Hello...I have heard Hungarian is an incredibly difficult and unique sounding language. I have heard it is classified in its own language group.. is this true? Since reading about it I am fasinated and have a desire to learn it. I speak only English but have been reading upon many differnet languages. I want to learn this! Do you think I'm totally out of my mind, and learning perhaps an easier language would be wiser? I am dedicated to learning this though, so giving up wont happen. If anyone speaks or is educated with Hungarian let me know what you think. Is it really as hard and scary as they make it sound? I would really like to know. I have heard from many sources that Hungarian, Finnish, and Welsh are the hardest European languages. Figures I have an intrest in Finnish also. Anyways let me know what your opinion is but if you only have comments on how great some other language is dont bother writing. I am only intrested in hearing about Hungarian, and I wouldnt mind hearing how Finnish and Welsh are either. Thanks!
HUNGARIAN
No, Hungarian and Finnish are actually grammatically very close to my native language, Turkish. All these languages are agglutinating ones. And so we Turks can understand the structures of Finnish and Hungarian better than Indo-European languages speakers. Turkish is among the most agglutinating languages as it has more than 4000 suffix variations. With this you should also consider vowel harmony, so it really makes Turkic and Finno-Ugric languages very very difficult for foreigners to understand.So no matter how important these languages are, they have very few learners worldwide. Turkish is exceptionally very difficult in this groupe as it can be said to be the most agglutinating. For example, you say: "Çekoslovakyalılaştıramayacaklarımızdanmışsınız" which means "I heard that you are one of the people groupe which we will not be able to make Czechoslovak". But it is necessary to point out that this Turkish word is not made with nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives but ONLY WITH TAG SUFFIXES. For a foreigner to understand this word it is to make it out, so i'll do that:
Çekoslovakya-lı-laş-tır-a-ma-y-acak-lar-ımız-dan-mış-sın-ız.
13 SUFFIXES, NOT WORDS...
Çekoslovakya-lı-laş-tır-a-ma-y-acak-lar-ımız-dan-mış-sın-ız.
13 SUFFIXES, NOT WORDS...
Hungarian is related to Estonian and Finnish but is not mutually intelligible with them... It is a difficult language to learn because it's syntax is very different and the fact that it uses all suffixes and like, no prepositions (because of this situation you end up with something like 24 cases, whereas German has 4 and Latin really only had 6, yet these languages are still often difficult for English speakers).
Vowel harmony is actually kinda cool and I don't think it'd be that hard to get the hang of.
Finnish is also very complicated, as is Estonian...
I don't think Welsh is all that difficult though. It's related to Breton and more distantly to Irish and Scots Gaelic. I know a little bit about Irish and Scots Gaelic, and they're quite difficult, but I haven't found them anything to be like Hungarian or even Polish, so I don't think Welsh would be that much more complex.
Vowel harmony is actually kinda cool and I don't think it'd be that hard to get the hang of.
Finnish is also very complicated, as is Estonian...
I don't think Welsh is all that difficult though. It's related to Breton and more distantly to Irish and Scots Gaelic. I know a little bit about Irish and Scots Gaelic, and they're quite difficult, but I haven't found them anything to be like Hungarian or even Polish, so I don't think Welsh would be that much more complex.
<< (because of this situation you end up with something like 24 cases, whereas German has 4 and Latin really only had 6, yet these languages are still often difficult for English speakers) >>
I've never understood why having many cases is supposed to make a language hard. With Latin, the multiple declension classes seem more troublesome than the number of cases, especially considering that there are words with irregular (or semi-irregular) declensions. German declension doesn't scare me that much, for instance. I have no idea what Hungarian's system is like, though.
- Kef
I've never understood why having many cases is supposed to make a language hard. With Latin, the multiple declension classes seem more troublesome than the number of cases, especially considering that there are words with irregular (or semi-irregular) declensions. German declension doesn't scare me that much, for instance. I have no idea what Hungarian's system is like, though.
- Kef
I think it's more psychological... English speakers don't really understand cases... Prescriptivists love to point to English speakers saying things like "between you and I" or "me and my friends are going out" so we can't even always keep it straight in our own language...
It's easier for me to think of Hungarian as having postpositions instead of case endings... lol
It's easier for me to think of Hungarian as having postpositions instead of case endings... lol
Hungarian sounds really nasty,they always have the accent on the first syllable;to me it feels like people are giving their last breath while speaking...
Welsh must be cool...
Welsh must be cool...
Google this: Specific Languages : Hungarian - Survival Style
That should get you to the Micheloud site and page that has access to FSI Hungarian and some other goodies. You should read the second poster and find the link there. Have fun!
That should get you to the Micheloud site and page that has access to FSI Hungarian and some other goodies. You should read the second poster and find the link there. Have fun!