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LCD 740.1
Prof. Lauren
Heffernan
Fall 2014
• Bernadette López-
Fitzsimmons
• Shelly Lekhraj
• Mingma Lama
• Lila Laizinou
• Janette Sarmiento
• Sandy Morris-Pryce
Presenter Topic
Bernadette López-Fitzsimmons Introduction
Shelly Lekhraj Factors that make it easier/difficult
to learn a language
Mingma Lama Nepali & Hindi
Lila Laizinou Greek & Italian
Janette Sarmiento Spanish & Italian
Sandy Morris-Pryce Conclusion
References & Images
Bernadette López-Fitzsimmons
 Category 1:
 Spanish,
 Swedish 575-600 hours
 French
 Category 2:
 Russian
 Hebrew 1100 hours
 Icelandic
 Category 1:
 Resemble English
 Many cognates
 German = 750 hours
 Highly Complex Grammar
 Category 2:
 Significant Linguistic & Cultural
Differences from English
 Harder to learn for an English speaker
 Vietnamese & Thai
 More difficult to learn
 BUT
 Greek, Czech & Swahili are easier
than Vietnamese and Thai
 Category 3:
 Arabic
 Japanese 2200 hour
 Mandarin
 Most Difficult
 Arabic
 Cantonese Writing
 Mandarin
 Japanese
 Korean
Figure 1a.
Figure 1b.
Figure 1c.
Factors that influence language learning
Nepali and Hindi
Greek and Italian
Spanish and Italian
Figure 1d.
Figure1
Figure 1. WorldLanguages. Adapted from Louis Diet Vorst’ blog: Hello World in Several
Languages, 2012.
Retrieved from – https://louisdietvorst.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/hello-world-in-several-languages-md.png
 Differences in articulation, rhythm, tone
 English lacks some vowel phonemes in French, leads to
difficulty for English speakers
 Sounds can cause difficulty if it does not exist in L1, is
pronounced differently, or occurs in a different position in
a word
 English lacks some sounds in Japanese
 Differences in how languages divide speech into syllables
 /-ts/ in English (cats) vs. /ts-/ in Japanese (tsuki) and Russian
(tsentr)
 Differences in rhythm
 Japanese has a syllable-timed rhythm: /okinawa/
 English has a stress-timed rhythm: /man/ vs. /manager/
Figure 2. Ringing Telephone. Adapted from Nomi Water’s image: Yellow Phone Ringing. 2011,
Retrieved from http://nomiwaters.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/yellow-phone-ringing.png
Figure 2
 Not all languages have the same grammatical system
 Chinese has no inflection, affix, number, gender, person, tense,
mood, aspect
 Chinese sentences contain independent words that express a
distinct idea
 Man love woman = The man loves the woman
 Japanese, Arabic and Russian are inflectional and derivational
 /omeshiagarasekanemashitaraba/
 Prefix o represents the speaker’s respect to the listener
 meshiagar is a stem verb meaning eat, drink
 ase means have/let or make someone do something
 kane means hesitate or impossible to do something
 mashitaraba means if someone does something
 Omeshiagarasekanemashitaraba means “if (you, Sir)
hesitate to have (someone) eat (something)”
Figure 3. Grammar Cloud. Adapted from Character Blog : Think Fast Grammar Quiz Answer Key,
2013,
Retrieved from http://characterink.blogspot.com/2013/09/think-fast-grammar-quiz-answer-key.html
Figure 3
 All languages have SOV in sentences
 There are six possible orders, but 3 normally
occur:
Figure 3a. Word Order
 Languages arrived from the same original
source have a genetic relationship
Figure 4. Russian Language Tree. Adapted from the University of Oregon (UO), Russian Language Tree: The Linguistic Origins of
Russian,n.d.,
Retrieved from https://interactivemedia.uoregon.edu/projects/russian-language-tree
Figure 4.
 Cognates – words in 2 languages that share a
smiliar meaning and spelling
 Man=mann, class=clase
 Borrowing – borrow words from another
language
 Sushi, croissant, taco, pizza
Figure 5.
Figure 7.
Figure 8.
Figures 5-8. See below in Added Notes section.
 Some languages use English alphabet
 Turkish, French, Spanish, Italian use Latin
 Some languages use scripts
 Cyrillic in Russian, Alifba in Arabic, Alepbet in
Hebrew, Hangul in Korean, Katakana in Japanese
 Russian alphabet has 33 symbols
 Arabic alphabet has 28 consonantal symbols and
some vocalic symbols with different variations
 Hebrew has 22 symbols with different variations
Figure 9. Pencil on paper. Adapted from Clipartclipart: Pencil Clip art, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K4WI2111-n4/U6ys8r87S6I/AAAAAAAAByY/TE0uNn2XQPI/s1600/writing.png
Figure 9.
Turkish
Spanish
Italian
FrenchFigure 10. Figure 11.
Figure 12.
Figure 13.
Russian
Arabic
Hebrew
Japanese
Korean
Figure 14.
Figure 15.
Figure 16.
Figure 17.
Figure 18.
Mingma Lama
Nepal is a landlocked
country located in
South Asia. It is
located in the
Himalayas and is
bordered by China in
the North and the
East, West and South
are bordered by India.
Nepali is the national
language of Nepal.
Figure 19
Figure 19. Map of Nepal. Adapted from
 Nepal is a multilinguistic country whose heritage
evolved from four language groups; Indo-Aryan,
Tibeto-Burman, Mangolian and various
indigenous languages.
 Major languages of Nepal are as follows; Nepali
(69%), Maithili (7%), Bhojpuri (5%), Tharu (3%),
Tamang (2%), Gurung (1.5%), Newari/Nepal
Bhasa (1%),Rai (1%), Awadhi (1%) Bajjika
(1%),Limbu (1%) and Magar (1%).
 Nepali is considered the mother tongue and is
used in nationwide educational, public
administration and mass communication system.
