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Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
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Hi, mates. I'm curious about languages, especially in their fonetics, grammar and vocabulary. I'm a native Spaniard who know English and French, though I can't call myself fluent. I know also few basic words of Dutch and German, so I hope to improve my own Dutch and German skills as soon as possible.
Thus, by the way I'm Spaniard I find myself some Latin languages easy to read, like Catalan, Galician and Occitan, and in a lesser extent, Portuguese and Italian. I've never learnt those other Latin languages, but I just find them easy because of mutual intelligibility with my native language.
So, I was wondering what you mates think is the easiest European language to master in terms of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.
Let me start the conversation as follows, as this way everyone will be fairly represented. All you want to do is copy your right list and then show us your own answers:
* About Latin languages:
- Easiest Latin language to learn in terms of pronunciation by Germanic speakers.
- Easiest Latin language to learn in terms of grammar by Germanic speakers.
- Easiest Latin lenguage to learn in terms of vocabulary by Germanic speakers.
- Easiest Latin language to learn in terms of pronunciation by Slavic speakers.
- Easiest Latin language to learn in terms of grammar by Slavic speakers.
- Easiest Latin language to learn in terms of vocabulary by Slavic speakers.
- Easiest Latin language to learn in terms of pronunciation by non Indo-European speakers from Europe.
- Easiest Latin language to learn in terms of grammar by non Indo-European speakers from Europe.
- Easiest Latin lenguage to learn in terms of vocabulary by non Indo-European speakers from Europe.
* About Germanic languages:
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of pronunciation by Latin speakers.
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of grammar by Latin speakers.
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of vocabulary by Latin speakers.
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of pronunciation by Slavic speakers.
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of grammar by Slavic speakers.
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of vocabulary by Slavic speakers.
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of pronunciation by non Indo-European speakers from Europe.
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of grammar by non Indo-European speakers from Europe.
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of vocabulary by non Indo-European speakers from Europe.
* About Slavic languages:
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of pronunciation by Latin speakers.
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of grammar by Latin speakers.
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of vocabulary by Latin speakers.
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of pronunciation by Germanic speakers.
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of grammar by Germanic speakers.
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of vocabulary by Germanic speakers.
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of pronunciation by non Indo-European speakers from Europe.
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of grammar by non Indo-European speakers from Europe.
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of vocabulary by non Indo-European speakers from Europe.
* About those few non Indo-European languages that are spoken by some native Europeans:
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of pronunciation by Latin speakers.
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of grammar by Latin speakers.
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of vocabulary by Latin speakers.
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of pronunciation by Germanic speakers.
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of grammar by Germanic speakers.
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of vocabulary by Germanic speakers.
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of pronunciation by Slavic speakers.
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of grammar by Slavic speakers.
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of vocabulary by Slavic speakers.
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
3,094 posts, read 3,577,431 times
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Here are my answers as a native from Spain:
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of pronunciation: Dutch.
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of grammar: English
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of vocabulary: English.
I don't know so much about Slavic ones, but I think those Slavic languages from southeastern Europe are way easier than, say Polish, Czech or Baltic ones:
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of pronunciation: Croatian.
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of grammar: Slovenian.
- Easiest Slavic language to learn in terms of vocabulary: Slovenian.
About non Indo-European ones:
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of pronunciation: Basque
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of grammar: I don't know.
- Easiest non Indo-European language to learn in terms of vocabulary: Basque.
Last edited by overdrive1979; 07-26-2015 at 10:00 AM..
I don't know so much about Slavic ones, but I think those Slavic languages from southeastern Europe are way easier than, say Polish, Czech or Baltic ones:
Why? Only Southern slavic languages have retained archaic past tenses, Western and Eastern Slavic languages have only one past tense. On the other side, Bulgarian and Macedonian are the only Slavic languages which don't have cases, but you haven't mentioned them.
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of pronunciation: Dutch.
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of grammar: English
- Easiest Germanic language to learn in terms of vocabulary: English.
...
Dutch is easier to pronounce for a Spanish guy than let's say German?
Interesting as I had always trouble with the Dutch pronunciation.
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
3,094 posts, read 3,577,431 times
Reputation: 1036
Quote:
Originally Posted by alphatier
Dutch is easier to pronounce for a Spanish guy than let's say German?
Interesting as I had always trouble with the Dutch pronunciation.
Both Dutch and German are really easier than English in terms of pronunciation to me, but Dutch is slightly easier than German because the way Dutch people sometimes pronounce the "r" and "g" sound seem a lot to the Spanish "r" sound and "g" and "j" sound, respectively.
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
3,094 posts, read 3,577,431 times
Reputation: 1036
Quote:
Originally Posted by Max96
Why? Only Southern slavic languages have retained archaic past tenses, Western and Eastern Slavic languages have only one past tense. On the other side, Bulgarian and Macedonian are the only Slavic languages which don't have cases, but you haven't mentioned them.
We have two past senses, just preterite and imperfect, so maybe such things come into play to me, but anyway, I don't knos so much about overall Slavic languages.
We have two past senses, just preterite and imperfect, so maybe such things come into play to me, but anyway, I don't knos so much about overall Slavic languages.
More tenses anyway means that you have to memorize more forms. And doesn't Spanish also have perfect and plusquamperfect?
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
3,094 posts, read 3,577,431 times
Reputation: 1036
Quote:
Originally Posted by Max96
More tenses anyway means that you have to memorize more forms. And doesn't Spanish also have perfect and plusquamperfect?
Yes, we have. That's why Spanish is rather difficult to learn in terms of verbs conjugations. However, Spanish pronunciation makes our language pretty easy for most foreigners.
- Easiest Latin language to learn in terms of pronunciation by Slavic speakers.
- Easiest Latin language to learn in terms of grammar by Slavic speakers.
- Easiest Latin language to learn in terms of vocabulary by Slavic speakers.
From the point of view of a speaker of specifically Russian language (since all Slavic languages are phonetically somewhat different,) I can tell you that phonetically Spanish and Italian are a blast with their rolling "R"s ( plus add those Spanish "J"s ( as in "Jose".) Very easy. So I'd say Italian and Spanish are a tie when it comes to phonetics. ( By the way both Spanish speakers and Italian speakers master Russian phonetics easily as well. Grammar-wise, it's probably a tie for Russian speakers as well.
French phonetics are quite special; I don't know who find them "agreeable" - may be Germans or Dutch folks?
Now Germanic languages - that's a different issue for Russian speakers all together ( since Germanic languages vary greatly.)
In English Russians usually have the most hickish accent ever ( if you ask me,) ditto for struggling with grammar as well, since the logic behind the structure of English language is quite the opposite to the logic behind Russian language. (One has tendency to cluster, the other one has tendency to specify each and every detail just for starters.)
I think Russians are more successful in German and Scandinavian languages, because phonetically they are quite different from English and grammar-wise they are already closer to their own language in logic.
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