3 Incredibly Hard Languages

A lot of people say English is the hardest language to learn, but those people are bloody liars.  Here are three of the world's ACTUAL hardest languages.






!Xóõ

 There are two main groups of languages in Africa: Bantu and Khoisan, and both are incredibly complicated. Apparently pronounced “taa”, the !Xóõ language is a Khoisan language spoken by about 4,200 people in Namibia and Botswana. What makes !Xóõ so difficult? Well it has between 50 and 80 consonants, a lot of which are clicks, about 30 vowels, and 4 tones. Not to mention it also gives speakers a lump on their throat.


This is a sound clip of nine people speaking their names.

http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/vowels/chapter14/_xoo.html


This is a site that has a clip of a man telling a story in !Xóõ.
http://www.sakeoftruth.com/2009/12/like-nothing-youve-heard-xoo-language/

You can also see what the language looks like. I would’ve copied and pasted it, but none of the letters showed up.














Bora

     Tsane
     Míñéécuú
     Pápihchúú
     Píínéehójtsí
     Tsáhojtsí
That’s how you count to five in Bora. The Bora Indians are native mostly to Peru and the language is spoken by about 2500 people. It seems a little misleading that the title is so easy to say, but then you actually look at the language.

Íhyaamtí pañétú caatúváné páné iñújííne múnáadítyúu tsaate tsatsíhvú idyóbéévéne muhdú míamúnaa meijcyáiyóné pityácójcatsíñe.


- First Part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The most complicated thing about Bora is that it has 350 noun classes. A noun class is like how in Spanish there are feminine and masculine versions of words. To put that in perspective, English pretty much has 1.






This is a website that has recordings of the language, just click play on the right side.

http://globalrecordings.net/program/C21530







Tuyuca


Tuyuca is spoken by about 800 people in Brazil and Colombia. It’s not the pronunciation that makes Tuyuca hard, because it’s a little like Spanish. It’s the grammar. First of all it has anywhere between 50 and 140 noun classes. But the really hard part is that you have to change the verbs in statements to say how you know what you’re saying. So for example Diga ape-wi means “the boy played soccor (I know because I saw him)” but diga ape-hiyi means “the boy played soccor (I assume)”. The same thing can be done in English, but the difference is in Tuyuca, you actually have to change the verb.
 
 
 
 
If you've ever wondered what English sounds like to someone who doesn't speak it, watch this.  It's a song this Italian guy wrote that is complete gibberish, but a lot of non-English speakers think it sounds like English.  And it kind of does.