 Nepali is an Indo-Aryan language rooted from
Sanskrit ( classical language of India).
 History of usage of Nepali language dates
back to 12th century A.D.
 Nepali is written in Devangari alphabet which
was in turn developed from Brahmi Script.
 Nepali is linguistically most closely related to
Hindi.
 Linguistically, Nepali and Hindi have similar
scripts and technical vocabulary with minor
differences.
• Indo-Aryan Language descendent of Indo-European
language.
• Sanskrit is a common source of vocabulary.
• Written in Devangari alphabet
• Same vowel and vowel signs.
• Same consonants.
• Scripts have no capital letters.
eg. Black = कालो (Kalo), काली (Kali), काला (Kala)
• Same numerals : ੦ ੧ २ ३ ४ ५ ६ ७ ८ ९ ९੦
Figure 20.
 Similar Syntax.
 Verbs are placed at the end of the sentence.
e.g., English (Subject Verb Object) =
I learn Hindi.
Hindi/Nepali (Subject Object Verb) =
I Hindi learn.
 Adjectives inflect for gender (masculine vs. feminine),
and number (singular vs. plural).
e.g., Black (adj) = कालो (Kalo/M),
काली (Kali/F),
काला (Kala/pl. M/F))
 Verbs inflect to show contrast between 1,2 and 3
person singular and plural numbers, gender and
tense.
 Verbs also inflect to show honorifics in second and
third person.
Eg. To write = lekhnu/na
2ND Person (Respect) = lekhdije (Hindi)
= lekhdinush (Nepali)
2ND Person (Equal) = lekhdho (Hindi)
= lekhdeu (Nepali)
2nd Person (Junior) = lekhde (Nepali and Hindi)
Free forms of vowel and vowel signs are used when
single vowel constitutes the syllabus.
 Free Vowels : अ,आ,इ,ई,उ,ऊ,ऋ,ए,ऐ,ओ,औ
 Vowel sign: ◌ाा िा◌ ◌ा ◌ा ◌ा ◌ा ◌ा ◌ा ◌ाो ◌ा
When the vowels are preceded by consonants, the
conjunct forms of vowels or vowel signs are
written.
 Consonants
क,ख,ग,घ,ङ,च,छ,ज,झ,ञ,ट,ठ,ड,ढ,ण,त,थ
 Example: िाग = िा◌ before the consonant ग
स = ◌ा after the consonant स
 In Nepali and Hindi when two or more
consonants occur without a vowel and the
combination is written as a single unit, it is
known as conjunct consonant.
 For example; छ in बःछ, baschha (sits) or Iछ
in माIछ, manchhe (man) are written as a
single unit.
 The elements in both the above conjunct
consonants are half characters preceding the
full characters and are parts of consonant
characters स and न respectively.
 Some nouns have different words in both languages.
e.g., Window = Jhayl (Nepali),
Khidki (Hindi)
 Some verbs have different ending.
e.g.,To write = Lekhnu (Nepali)
Lekhna (Hindi)
 Some adjectives are different or have different ending.
e.g. Fat = Moto (Nepali)
Mota (Hindi),
Lila Laizinou
Do you know these words?
alphabet, anatomy, anecdote, astronomy,
classical, democracy, dialogue, diphthong,
dyslexia, enthusiasm, etymology, geography,
hypothesis, metaphor, metamorphosis,
orthography, paraphrase, phenomenon,
psychiatrist, political, sympathy, synopsis
Then you know some Greek!
 Ancient Greek and Latin had a lot of
similarities, especially in Morphology and
Syntax, as they were both classical languages.
 They were used as Lingua Franca at the classical
period.
 They both belong to the Indo-European family
languages.
 The Hellenic Branch consists only of Modern
Greek.
 The Latin Branch include Italic or Romance
languages. The five most widely spoken Romance
languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French,
Italian and Romanian.
 Greek and Italian are both synthetic languages.
 A synthetic language is a language with a high
morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low
one which is described in isolating languages
 e.g., Isolating Languages--like English and Chinese—
have a low morpheme-per-word ratio.
 Syntactic relations within sentences are expressed
by inflection.
 The suffixes that are used in both languages can
indicate the role of a word within a sentence.
 That was a characteristic of Ancient Greek and Latin.
 Greek and Italian are inflected languages, like the other
languages of the Latin Branch.
 Verb changes form for
 Person
 Number
 Tense
 Mood
 Aspect
 Voice (e.g., Passive vs. Active)
 For example:
 «χορεύουμε» (v) “baliamo” = “we are dancing”
 (1st person, plural, present tense, progressive, indicative, active voice)
 «χόρευαν» (v) “balavano” = “they were dancing”
 (3rd person, plural, past progressive, indicative, active voice)
A single inflected verb may contain as much information
as an entire English sentence with various words.
 The subject of the verb is indicated by the suffix and person can
be dismissed.
 For example:
Πιστεύω [pιstέv-o] /Credo [krέd-o]= I believe
Πιστεύουμε [pιstέv-ume] / Credemo [krεd-έmo]= We believe
 Adjectives and nouns indicate gender and number through the
use of morphological endings.
 «όμορφο αγόρι» [omorf-o aγor-ι] “ragazzo bello” [ragač-o bεl-o]
 «όμορφα αγόρια» [omorf-a aγorι-a] “ragazzi belli” ” [ragač-i bεl-i]
 «όμορφη κοπέλα» [οmorf-ι kopel-a] “ragazza bella” [ragač-a bel-a ]
 «όμορφες κοπέλες» [οmorf-εs kopεl-εs] “ragazze belle”[ragač-ε bel-ε ]
 Productivity in Greek and Italian are a
considerable characteristic of both languages.
 A lot of derivational affixes are used and form
new words through a very productive system.
 Every suffix has several grammatical functions.
