Do you want to learn the most difficult language in the world? Indeed, if some European languages like Greek, German or French occupy the list of the 10 most complex languages in the world, the first place is occupied by the Chinese language.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has drawn up a list of the most difficult languages to learn in the world. This very serious ranking depends on precise criteria such as: the presence of offers, conjugation and grammar.
Pronunciation can change meaning
While European languages have appeared several times as the top 10 languages in the world, they did not win the gold medal, as it was China that won the challenge of the most complex language in the world.
According to what he translates as “homeland”, one of the reasons for the complexity of the Chinese language is its pronunciation. Also, pronunciation can change the meaning of a word, so be very careful when speaking. Hence the difficulty of becoming bilingual if the language is not your native language.
Then after that, there is Greek and Arabic. Why is Greek more complicated than the others? Because it belongs to the so-called “inflectional” languages, which have the particularity of having many variable words and of being presented in different forms according to their use.
Latin, German and Icelandic would also be difficult languages.
The 10 most difficult languages according to UNESCO :
- Chinese Mandarin
- Greek
- Arabic
- Icelandic
- Japanese
- Finnish
- German
- Norwegian
- Danish
- French
Depending on your origin, the difficulty will vary
If you are French, it will be easier to speak German than Japanese or Mandarin. Similarly, some Germanic languages are similar: German, Danish and Norwegian, which have great similarities. This UNESCO classification takes into account the general level of difficulty.
In addition, the organization’s report indicates that there are more than 6,700 languages spoken in the world. Unfortunately, 40% of them are on the verge of extinction. Every two weeks, UNESCO confirms that the original language is disappearing forever, along with its culture and history.