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No, I don't know what it is. My own linguistic experience is limited to English (kinda), German, Dutch, and bit of Russian. (I also know enough Spanish to say "Have you taught your fish to dance?" I tried this once on an Avensa stewardess, one of two Venezuelan airlines a number of years ago. She looked dazed as a result.) I'm just curious what your opinions are, based on your own experiences. I'm inclined to say Spanish and Italian *appear* very easy, but appearances can be deceptive. English has very simple rules, but it has so many exceptions that it often throws new speakers.

I think learning to write Japanese must be one of the hardest things to do, because that tradition-respecting nation has two separate alphabets, both afflicted with a near endless series (read: thousands) of ideograms. Accepted linguistic theory suggests that the written languages ceased development at any unusually early stage. By contrast, most Mesapotamian basin languages (including various versions of Arabic, Hebrew, Minoan, Babylonian, etc) advanced to the next stage, producing combined consonant-vowel images; while Romance and proto-German languages went the final step, giving each vowel and consonant its own representation.

So much for boring you.

Now: which language is the easiest, in your opinion?

Tough question there, fable...

...I would be inclined to say Spanish (biased) but I heard that spoken Japanese is easier.

Many english persons don't need the urge to learn other languages,
as they already know the most useful.
I think it's even the easiest language to learn.
Probably it takes a life to MASTER it, but the grammar at least, compared
to others, it's quite simple.

The opposite for italian, grammar is the real problem
for foreign people here, they don't even know how to start.
To tell you the truth, this applies for many italians too...
(A verbal form may appear in hundreds of different ways for instance)
Also they told me that chinese is relly rocky to learn and to
understand.
I studied a bit German, and again I found grammar very difficult.

SMy bet is definetevely english, maybe it's even easier to access
it 'cause it's everywhere, but it's a blessing for foreign people
to study a language with essential grammar and A FEW irregular
forms..
I studied ancient Greek at school, it was the exact opposite

Easiest? Well now it would have to be english, just because it is the only truely global language. Simply to many people know/need/use it for it not to be the easiest.

But structure wise, I think Spanish would probably be easiest.

I am fluent (if not a good speller ) in English (mother language), Hebrew, and know a sizable amount of French, Arabic and Russian. Plus a lot of individual Latin lines, but nowhere near enough to form a gramaricaly correct paragraph. (Please do not point out the lack of structure in my posts )

Latin.

As far as modern languages go, I only do French, so I couldn't say . However, I would have to strongly disagree with 'the grammar at least, compared to others, it's quite simple.' I don't know what I'd do if I had to start learning English again...

P.S - Do you think the world would be a better place if we had a standard, international language?

However, I would have to strongly disagree with 'the grammar at least, compared to others, it's quite simple.' I don't know what I'd do if I had to start learning English again...

An example?
The verb "to can".
You may find "can" or "could", am I wrong?
The equivalent in italian is "potere".
Depending on the time, the subject of the phrase, and more
subtle meanings you may find those forms in my language:
(EXCLUDING ALL THE COMPOSITE FORMS, which double complexity)

Posso
Puoi
Può
Possiamo
Potete
Possono

Potevo
Potevi
Poteva
Potevamo
Potevate
Potevano

Potei
Potesti
Potè
Potemmo
Poteste
Poterono

Potrò
Potrai
Potrà
Potremo
Potrete
Potranno

Potrei
Potresti
Potrebbe
Potremmo
Potreste
Potrebbero

Possa
Possa
Possa
Possiamo
Possiate
Possano

Potessi
Potessi
Potesse
Potessimo
Poteste
Potessero

Potendo
Potuto
Potente
Potere

And each verbal form has its own story, and this is not
the hardest or the most irregular case.
I've NEVER, EVER seen a stranger handling our verbal forms correctly,
even the most well-speaking!!
No wonder, it's hard, you have to start as a child.
I studied German also, but found English FAR easier.

I don't want to sound nitpicky, but there's no verb 'to can'...what you mean is the verb 'to be able to'... Anyway, point taken...and I have never tried to learn English anyway, so I am probably in no position to argue.

Thanks Littiz - you've given me a great insight into how Latin has morphed into Italian - for example, those first six have come from:

possum
potes
potest
possumus
potestis
possunt

Looking through, it seems to be the 3rd person plural that has changed the most. Do you think you could post up sometime the present of the verb "to be" in Italian? I'm curious, but equally lazy

well since i can only speak/write finnish and english fluently and somewhat clumsy with swedish, i'd say english is easiest, just because i watched all those great beginning of the 90's american series (michael knight, macgyver and so on) i've always been in top two students in english classes... somehow it always makes sense, i know if something is wrong in a sentence or if something is right, but i usually don't know the exact reason why it is so...

swedish, on the other hand, they say things exactly the opposite way finnish/english does so i've always sucked in it... i don't have the slightest idea about the order of the words and so on and so forth, and i mix up words sometimes with not so pleasant consequenses(some prolly remember the incident in the world cup 2002 thread...) that was once again a reminder not to write in language you don't know what you wrote exactly...