 Examples:
 Παίζω (v)/ play (v) παίχτης-παίχτρια, παιχνίδι,
παιχνιδιάρης, παιχνιδιάρα, παιδί, παιδικός ...and a lot of
other words.
 Giocare(v), giocatore/ giocatrice
 Calcolare (v), calcolatore/ calcolatrice
 Greek and Italian follow the SVO pattern.
 Subject (S)  Verb (V)  Object (O)
 However, the word order in a sentence can change in various
ways.
 Changing the word order demonstrates lots of
freedom in Greek language.
Examples:
 Πηγαίνω στο σχολείο κάθε μέρα. Κάθε μέρα πηγαίνω στο
σχολείο. Στο σχολείο πηγαίνω κάθε μέρα.
 I’m going to school every day. *Every day I’m going to school.
* At school I’m going every day.
 The above sentences structure are acceptable in Italian
Language.
 Vado a scuola ogni giorno. Ogni giorno vado a scuola.
A scuola vado ogni giorno.
Phonology Stress and Intonation
 Modern Greek is an
almost completely
phonetic language:
 Not as much as Italian
and Spanish.
 Much more than English
or French.
 Some sounds may be
changed depending on
their surroundings.
 An Italian native speaker
could acquire the Greek
pronunciation.
 Stress is dynamic in
Greek and Italian.
 There is a stressed
syllable that sounds
launder than an
unstressed syllable.
 Greek and Italian
intonation when asking
questions-“raising”- of
the voice is similar.
 Raising one’s voice
doesn’t cause any
difficulties between two
languages.
Alphabet Greek and Latin Alphabets
 The Greek Alphabet is non-
Latin.
 Even though the Latin Alphabet
is derived from the Greek.
 The Greek Alphabet has 24
letters.
 The Latin Alphabet The basic
alphabet consists of 21 letters.
The latters J,K,W,X and Y are not
part of the proper alphabet and
are used only for foreign words.
 The English alphabet has 26
letters like the Latin Alphabet.
Figure 21 (above). Greek Alphabet.
Figure 22 (above) Latin Alphabet.
 Italian language lacks
 velar continuants /γ/ /x/,
 dental continuants /δ/,/θ/
 which existed in Greek.
 The Greek vowels sounds coincide
with the five vowels of the Italian
alphabet:
 /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/
 Whereas, Greek Orthography is
related to ancient Greek roots
which are reflected in today’s
words.
 These are commonly seen in
Greek consonants
combinations known as Greek
diphthongs.
 Greek includes several digraphs,
including various pairs of vowel
letters that are pronounced as
diphthongs but have been
shortened into monophthongs in
pronunciation.
 A digraph is a pair of letters used
to write one sound or a
combination of sounds that does
not correspond to the written
letters in sequence.
Vowel combination in Greek
 οι, ει, ι, η, υι, refers to the
sound/e/
 aι, ε refers to the sound /ε/
 ου refers to the sound /u/
 αυ to /av/ορ /ef/ ευ to /ev/or
/ef/
 In both languages there
are words with double
consonants.
 In Italian language, double
consonants makes the
sound to be lengthened or,
sometimes change the
pronunciation.
 For example:
be-ll-o /a-nn-o/ no-nn-a
 ch-iamo [kiamo]
 raga-zz-o [ragatso]
 Whereas, in Greek language
two identical consonants are
pronounced as a single
sound.
 Γρα-μμ-α /γrama/ = letter,
τέ-σσ-ερα /tεčεra/ = four
 Two different consonants are
pronounced with a single
different sound or two
different sounds.
 Αγγλία /aglia/= England
άγχος /aγxos/ = anxiety
 Modern Greek has four
grammar cases for
 Articles
 Nouns
 Adjectives
 EXAMPLE :
 Nominative
 η όμορφη κοπέλα
 la ragazza bella
 Genitive
 της όμορφης κοπέλας
 della ragazza bella
 Accusative
 την όμορφη κοπέλα
 la ragazza bella
 Vocative
 (-) όμορφη κοπέλα
 ragazza bella
 The variety of suffixes in nouns
and adjectives indicate a
different genders and cases.
 This variation in suffixes can
cause some difficulties .
 Italian lost its case system,
even though the cases
existed in Latin.
 Italian and the languages of
the Latin Branch
 indicate grammar cases
through prepositions
(example)
 Greek language has three
gender forms for nouns
and adjectives:
 Masculine
 Feminine
 Neuter
 Italian language has two
gender forms:
 Masculine
 Feminine
 Adjectives follow the
nouns in Italian language
in most of the cases.
 “E una ragazza
buona.”
 In Greek language,
adjectives precede nouns,
even though they could in
some cases follow the
nouns as well (to give
emphasis).
 «Είναι μια όμορφη
κοπέλα.»(adj-noun)
 «Είναι μια κοπέλα
όμορφη.»(noun-adj)
Janette Sarmiento
 Italian and Spanish, along with French and
Romanian, are from the Romance language
family.
 Italian and Spanish developed from everyday
Latin.
 Everyday Latin was called Vulgar Latin, from
the word 'vulgis', and this comes from the
Latin word which means ordinary people is
vulgus.
 Italian and Spanish developed from the
language they spoke.
21 letters
Italian words with j, k, w, x or
y, they are borrowed from
another language.
29 letters
Figure 23.
Figure 24.
Italian Spanish English
migliore
morto
tempo
la porta
la risposta
forte
Giardino
mejor
muerto
tiempo
puerta
la respuesta
Fuerte
jardín
Better
Dead
Time
Door
The response
Strong
Garden
Words in Italian and Spanish are similar because they
share the same Latin root.
VOWELS
Spanish Italian Both
Spanish & Italian
There is one, only
one sound for /e/
and /o/
If you say "amor",
"mamá", "papá",
"amigo", the /a/ will
have the same sound
in all cases, and so
/o/, /i/, and the rest
of the vowels.
