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From: deb5@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Hard Languages
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Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 16:48:01 GMT
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In article <1742713B40.C1737016@UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU>,
 <C1737016@UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU> wrote:
>An afterthought: It seems reasonable to assume that it would usually be
>harder to learn a second language if that langauge is from a different
>family than one's first language, than it it would be to learn a second
>language from the same family as one's first language. Therefore, a more
>interesting question results if we replace " 'language X' " ('Y', etc.) in my
>original question with 'language-family X'
> 
Not necessarily.  Keep in mind that there is often tremendous variation
within language families, especially when some members have been intensely
influenced by unrelated languages.  Is it easier for a Yiddish speaker to
learn Armenian (or even Icelandic) or Modern Hebrew?  For a Maltese speaker
to learn Hausa (or even Aramaic) or Italian?  Unfortunately, I don't have
any hard data on this (and I doubt that it exists for such exotic dyads),
but I suspect that the synchronic similarity between genetically unrelated
languages is more important for ease of learning than the genetic relation 
between topologically divergent languages.  (Got that?)

Oh, and many thanks to Ms. Gupta for the book she recommended.  I'd known
that linguists working with language acquisition had established a working
hierarchy for the order in which phonemes and morphemes are acquired (e.g.
/a/ is the first sound acquired, r-ha^cek is the last, if acquired at all;
optional morphemes are more difficult to acquire than mandatory ones, etc.),
but I didn't realise someone had combined this information to set up a
hierarchy for natural languages.


-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
