What is the most difficult language in the world?

Thai - it has 47 consonants and they don't pronounce any of them! When spoken by natives, it typically sounds like deaf mutes cussing each other out. Like Chinese, it's a tonal language, but due to their inability to articulate consonants clearly (and often not at all), there are about 360 different words that sound more or less like "kai", and as many that sound like "cow".

It's easier to read than hear, but only for simple mundane topics. Almost all multi-syllabic words are just combinations of little squatty words - e.g. "slippers" are "long-tao-sai-nai-bahn" which litterally means "put on foot inside house". When talking of any complex or sophisticated subject (politics, art, religion, science, history, math, economics, etc.) the vocabulary is entirely inadequate but that doesn't stop them from trying by running all sorts of squatty little words together and just assuming that you get the gist. Fact is, not even Thais can understand what other Thais write on these subjects. Oh, and there's no pucntuation and no spaces between the words.

Japanese is only difficult because nobody says what they mean. As for Chinese, even the Chinese have difficulty with Thai, and I learned more Chinese in 6 months in Shang Hai than I've learned Thai in 4 years in Bangkok ... and I have a Thai wife!

Jibberish. Try understanding that if you're not in the same mental state as the person sputtering it out.

All languages are easy for those born into them. It would be insane to develop sounds in a language that are not easily produced. But some languages are more difficult to learn after learning English or whatever your first language was. Japanese have a hard time distinguishing between the l's and r's in English not because of some genetic fault, but because their language doesn't distinguish between them. English speakers have trouble with the tonality of Chinese, the rolled R's of Spanish, the click consonants of Xhosa for example.

Reseachers just found out that the language from Greenland is the most diffcult language to learn. Because of their expression, and pronouncement, and how they put the words together. ;)

probably mine, cos no one seems to understand what i'm saying,nobody listens anyway:)

Depends on how extensively you want to learn to speak it... Fluently, I would imagine Sanskrit is up there with Myan, right along with some of the Native American languages because there are so few people left that speak them fluently?

Navajo is "The" Southern Athabaskan Language. That means you start with Eskimos who have many words for Ice and no Words for Hello, then you drop them somewhere with no Ice and lots of enemies and see what happens. They have lots of repeating vowels and unique long vowels that no one else has, but very few consonants. They have syllables that alternate and change the meaning of words depending on what order you use them in. They use many nouns for verbs and have lots of verbs that no one else has. If you want to write any of this down, you will have to figure out a way to represent it in your own alphabet, because they don’t have one. No one has ever learned Navajo fluently as an adult.

The African clicking language. Clicking is so foreign to most people on the planet, that it is hard to make the shift and start clicking to communicate. Also, how do you spell these clicked words? Problems problems everywhere.

According to British diplomats it's Hungarian and Japanese.
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We are often asked what is the most difficult language to learn, and it is a difficult question to answer because there are a lot of things to take into consideration. Firstly, as a first language, or mother tongue, the differences are unimportant, so the question of how hard a language is to learn only arises in the area of second language acquisition.

A native speaker of Spanish will find Portuguese much easier to learn than a native speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, while Chinese is very different, so first language is an important factor. the more different a language is from our mother tongue, the harder it will be to learn. Many people answer that Chinese is the hardest language to learn, possibly influenced by the thought of learning Chinese characters, and the pronunciation of Chinese does appear to be very difficult for foreign learners. However, for Japanese speakers, who already use Chinese characters in their own language, the writing will be less of a challenge than it will for people from languages using the Roman alphabet.

Some people can learn languages naturally and easily without much effort, while others find it very difficult, so natural aptitude for language learning is another factor. Teachers and the circumstances in which we learn also play an important role, as well as the motivation for learning. If people learn a language they need to use, they often learn it faster than people studying a language that has no direct use in the lives.