Spanish when the
syllable is stressed.
-/o/ has two
versions, and so /e/
Examples: Morto
(dead)
Posto (position)
-One similarity is in
the following vowels:
/a/, /i/ and /u/.
They sound very
similar in both
languages.
 In Spanish, you can change the way you
pronounce "g" and "q", adding an "u"
 The word "gente" (people) is pronounced
different to the word "guerra" (war). That's
because of the "u.”
 In Spanish we added "u". Now, instead of the
"u", we add an "h"
 in Spanish we say "que".
 In Spanish, you make a hard sound adding "u"
after "q" or "g".
 Something similar happens in Italian, in fact.
 The hard version of the letters "c" and "g" is used
when you add an "h" besides them.
 ➢In Italian we say "che."
 In Italian, you make a hard sound adding "h"
after "c" or "g"
 For a hard sound, you use "h" in Italian and "u" in
Spanish.
 Examples:
 che (Italian) = que (Spanish)= what.
 They mean the same and are spelled the same.
 quando (Italian) = cuando (Spanish) = when.
 They mean the same, and they are pronounced
the same way too.
 quanto (Italian) = cuánto (Spanish) = how much
 They mean the same, the are pronounced the
same, but they are written differentl
 In both languages
there are many words
with double
consonants.
 For example in Italian
azzurro and bello,
that makes the sound
to be lengthened.
 In Spanish there are
only 2 double
consonants l and r,
they are.
 Examples:
 "llorar"-to cry-we
pronounce llorar like
"yorar"
 llorar, llamar, llave
 it sounds like the j from
john
 Perro
Figure 25.
In Spanish it is:
• Yo amo
• Tú amas
• Él ama
• Nosotros amamos
• Ustedes aman
• Ellos aman
 the structure is the same: Pronoun + verb
 The difference is in the form they are conjugat
Spanish Italian
Spanish basic sentence structure:
SUBJECT+ VERB + COMPLEMENT
Subject Pronouns & Verb Conjugation
Verb Conjugation (Ser)
Yo soy
tú eres
él/ella/usted es
nosotros somos
ustedes son
ellos/ellas son
"soy", "eres", "es", "somos", "son" y "son"
The Italian basic form is:
• subject (whoever the sentence is about)
• + verb (the action that’s happening)
• + object (not the subject)
Verb Conjugation
• io sono
• tu sei
• lui / lei è
• noi siamo
• voi siate
• loro sono
Different conjugations for each person
• First Person = "I“ (sing.), "we,” (plural)
• Second Person = "you" (singular & plural)
• Third Person = "He/she/it/they)
Person and Number in Spanish & Italian
make learning these languages more
difficult than learning English.
Sandy Morris-Pryce
 What makes a language difficult to learn?
 What you have just heard is the many things that
makes learning some languages more difficult to
learn than others.
 Learning a second language is dependent on the
phonology, morphology, syntax, of L1 compared
to L2.
 Many of the difficulties in learning a second
language are based on
 how much they differ in structure from the first
language and
 how closely related the L1 and L2 structures are
 Languages differ in phonology, the sound and
rhythm of a language.
 Sounds can be difficult especially if they do not
exist in L1. A few languages use tones, a rising or
falling pitch when a word is pronounced.
 This can be very difficult for someone who has
never used tones before. This is of the reasons
why some languages are difficult to learn.
 Morphology: rules of word formation, not all
languages have the same grammatical
system.
 Some languages take a inflection and some
do not, for example Greek, Italian, Spanish
has more inflection than English.
 In Nepali and Hindi verbs are inflected to
show contrast between first, second and
third person singular and plural
 The syntax of most languages are different, Shelly
mentioned that there are six possible orders but only
three normally occur.
 English and French, Spanish and Italian which derived
from the Romantic languages follow a SVO syntax.
 Nepali and Hindi share similar
syntax and have a (SOV) order
and adjectives are
inflected for
gender
Figure 26.
 Some nouns have different words in both
languages.
 Some verbs have different endings.
 Some adjectives are different or have
different endings.
 The Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian,
Portuguese and a number of other languages) are
famous for sharing many characteristics. It is not
surprising since they all evolved from Latin.
 Greek shares similarities in morphology and
syntax with Italian. It would be easy for someone
who learns one of these languages to go on and
learn one of the others.
 English borrows a lot of its words from other
languages. There are many words in Spanish,
Italian, and Greek that are cognates in English.
 Learning a language closely related to your
native language, or another that you already
speak, is much easier than learning a
completely alien one. Related languages
share many characteristics and this tends to
make them easier to learn as there are fewer
new concepts to deal with.
 Now think about this –
 What is your native language?
 How many languages have you learned?
 How old are you?
 In what environment are you learning the
language?
 All of these factors play a role in how challenging
you may find a specific language.
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Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
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Press. Retrieved from
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cambridge_education___cambridge_university_press_samples.pdf
Munro, R. (2013, April 4). “How the world communicates.” In Idibon. Retrieved December 7, 2014, from
http://idibon.com/idibon-at-strata/
National Security Agency. (n.d.-a) Unclassified. Foreign language learning: a comparative analysis of relative difficulty.
Retrieved from https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_spectrum/foreign_language.pdf
“Nepali language at Cornell” (2014, December 5). In Cornell University, Department of Asian Studies. Retrieved
December 7, 2014, from http://www.lrc.cornell.edu/asian/courses/nepali?d=basic
O'Grady, W., Archibald, J., Aronoff, M., & Rees-Miller, J. (2005). Contemporary linguistics: an introduction (5th
ed., pp. 1-12). New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.
