a language created by the people for the people. There isn't going to be an perfect international language created by any group. Esperanto is very easy to learn & to use but that doesn't make it more ambiguous or complicated imo.

Easy to learn doesn't mean ambiguous, but it doesn't mean more precise than any of the current modern languages. Hell, no modern Indo-Europeans (and not even any ancient ones, including Proto-Indo-European) have multiple pronouns for "we" based on the combinations of you, you all, he/she/it, and they being included in it.

I think Esperanto is stupid because it's all based on easiness and universality and not on having more linguistic precision than any modern Indo-European language.

 

[XSASweet]

Actually German grammar can be very difficult for English speakers. There are many differences with English and has more rules to memorize, and actually has alot of irregular verbs.

unlike english, though, the rules aren't broken

 

[The Ozzman]

I didn't even know Esperanto was a language until today

 

[Vimana]

Fuck English. We should all speak some combination of Sanskrit, Navajo, and Cherokee.

 

[Vimana]

Navajo looks like a complete mindfuck to learn.

 

[Blind Guardian]

I'm curious as to why Japanese sounds so significantly different to other Asian languages. At least it does to me.

 

[Vimana]

Japanese isn't tonal. Lots of languages in that region are tonal.

 

[metal_wrath]

Easy to learn doesn't mean ambiguous, but it doesn't mean more precise than any of the current modern languages. Hell, no modern Indo-Europeans (and not even any ancient ones, including Proto-Indo-European) have multiple pronouns for "we" based on the combinations of you, you all, he/she/it, and they being included in it.

I think Esperanto is stupid because it's all based on easiness and universality and not on having more linguistic precision than any modern Indo-European language.

What do you mean by multiple pronouns for we?

Esperanto is able to be communicated without strict grammar rules and understood without difficulty making it more practical, it is completely phonetic and uses the most efficient alphabet imo, also Esperanto has a system for creating new words that can be understood easily.

 

[Vimana]

Some Native American languages have different words that would all translate to "we" in English.

They have a word for I + you, another for I + someone else (not you), I + someone else + you etc.