The world of languages is rich and diverse, and some of them are real linguistic puzzles! It is not easy to understand such languages, it often takes years. In this article, we'll take a look at the 10 most difficult languages in the world, each of which impresses with its grammar, phonetics, and syntax.
Basque language
The Basque language, or Euskara, remains a mystery to linguists. It has no related languages and is considered an isolate. Its complexity is predetermined by a variety of cases and tenses. For example, there are 24 cases in Basque that help express the exact meaning in a sentence. The morphology of verbs can also lead to a dead end: 7 tense forms and 26 verb forms require attentiveness and understanding.
Navajo
The Navajo language is rife with tonal differences and rich grammar. Navajo uses four tones that can change the meaning of a word, the alphabet has 54 letters, and parts of speech are divided into 10 categories. The greatest problem for students is the 52 cases, making the Navajo case system one of the most complex in the world!
Tabasaran
The Tabasaran language is distinguished by its dialects and many loanwords. The Tabasaran alphabet contains 54 letters, causing difficulties in the study of phonetics. The language itself is divided into 3 dialects, and each of them has its own characteristics, and 10 parts of speech and frequent borrowings make it difficult to learn.
Eskimo
The Inuit language is distinguished by its morphology: the verbs in the Inuit language have 63 (!) present tense forms, which surprises any student. Nominal morphology is also not far behind: there are 252 inflections (changing endings) in nouns, each of which conveys the subtlest shades of meaning.
Chippewa
Chippewa, or Ojibwe, is an Anishinaabe language, and its main difficulty lies in the verb forms. It's not easy to imagine, but there are about 6000 verb forms in Chippewa! This linguistic diversity is reflected in the epic work The Song of Hiawatha.
Chinese
The Chinese language surprises with its hieroglyphic writing system. Although the vocabulary contains 85,568 hieroglyphs, most of them are not used in the modern language - about 3000 hieroglyphs are enough for free reading and writing, even for native speakers. The morphology of the Chinese language is simple, but the tonality and huge vocabulary make learning difficult.
Finnish
The Finno-Ugric language, which belongs to the Finno-Ugric group, is rich in cases and conjugations. In total, there are 15 cases in Finnish, creating a lot of fields for errors. Verb conjugation is also not simple, because there are about 100 variants. Complex verb control adds work to linguists.
Khoisan
The Khoisan languages, to which the Kung language belongs, are known for their clicking sounds. Many interesting linguistic processes take place in the Khoisan languages. The number of native speakers is approximately 370 thousand people, making the language poorly studied. Clicking consonants, complex transitions, and variable grammar make these languages one of the most difficult languages in the world.
Abkhazian
The Abkhaz language is notable for its sound system: it has only 3 vowel sounds, which is unusual for a European ear, but 58 consonants compensate for this apparent simplicity. A special manner of beginning a word with the use of consonant sounds complicates pronunciation and perception.
Tuyuka
Tuyuka belongs to the Tucanoean language group. This language uses special verb endings to express the speaker's level of knowledge, making each dialogue extremely accurate, but also very difficult for learners. A single word in the Tuyuka language can mean an entire phrase, and nouns have about 140 classes.