Parrot, M. (2010 ). Grammar for English language teachers (2nd ed., pp. 152-169). Cambridge,
United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Singh, M. (Ed.). (n.d.). Basic Hindi grammar handbook. Retrieved from
http://www.hindimasterjee.com/pdf/Preview%20Hindimasterjee%20-
%20Basic%20Grammar%20Handbook.pdf
“What makes a language difficult?” (2013, August 28). In The Economist. Retrieved December 7, 2014, from
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/08/economist-explains-19
List of figures adapted
from
original sources.
Figure 1a. Easy Languages, closely related to English. Adapted from Adapted from Daily Infografic: Easy to learn languages–to achieve
proficiency, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://dailyinfographic.com/what-are-the-hardest-languages-to-learn-infographic
Figure 1b and 1c. Medium & Hard Languages to Learn. Adapted from Daily Infografic: Medium & Hard Languages –to achieve
proficiency, n.d., Retrieved from http://dailyinfographic.com/what-are-the-hardest-languages-to-learn-infographic
Figure 1d. Czech Proverb on languages. Adapted from Lingholic: Top ten proverbs about language learning, n.d., Retrieved from
http://www.lingholic.com/top-ten-best-proverbs-language-learning/
Figure 1. World Languages. Adapted from Louis Diet Vorst’ blog: Hello World in Several
Languages, 2012,
Retrieved from https://louisdietvorst.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/hello-world-in-several-languages-md.png
Figure 2. Ringing Telephone. Adapted from Nomi Water’s image: Yellow Phone Ringing. 2011,
Retrieved from http://nomiwaters.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/yellow-phone-ringing.png
Figure 3. Grammar Cloud. Adapted from Character Blog : Think Fast Grammar Quiz Answer Key,
2013,
Retrieved from http://characterink.blogspot.com/2013/09/think-fast-grammar-quiz-answer-
key.html
Figure 3a. Types of Sentence Word Order. Adapted from National Security Agency (NSA): Foreign language
learning -- a complex analysis of relative difficulty, p. 6, n.d.,
Retrieved from https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_spectrum/foreign_language.pdf
Figure 4. Russian Language Tree. Adapted from the University of Oregon (UO), Russian Language Tree:
The Linguistic Origins of Russian,n.d.,
Retrieved from https://interactivemedia.uoregon.edu/projects/russian-language-tree
Figure 5. Sushi. Adapted from Clementine Cuisine: Makis-Saumon-avocet-avocado-salmon-sushi-rolls, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://www.clementinecuisine.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/makis-saumon-
avocat-avocadosalmon-sushi-rolls-1-of-1-3.jpg
Figure 6. Croissant. Adapted from Expotec: Croissant and other classic, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://events.expotec.us/frls/exhibitor/103113
Figure 7. Taco. Adapted from Animal Welfare: Where’s the Beef?, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://animalwelfareapproved.org/2011/01/31/wheres-the-beef/
Figure 8. Pizza. Adapted from Alpha Coders. Pizza with Tomatoes, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=412226
Figure 9. Pencil on paper. Adapted from Clipartclipart: Pencil Clip art, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K4WI2111-n4/U6ys8r87S6I/AAAAAAAAByY/TE0uNn2XQPI/s1600/writing.png
Figure 10. Turkish Language. Adapted from Turkey Travel Planner: Sampler of Turkish, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/AssetsTurkey/Miscellaneous/TkTextSample.jpg
Figure 11. French Language. Adapted from Howard Besser’s web site: French, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/T-Shirts/egfenton/french.jpg
Figure 12. Spanish Language. Adapted from Year 7 Spanish: Escribe el contrario de las opinions, 2009,
Retrieved from http://year7spanish.wordpress.com/2009/03/
Figure 13. Italian Language. Adapted from Typhophile: Italiano, c.a. 2007,
Retrieved from http://typophile.com/files/Screen%20shot%202012-09-05%20at%2018.42.07.png
Figure 14. Russian Language. Adapted from Micropress: Russian, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://www.micropress-inc.com/fonts/lafonts/latextdh.gif
Figure 15. Arabic Language. Adapted from Al Islam, the Official Site of the Ahmadiyya, 2014,
Retrieved from https://www.alislam.org/quran/search2/verses/024-003.png
Figure 16. Hebrew Language. Adapted from Jewish Reconstructionist Communities, in association with
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College: Hebrew, 2014,
Retrieved from http://www.jewishrecon.org/files/resources/images/hassal-siddur-pesach.jpg
Figure 17. Korean Language. Adapted from Dragos Roua: The Language of Happiness, 2014,
Retrieved from - http://www.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/korean-paul-corinthians.jpg
Figure 18. Japanese Language. Adapted from Washington State Department of Health: Japanese, 2014,
Retrieved from http://www.doh.wa.gov/portals/1/images/4200/Japanese1.jpg
Figure 19. Map of Nepal. Adapted from SAARC Tourism, Nepal: Nepal Map, 2009,
Retrieved from http://nepal.saarctourism.org/nepal-map.html
Figure 20. Devanagari (Hindi Alphabet). Adapted from Img.Kid—the image kid has it!: Hindi Alphabet, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://imgkid.com/hindi-alphabet-chart-with-pictures.shtml
Figure 21 (above). Greek Alphabet. Adapted from The Fonts: Acorn Classical Greek Alphabet, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://thefonts.com/A/AlphaFr/GreekClass.htm
Figure 22 (below). Latin Alphabet. Adapted from Italia blogspot: L’alfabeto italiano, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://italia-upn.blogspot.com/2010/08/lalfabeto-italiano.html
Figure 23. Italian Alphabet. Adapted from Importance of Languages: Importance of Italian, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://www.importanceoflanguages.com/LearnItalian/learn-italian-alphabet/
Figure 24. Spanish Alphabet. Adapted from Importance of Languages: Importance of Spanish, n.d.,