BAH! English has got to be one of the hardest languages I've ever learned. Not being a native latin-based speaker (means i don't speak english, german, italian, etc as my first language) the latin absed words are very hard to master, alongm with constantly changing slang and the such. I speak chinese as my first language and the oriental languages come very easily to me (jap, korean). English is hard, I used to be confused whenever someone said its rainign cats adn dogs, and i woudld run out in hopes of a free dog... However I've spent years speaking adn learning English, so now its become easier, I've beocme pretty fluent I think, even getting into my school's honors english classes.

English is deceptive. Its rules are simple, but it has so many exceptions to those rules that it's easy to sound like an idiot in the language by just following said rules. With German, you just slot the proper tense in the appropriately scrambled place, and you've got yourself a first rate sentence.

Ehhe, you're right, "to be able to..."
Frogus, I think you DID learn english, you're speaking it!!!
...
OF course each language has its own problems, I meant that English
may offer an easier approach at the beginning 'cause you don't
get confused by a bunch of rules.
But as I said, to MASTER it is another thing.
I really love english for the things Fable said (though I'm one
of those who appear idiot).
Mainly because English is musical, somewhat free, very expressive.
The ideal language for songs, IMHO.

@Kamaleon: latin is terribly different from italian, though the
words are similar. Surprisingly, italian grammar and structure
is far closer to ancient Greek..
Here is the present for "essere" :

(Io) sono
(Tu) sei
(Egli/Ella/Lui/Lei/Esso) è
(Noi) Siamo
(Voi) Siete
(Essi/Loro) Sono

I can only compare german (native) , english (learned it at school for 10 years) and french ( at school - 3 years, and I don't like it..) .

I'd say englidh is the easiest one to learn - at least you're able to understand it quite quickly. To really master a language takes ages. I've been reading mostly in english for 15 years now and I STILL don't think I've "mastered" it all...

German has a LOT of unnecessary rules & exceptions and some disturbing rules for orthography (sp ?) .

French - weeeell ..... in MY opinion you might be able to learn french enought to understand it and speak it, but you will FOREVER have an accent - if you have the normal vocal equipment of the homo sapiens sapiens, that is... I could never get the hang of their speech...

As to other languages I "touchèd" ...

Spanish - I 've only picked it up in my holidays in the carribean - and I nowadays just know how to say "Hello" , "See you later" and " 2 beers please " .... but I think with a background in any latin-based language you should be able to pick up the necessities quite quickly (I was doing well then - I just forgot most of the vocabulary after 2 or 3 years of not using them...) .

and since my father was born in the vincinity of Belgrade I know some (mostly swear-) words in serbo-croatian (sp?) too - again - if you know ANY slavic language it's not THAT complicated....


As resume you could say that ANY language is easy if you have experience with "related" languages....

So, no worries, and "Keep Talking" ( [c] Pink Floyd)

Beldin

Regarding Spanish.... I think the ease with which you learn it depends on if you are considering the written or spoken form.

Much of the time it sounds the way it is written....which certainly helps. However....the grammar can actually be quite complex, moreso than French grammer I would argue..... For example, the letters in verb endings can reverse their position in various tenses, which is challenging to remember....

I think Latin is the easiest (6 years of it in high school)--very few irregular verbs (only 5 that I can think of)--compare that to Spanish or French!!! I would vote for Latin to resume it's place as the international language. The only thing a little hard to get used to is the ablative absolute. A very organized language, sort of like the Romans themselves.

I speak Spanish, and it was not too hard to learn, though I doubt my grammar is that great, since I learned it from speaking with people and not in school. I like it, it's so much more emotive than English.

I learned French in school for 5 years and can barely speak it. I think it's really tough, because they have a lot of silent letters, and words tend to elide together sounding like one word instead of too--so much the opposite of Spanish. When you hear people speaking in French quickly, I defy you to be able to differentiate between Ils ont and Ils sont.

Arabic is really difficult for those brought up on latin/germanic languages. As I recall from my one year of it in college, around 9 conjugations instead of the usual 6 for verbs, and sometimes the verb would be left out of some sentences with only a subject and object and the action would be implied.

I don't speak Portuguese but it wins my award for most beautiful sounding language.

Originally posted by VoodooDali
I think Latin is the easiest (6 years of it in high school)--very few irregular verbs (only 5 that I can think of)--compare that to Spanish or French!!! I would vote for Latin to resume it's place as the international language. The only thing a little hard to get used to is the ablative absolute. A very organized language, sort of like the Romans themselves.

You tell 'em, VD Go Latin!!! W00t! Yee-haw!

Hungarian is very, very tough. It looks like a Romance language, but it actually uses the same alphabetical letters for entirely different sounds--s and z are reversed, for example. And for various reasons, Hungarian stopped developing as a grammar at an early point in its existence. What this means is that it remains in a stage where complex concepts are formed, not by new words, but by building ever-larger compound words. Like Welsh and Finnish (Hungarian is distantly related to the latter), Hungarian words can be very frightening to look at when you see masses of twenty or thirty letters just waiting in ambush. Between the fact that even the simple words aren't really based on recognizable Greek or Latin roots, and the boss monster words waiting to pounce, it really gets pretty scary. Especially after dark, when the cases get tense and start howling at the moon.

I have no real knowledge of either language, but shouldnt constructed ones like Esperanto or Loglan be the easiest to learn? They are rather free from irregularities and such, and often there seem to be a consequent thought behind them....