Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: rickw@eskimo.com (Richard Wojcik)
Subject: Re: Ease of Aquisition (was Re: Common European
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References: <817670469snz@storcomp.demon.co.uk> <HINSENK.95Dec12184930@cyclone.ERE.UMontreal.CA> <4aogsb$fqu@news.nevada.edu> <4bkbr5$ej9@mips.pfalz.de>
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 16:10:31 GMT
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In article <4bkbr5$ej9@mips.pfalz.de>,
Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.pfalz.de> wrote:
>pomeroy@nevada.edu (Nathan J. Pomeroy) writes:
>
>> : Do you know of any studies on this subject? I have often heard the
>> : claim that "all languages are equally complex" with the implication
>> : that this means "equally difficult to learn", but never any
>> : facts that prove or disprove this.
>> 
>> I have no facts, just personal experience.  I learned Portuguese as a 
>> second language, and the knowledge of general Romance sytax and vowels 
>> have made my aquisition of Latin, Spanish and Italian a very easy matter.
>
>The question was whether "all languages are equally complex", which
>depending on context can be quite different from "equally difficult
>learn".
>
>Of course a language closely related to one you already know is easier
>to learn than a completely foreign one. Rather the question is, which
>languages are *objectively* easier/more difficult to learn?

Right.  Inherent complexity needs to be kept separate from ease of
learning.  I think that the greatest factor has to do with vocabulary
rather than syntax or pronunciation.  If your target language has a basic
word stock that you find easy to relate to your own, then the language is
easier for you to learn.  Hence, Spanish is relatively easy for English
speakers to learn, but Hindi and Russian are relatively hard, even though
both are Indo-European.  Chinese is harder than Hindi or Russian, despite
its "easier" syntax, because Chinese vocabulary is even harder to map onto
English.  Think of learning in terms of how fast you can acquire working
and sophisticated vocabularies.  The less you have to learn, the faster you
can master a new language.


-- 
Rick Wojcik  rickw@eskimo.com     Seattle (for locals: Bellevue), WA
             http://www.eskimo.com/~rickw/