There is no single answer to this question; it depends on so many factors. However, the British Foreign Office has looked at the languages that diplomats and other embassy staff have to learn and has worked out which they find the most difficult to learn. The second hardest is Japanese, which probably comes as no surprise to many, but the language that they have found to be the most difficult to learn is Hungarian, which has 35 cases (forms of a nouns accoring to whether it is subject, object, genetive, etc). This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for everybody, but it causes British diplomatic staff, who are used to learning languages, the most difficulty. However, Tabassaran, a Caucasian language has 48 cases, so it would probably cause more difficulty if British diplomats had to learn it.

Different cultures and individuals from those cultures will find different languages more difficult. In the case of Hungarian for British learners, it is not a question of the writing system, which is alphabetic, but the grammatical complexity, though native speakers of related languages may find it easier, while struggling with languages that we find relatively easy. No language is easy to learn well, though languages which are related to our first language will be easier. Learning a completely different writing system is a huge challenge, but that does not necessarily make a language more difficult that another. In the end, it is impossible to say that there is one language that is the most difficult language in the world.

http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/hardest-language.php

I saw a documentary once which stated that Chinese was the most difficult to learn and after that Dutch.

Something that must be considered when ranking languages in difficulty is that there are many different aspects that build up a language; we must consider pronunciation, inflection, and conjugation.

For example, Norwegian has a very simple conjugation system which is very easy for foreigners, but pronunciation is often an issue to those learning Norwegian.

Latin, on the other hand, has very simple and logical pronunciation, and very complicated grammar.

So, there are a few ways in which we can choose our most difficult language; we can either choose two languages, one for pronunciation difficulty, and one for grammar difficulty, or we can choose one that has on average, the most difficult mix of both.

In my experience, the most difficult languages to pronounce are either Celtic based languages (such as Welsh and Manx) or Bantu and Khoisan languages, which are known for their various clicking sounds.

The most difficult language to learn in grammatical terms is undoubtedly (in my opinion) Yanyuwa, which is most known for having 16 gender classifications, but relatively simple pronunciation.

Now that I've made that point clear, if I were to choose the most difficult language in the world based on both of these aspects, I would have to choose Icelandic. Although neither the pronunciation nor the grammar system of Icelandic are as difficult to learn as either of the above languages, the combination of difficulty in Icelandic is the reason for which I've chosen it as the most difficult language.

I think
1. Chinese has more than 3000 character
(Japanese + Korean)
2. Arabic

in term of written, spoken.. I find it's very difficult!

#1 Chinese because of the way the language is structured.
#2 English because it changes year by year.m (so many dang coloquialisms)

That depends on what your native language is! Spanish is easier for English Speakers than a Chinaman.

I wonder too. Unfortunatelly I can't find enything about it i the internet. I'm afraid there is no official list of the most difficult languages in the world.

The only thing I can say for sure is Danish is a really hard language for Poles (I'm a Pole that lives in Denmark) and vice versa. I know a few Danes who learn Polish and think the same about Polish language. So... for me ... Polish and Danish :)

But... of course... I'm still looking for the right answer. Hope to find it soon

Learn how to speak and write arabic
because arabic is the second most difficult language to lear. It has a alphabet where no other language has, and this alphabet cannot be pronounced unless his mother tongue is arabic. Ths Most difficult language is chinese it depends on the person tone if he or she get its wrong they change the whole meaning.

For me I would say Japanese langauge is the most difficult language in the world. The Japanese grammar is very difficult to understand. The language itself combined Chinese (Kanji), English (Katakana) and Japanese (real Japanese) together.

Well, it depends - the most difficult Language in the world to learn as an adult - supposedly - is Basque, because it is an isolated language, IE, completely unrelated to any other language on earth.

japanise because of all there symbols (no affence but the letters look the same)

to the person who said Swahili has clicks. This is absolutly utter rubbish. I grew up in Kenya where Swahili is spoken. I lived there for 23 years and speak it myself. Please, please don't make yourself a fool all over the world and talk about things you do not know. I now live in South Africa where I am learning Xhosa now that is a click language!

Klingon.

the third hardest language is Slovenian. you can find it in the internet and you will see why..

hey people try slovakian language. officialy most difficult language in the world..