Retrieved from http://www.importanceoflanguages.com/LearnSpanish/tag/learn-spanish-
alphabet/
Figure 25. Articles: Italian & Spanish. Adapted from Our Greek and Latin Roots: Syntax-Articles in Italian and
Spanish, n.d., Retrieved from
http://education.cambridge.org/media/577331/our_greek_and_latin_roots__second_edition____
cambridge_education___cambridge_university_press_samples.pdf
Figure 26. Types of Sentence Word Order. Adapted from National Security Agency (NSA): Foreign language
learning -- a complex analysis of relative difficulty, p. 6, n.d., Retrieved from
https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_spectrum/foreign_language.pdf
Bernadette López-Fitzsimmons
Shelly Lekhraj
Mingma Lama
Lila Laizinou
Janette Sarmiento
Sandy Morris-Pryce

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SubmitedtoLH_PresenLCD_740.3_12222014

  • 1. LCD 740.1 Prof. Lauren Heffernan Fall 2014 • Bernadette López- Fitzsimmons • Shelly Lekhraj • Mingma Lama • Lila Laizinou • Janette Sarmiento • Sandy Morris-Pryce
  • 2. Presenter Topic Bernadette López-Fitzsimmons Introduction Shelly Lekhraj Factors that make it easier/difficult to learn a language Mingma Lama Nepali & Hindi Lila Laizinou Greek & Italian Janette Sarmiento Spanish & Italian Sandy Morris-Pryce Conclusion References & Images
  • 4.  Category 1:  Spanish,  Swedish 575-600 hours  French  Category 2:  Russian  Hebrew 1100 hours  Icelandic  Category 1:  Resemble English  Many cognates  German = 750 hours  Highly Complex Grammar  Category 2:  Significant Linguistic & Cultural Differences from English  Harder to learn for an English speaker  Vietnamese & Thai  More difficult to learn  BUT  Greek, Czech & Swahili are easier than Vietnamese and Thai
  • 5.  Category 3:  Arabic  Japanese 2200 hour  Mandarin  Most Difficult  Arabic  Cantonese Writing  Mandarin  Japanese  Korean Figure 1a.
  • 7. Factors that influence language learning Nepali and Hindi Greek and Italian Spanish and Italian Figure 1d.
  • 8. Figure1 Figure 1. WorldLanguages. Adapted from Louis Diet Vorst’ blog: Hello World in Several Languages, 2012. Retrieved from – https://louisdietvorst.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/hello-world-in-several-languages-md.png
  • 9.  Differences in articulation, rhythm, tone  English lacks some vowel phonemes in French, leads to difficulty for English speakers  Sounds can cause difficulty if it does not exist in L1, is pronounced differently, or occurs in a different position in a word  English lacks some sounds in Japanese  Differences in how languages divide speech into syllables  /-ts/ in English (cats) vs. /ts-/ in Japanese (tsuki) and Russian (tsentr)  Differences in rhythm  Japanese has a syllable-timed rhythm: /okinawa/  English has a stress-timed rhythm: /man/ vs. /manager/ Figure 2. Ringing Telephone. Adapted from Nomi Water’s image: Yellow Phone Ringing. 2011, Retrieved from http://nomiwaters.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/yellow-phone-ringing.png Figure 2
  • 10.  Not all languages have the same grammatical system  Chinese has no inflection, affix, number, gender, person, tense, mood, aspect  Chinese sentences contain independent words that express a distinct idea  Man love woman = The man loves the woman  Japanese, Arabic and Russian are inflectional and derivational  /omeshiagarasekanemashitaraba/  Prefix o represents the speaker’s respect to the listener  meshiagar is a stem verb meaning eat, drink  ase means have/let or make someone do something  kane means hesitate or impossible to do something  mashitaraba means if someone does something  Omeshiagarasekanemashitaraba means “if (you, Sir) hesitate to have (someone) eat (something)” Figure 3. Grammar Cloud. Adapted from Character Blog : Think Fast Grammar Quiz Answer Key, 2013, Retrieved from http://characterink.blogspot.com/2013/09/think-fast-grammar-quiz-answer-key.html Figure 3
  • 11.  All languages have SOV in sentences  There are six possible orders, but 3 normally occur: Figure 3a. Word Order
  • 12.  Languages arrived from the same original source have a genetic relationship Figure 4. Russian Language Tree. Adapted from the University of Oregon (UO), Russian Language Tree: The Linguistic Origins of Russian,n.d., Retrieved from https://interactivemedia.uoregon.edu/projects/russian-language-tree Figure 4.
  • 13.  Cognates – words in 2 languages that share a smiliar meaning and spelling  Man=mann, class=clase  Borrowing – borrow words from another language  Sushi, croissant, taco, pizza Figure 5. Figure 7. Figure 8. Figures 5-8. See below in Added Notes section.
  • 14.  Some languages use English alphabet  Turkish, French, Spanish, Italian use Latin  Some languages use scripts  Cyrillic in Russian, Alifba in Arabic, Alepbet in Hebrew, Hangul in Korean, Katakana in Japanese  Russian alphabet has 33 symbols  Arabic alphabet has 28 consonantal symbols and some vocalic symbols with different variations  Hebrew has 22 symbols with different variations Figure 9. Pencil on paper. Adapted from Clipartclipart: Pencil Clip art, n.d., Retrieved from http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K4WI2111-n4/U6ys8r87S6I/AAAAAAAAByY/TE0uNn2XQPI/s1600/writing.png Figure 9.
  • 17.
  • 19. Nepal is a landlocked country located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and is bordered by China in the North and the East, West and South are bordered by India. Nepali is the national language of Nepal. Figure 19 Figure 19. Map of Nepal. Adapted from
  • 20.  Nepal is a multilinguistic country whose heritage evolved from four language groups; Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Mangolian and various indigenous languages.  Major languages of Nepal are as follows; Nepali (69%), Maithili (7%), Bhojpuri (5%), Tharu (3%), Tamang (2%), Gurung (1.5%), Newari/Nepal Bhasa (1%),Rai (1%), Awadhi (1%) Bajjika (1%),Limbu (1%) and Magar (1%).  Nepali is considered the mother tongue and is used in nationwide educational, public administration and mass communication system.
