Is Finnish the most complicated language to learn?

oleole   Tue Jun 10, 2008 6:58 pm GMT
hi! I have read some information about Finnish. and they consider Finnish to be nearly the most complicated language to learn due to 64 !!! cases it has. it has grammar structure unlike other European languages. and despite i don't see any good practical use to learn it nevertheless I'm very much surprised and I'd like someone who knows Finnish say me if it is indeed so difficult and what other difficulties there are if I decide to learn it?
Huckleberry   Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:24 am GMT
Finnish is not that difficult.

If you've only known Indo-European languages until know, you just have to change your way of thinking. That's all.

As for vocabulary, it's not harder than an English speaker learning Russian, which is also an IE language with a different alphabet.
Skippy   Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:16 am GMT
Finnish is supposed to be pretty difficult... But not so bad if you just think of the cases as postpositions... Thinking of it that way usually saves people from the fear of the cases... It's just the fact that it's an agglutinative language so you end up with long words... Couple that with the fact that it is not related to the Indo-European family so you won't have many cognates to fall back on.
Guest   Wed Jun 11, 2008 5:25 am GMT
Shouldn't Hungarian be just as complicated? (Not to mention a more complex phonology.)

Even if you stick to Indo-European, you'd hardly find Lithuanian or Latvian a piece of cake, either.
Skippy   Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:26 pm GMT
Same with Hindi, but that doesn't mean there won't be some vocabulary overlaps or familiar grammatical concepts.
Guest   Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:33 pm GMT
Estonian and Hungarian are more difficult than Finnish.
Guest   Wed Jun 11, 2008 11:22 pm GMT
Estonian more or less is Finnish; or at any rate Finns and Estonians claim to understand each other.
oleole   Sat Jun 14, 2008 10:10 am GMT
thank you all for explanations about Finnish, i'm not that scared now to start to learn it :) by the way, i heard there are some similaraties among Finnish and Turkish. who knows what kind of similarities are there?
Guest   Sat Jun 14, 2008 2:28 pm GMT
Finnish is very diglossic, the grammar you learn and which is used in journalistic or legalese style is completely different than the grammar and vocabulary used in colloquial language (like in Switzerland, Arabic countries or Brazil)
suomalainen   Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:47 pm GMT
Estonian and Finnish are indeed closely related but we can´t really converse without learning each other´s languages. Virtually every sentence in a newspaper of our "tribal brothers" contains words and constructions that prevent understanding.
There are similarities between Finnish and Turkish: both languages are agglunative - different endings and appendixes are added to the word which makes them often long, both languages have a case system (genitive is marked with -n) , both languages have vowel harmony (not front and back vowels in the same word), both languages avoid consonant clusters in the beginning of words. Previously it was thought that Finnish and Turkish are related ("Uralic-Altaic languages") but there isn´t such basic vocabulary that would show common origin.
Colloquial and literal Finnish are indeed rather different but I would say it is an exaggeration to say that they are "completely different" - the difference is not at all as big as between Schwyzertüütsch and Standard High German. - On the other hand, spoken Estonian is very close to written language. This is because the language is more "worn-off" and there is no need to simplify it still to meet the needs of every-day usage.
oleole   Sun Jun 15, 2008 5:47 pm GMT
thank you suomalainen for such detailed explanation about Finnish :)
and one more thing i'd like to know is... do people speak Finnish only in Finland or there are other countries where they speak it? and are there any special advantages to know Finnish in comparison with other languages like French or Spanish?where Finnish can be most usefull nowadays: for job, for travelling or there is another suitable occupation if you learn Finnish?
suomalainen   Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:14 pm GMT
You are welcome, oleole!
Well, Finnish is of course no world language. In Northern Sweden (Torneå river valley) and Northern Norway (Finnmark) the local form of Finnish is now an official minority language (called 'meänkieli' and 'kveeni', respectively) so you can find there at some places Finnish texts and people (more often elderly) who know Finnish. In Stockholm and other big Swedish cities it is not uncommon to hear Finnish as there are about 400 000 Finnish immigrants and their descendants in Sweden. In Tallinn (capital of Estonia) you will probably become understood if you speak Finnish (there are so many Finnish tourists, and during the Soviet era the Finnish television was the almost only way for Estonians to get information from behind the iron curtain). In Republic of Carelia (Russia) you can see Finnish texts and even find people who know Finnish (or the closely related Karelian language). In USA and Canada there are still some tens of thousands of people who know Finnish but their number is rapidly decreasing as a result of the typical assimilation of immigrants.

If you travel to Finland (or any other country) it is an advantage to know at least some phrases ('kiitos' = thank you, 'ole hyvä' = here you are, 'päivää' = hello, 'anteeksi' = excuse me). World languages are usually of greater use than national languages but if you know a language that everybody doesn´t know, this may be an extra plus that can lift you above other applicants (in diplomacy, in a company that has contacts with Finland). You can well buy in English but a successful seller speaks the language of the customer.
oleole   Fri Jun 20, 2008 4:13 pm GMT
thank you very much suomalainen once again :) i have read much information about Finnish, but nowhere was written such a nice explanation of all this that interests me. in add to no foreigner can describe so properly about language and its use in comparison with that a native-speaker as you can. after reading that you wrote i feel much involved to start learning Finnish indeed :) and that would be great to have such opportunity to have you as friend and ask the things if i'm not clear with Finnish grammar. is it ok for you suomalainen to talk on msn?
suomalainen   Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:50 pm GMT
Yes, it is ok for me to talk on msn. What is the best way to agree when to meet on msn?
oleole   Tue Jun 24, 2008 5:10 pm GMT
thank you it's very kind of you suomalainen :) so please add me to your contact list on msn, it is alina2022002@hotmail.com. i hope to talk to you soon!