Womanese.

the most difficult language is the Navajo of the native american tribe of the same name. Members of the tribe were used in world war two as link to communications because of that.

trust me Georgian is really hard ( a small country near turkey and Russia) I am Georgian and it's hard even for me

Ashiiké tʼóó diigis léiʼ tółikaní łaʼ ádiilnííł dóó nihaa nahidoonih níigo yee hodeezʼą́ jiní. Áko tʼáá ałʼąą chʼil naʼatłʼoʼii kʼiidiilá dóó hááhgóóshį́į́ yinaalnishgo tʼáá áłah chʼil naʼatłʼoʼii néineestʼą́ jiní. Áádóó tółikaní áyiilaago tʼáá bíhígíí tʼáá ałʼąą tłʼízíkágí yiiʼ haidééłbįįd jiní. "Háadida díí tółikaní yígíí doo łaʼ ahaʼdiidził da," níigo ahaʼdeetʼą́ jiníʼ. Áádóó baa nahidoonih biniiyé kintahgóó dah yidiiłjid jiníʼ.

Malayalam is the most difficult language to learn and understand,my mother tongue is malayalam even I couldn't understand it completely, If you talk to person who talks Malayalam You will think that he is Mad.

i saw than its slovak second its hungary
i dont know why.... it was on http://www.viry.cz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=49700
sorry, my english is terryble
ďakujem - thanks

The false language of "speaking in tongues".

Well most people would agree that Japanese is the most difficult, for several reasons.
1.Japanese is different written than spoken, so you cant learn to speak the language by reading it.
2.You have to memorise the Kanji system which has over 15,000 individual characters with no mnemomics to help.
3.You have to learn the two syllabary systems, katakana and hiragana.
4.japanese syntax is left branching.

Personally for me its Turkish as they can say a whole sentence with one word. And welsh due to lack of vowels

whick languach is the most difficult???

the third difficult language is slovenian. try it and you will see.

all those languages which i don't know
i used to think like that before earning 13 languages
:)

I've heard it said that portuguese is the hardest to speak, but I've also heard that english is the hardest to learn.

I'd say all languages.
especially English.

Why do I say this? well it seems people these days make up there own words anyway, especially teenagers.


Fersure, fo sho, WAZZUP?, get at meh!, no waiz!, oh mah gawd!, gawsh, are you cereal?


and so on. :D
we have so much slang that even we don't understand what ourselves are saying half the time.

I think to speak Japanese or Chinese
To write Hebrew or Arabic.

Russian and japanese. Japanese for all of the above things. Russian for being very hard to pronounce, 33 letters, and extremely hard grammer. NOUNS CHANGE IN RUSSIAN and there are 3 genders

When a Child could learn a language from its mother,no Language is difficult in the world. If one has the interest, with proper guidance and effort can learn any Language.

Turkish is the most difficult language ever! In English you say
"You are one of those people whom we tried - unsuccessfully - to make resemble the citizens of England".
But in Turkish you say
" İngilizleştiremediklerimizdensiniz." !!??
Just 1 word but they have the same meaning.
İngiliz-leştir-eme-dik-lerimiz-den-siniz
İngiliz = English -leştir = to make -eme = can't -dik = turns into past tense
-lerimiz = people whom -den = one of -siniz = you are

And Japanaese and Turkish grammer are so similiar but Turkish grammer is more difficult. In japanese you don't change words. "wo" is always "wo" but in Turkish "i" is sometimes "ı" sometimes "u" sometimes "ü" . ( "wo" and "ı" have the same meaning ). In japananese they use "de" and we also use "de" in the meaning of "at,on,in" but in Japanaese "de" is always "de" but in Turkish "de" is sometimes "te", sometimes "da", sometimes "ta".In japanese they use "e" we also use "e" in the meaning of "to" .But in japanese it is always "e", in Turkish it is "e" sometimes "a" . There are tons of words that changes in Turkish.