  • 21.  Nepali is an Indo-Aryan language rooted from Sanskrit ( classical language of India).  History of usage of Nepali language dates back to 12th century A.D.  Nepali is written in Devangari alphabet which was in turn developed from Brahmi Script.  Nepali is linguistically most closely related to Hindi.  Linguistically, Nepali and Hindi have similar scripts and technical vocabulary with minor differences.
  • 22. • Indo-Aryan Language descendent of Indo-European language. • Sanskrit is a common source of vocabulary. • Written in Devangari alphabet • Same vowel and vowel signs. • Same consonants. • Scripts have no capital letters. eg. Black = कालो (Kalo), काली (Kali), काला (Kala) • Same numerals : ੦ ੧ २ ३ ४ ५ ६ ७ ८ ९ ९੦
  • 24.  Similar Syntax.  Verbs are placed at the end of the sentence. e.g., English (Subject Verb Object) = I learn Hindi. Hindi/Nepali (Subject Object Verb) = I Hindi learn.  Adjectives inflect for gender (masculine vs. feminine), and number (singular vs. plural). e.g., Black (adj) = कालो (Kalo/M), काली (Kali/F), काला (Kala/pl. M/F))
  • 25.  Verbs inflect to show contrast between 1,2 and 3 person singular and plural numbers, gender and tense.  Verbs also inflect to show honorifics in second and third person. Eg. To write = lekhnu/na 2ND Person (Respect) = lekhdije (Hindi) = lekhdinush (Nepali) 2ND Person (Equal) = lekhdho (Hindi) = lekhdeu (Nepali) 2nd Person (Junior) = lekhde (Nepali and Hindi)
  • 26. Free forms of vowel and vowel signs are used when single vowel constitutes the syllabus.  Free Vowels : अ,आ,इ,ई,उ,ऊ,ऋ,ए,ऐ,ओ,औ  Vowel sign: ◌ाा िा◌ ◌ा ◌ा ◌ा ◌ा ◌ा ◌ा ◌ाो ◌ा When the vowels are preceded by consonants, the conjunct forms of vowels or vowel signs are written.  Consonants क,ख,ग,घ,ङ,च,छ,ज,झ,ञ,ट,ठ,ड,ढ,ण,त,थ  Example: िाग = िा◌ before the consonant ग स = ◌ा after the consonant स
  • 27.  In Nepali and Hindi when two or more consonants occur without a vowel and the combination is written as a single unit, it is known as conjunct consonant.  For example; छ in बःछ, baschha (sits) or Iछ in माIछ, manchhe (man) are written as a single unit.  The elements in both the above conjunct consonants are half characters preceding the full characters and are parts of consonant characters स and न respectively.
  • 28.  Some nouns have different words in both languages. e.g., Window = Jhayl (Nepali), Khidki (Hindi)  Some verbs have different ending. e.g.,To write = Lekhnu (Nepali) Lekhna (Hindi)  Some adjectives are different or have different ending. e.g. Fat = Moto (Nepali) Mota (Hindi),
  • 30. Do you know these words? alphabet, anatomy, anecdote, astronomy, classical, democracy, dialogue, diphthong, dyslexia, enthusiasm, etymology, geography, hypothesis, metaphor, metamorphosis, orthography, paraphrase, phenomenon, psychiatrist, political, sympathy, synopsis Then you know some Greek!
  • 31.  Ancient Greek and Latin had a lot of similarities, especially in Morphology and Syntax, as they were both classical languages.  They were used as Lingua Franca at the classical period.  They both belong to the Indo-European family languages.  The Hellenic Branch consists only of Modern Greek.  The Latin Branch include Italic or Romance languages. The five most widely spoken Romance languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian.
  • 32.  Greek and Italian are both synthetic languages.  A synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low one which is described in isolating languages  e.g., Isolating Languages--like English and Chinese— have a low morpheme-per-word ratio.  Syntactic relations within sentences are expressed by inflection.  The suffixes that are used in both languages can indicate the role of a word within a sentence.  That was a characteristic of Ancient Greek and Latin.
  • 33.  Greek and Italian are inflected languages, like the other languages of the Latin Branch.  Verb changes form for  Person  Number  Tense  Mood  Aspect  Voice (e.g., Passive vs. Active)  For example:  «χορεύουμε» (v) “baliamo” = “we are dancing”  (1st person, plural, present tense, progressive, indicative, active voice)  «χόρευαν» (v) “balavano” = “they were dancing”  (3rd person, plural, past progressive, indicative, active voice) A single inflected verb may contain as much information as an entire English sentence with various words.
  • 34.  The subject of the verb is indicated by the suffix and person can be dismissed.  For example: Πιστεύω [pιstέv-o] /Credo [krέd-o]= I believe Πιστεύουμε [pιstέv-ume] / Credemo [krεd-έmo]= We believe  Adjectives and nouns indicate gender and number through the use of morphological endings.  «όμορφο αγόρι» [omorf-o aγor-ι] “ragazzo bello” [ragač-o bεl-o]  «όμορφα αγόρια» [omorf-a aγorι-a] “ragazzi belli” ” [ragač-i bεl-i]  «όμορφη κοπέλα» [οmorf-ι kopel-a] “ragazza bella” [ragač-a bel-a ]  «όμορφες κοπέλες» [οmorf-εs kopεl-εs] “ragazze belle”[ragač-ε bel-ε ]
  • 35.  Productivity in Greek and Italian are a considerable characteristic of both languages.  A lot of derivational affixes are used and form new words through a very productive system.  Every suffix has several grammatical functions.  Examples:  Παίζω (v)/ play (v) παίχτης-παίχτρια, παιχνίδι, παιχνιδιάρης, παιχνιδιάρα, παιδί, παιδικός ...and a lot of other words.  Giocare(v), giocatore/ giocatrice  Calcolare (v), calcolatore/ calcolatrice
  • 36.  Greek and Italian follow the SVO pattern.  Subject (S)  Verb (V)  Object (O)  However, the word order in a sentence can change in various ways.  Changing the word order demonstrates lots of freedom in Greek language. Examples:  Πηγαίνω στο σχολείο κάθε μέρα. Κάθε μέρα πηγαίνω στο σχολείο. Στο σχολείο πηγαίνω κάθε μέρα.  I’m going to school every day. *Every day I’m going to school. * At school I’m going every day.  The above sentences structure are acceptable in Italian Language.  Vado a scuola ogni giorno. Ogni giorno vado a scuola. A scuola vado ogni giorno.
  • 37. Phonology Stress and Intonation  Modern Greek is an almost completely phonetic language:  Not as much as Italian and Spanish.  Much more than English or French.  Some sounds may be changed depending on their surroundings.  An Italian native speaker could acquire the Greek pronunciation.  Stress is dynamic in Greek and Italian.  There is a stressed syllable that sounds launder than an unstressed syllable.  Greek and Italian intonation when asking questions-“raising”- of the voice is similar.  Raising one’s voice doesn’t cause any difficulties between two languages.
  • 38. Alphabet Greek and Latin Alphabets  The Greek Alphabet is non- Latin.  Even though the Latin Alphabet is derived from the Greek.  The Greek Alphabet has 24 letters.  The Latin Alphabet The basic alphabet consists of 21 letters. The latters J,K,W,X and Y are not part of the proper alphabet and are used only for foreign words.  The English alphabet has 26 letters like the Latin Alphabet. Figure 21 (above). Greek Alphabet. Figure 22 (above) Latin Alphabet.
  • 39.  Italian language lacks  velar continuants /γ/ /x/,  dental continuants /δ/,/θ/  which existed in Greek.  The Greek vowels sounds coincide with the five vowels of the Italian alphabet:  /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/  Whereas, Greek Orthography is related to ancient Greek roots which are reflected in today’s words.  These are commonly seen in Greek consonants combinations known as Greek diphthongs.  Greek includes several digraphs, including various pairs of vowel letters that are pronounced as diphthongs but have been shortened into monophthongs in pronunciation.  A digraph is a pair of letters used to write one sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters in sequence. Vowel combination in Greek  οι, ει, ι, η, υι, refers to the sound/e/  aι, ε refers to the sound /ε/  ου refers to the sound /u/  αυ to /av/ορ /ef/ ευ to /ev/or /ef/
  • 40.  In both languages there are words with double consonants.  In Italian language, double consonants makes the sound to be lengthened or, sometimes change the pronunciation.  For example: be-ll-o /a-nn-o/ no-nn-a  ch-iamo [kiamo]  raga-zz-o [ragatso]  Whereas, in Greek language two identical consonants are pronounced as a single sound.  Γρα-μμ-α /γrama/ = letter, τέ-σσ-ερα /tεčεra/ = four  Two different consonants are pronounced with a single different sound or two different sounds.  Αγγλία /aglia/= England άγχος /aγxos/ = anxiety
  • 41.  Modern Greek has four grammar cases for  Articles  Nouns  Adjectives  EXAMPLE :  Nominative  η όμορφη κοπέλα  la ragazza bella  Genitive  της όμορφης κοπέλας  della ragazza bella  Accusative  την όμορφη κοπέλα  la ragazza bella  Vocative  (-) όμορφη κοπέλα  ragazza bella  The variety of suffixes in nouns and adjectives indicate a different genders and cases.  This variation in suffixes can cause some difficulties .  Italian lost its case system, even though the cases existed in Latin.  Italian and the languages of the Latin Branch  indicate grammar cases through prepositions (example)
  • 42.  Greek language has three gender forms for nouns and adjectives:  Masculine  Feminine  Neuter  Italian language has two gender forms:  Masculine  Feminine  Adjectives follow the nouns in Italian language in most of the cases.  “E una ragazza buona.”  In Greek language, adjectives precede nouns, even though they could in some cases follow the nouns as well (to give emphasis).  «Είναι μια όμορφη κοπέλα.»(adj-noun)  «Είναι μια κοπέλα όμορφη.»(noun-adj)
  • 44.  Italian and Spanish, along with French and Romanian, are from the Romance language family.  Italian and Spanish developed from everyday Latin.  Everyday Latin was called Vulgar Latin, from the word 'vulgis', and this comes from the Latin word which means ordinary people is vulgus.  Italian and Spanish developed from the language they spoke.
  • 45. 21 letters Italian words with j, k, w, x or y, they are borrowed from another language. 29 letters Figure 23. Figure 24.
  • 46. Italian Spanish English migliore morto tempo la porta la risposta forte Giardino mejor muerto tiempo puerta la respuesta Fuerte jardín Better Dead Time Door The response Strong Garden Words in Italian and Spanish are similar because they share the same Latin root.
  • 47. VOWELS Spanish Italian Both Spanish & Italian There is one, only one sound for /e/ and /o/ If you say "amor", "mamá", "papá", "amigo", the /a/ will have the same sound in all cases, and so /o/, /i/, and the rest of the vowels. Spanish when the syllable is stressed. -/o/ has two versions, and so /e/ Examples: Morto (dead) Posto (position) -One similarity is in the following vowels: /a/, /i/ and /u/. They sound very similar in both languages.
  • 48.  In Spanish, you can change the way you pronounce "g" and "q", adding an "u"  The word "gente" (people) is pronounced different to the word "guerra" (war). That's because of the "u.”  In Spanish we added "u". Now, instead of the "u", we add an "h"  in Spanish we say "que".  In Spanish, you make a hard sound adding "u" after "q" or "g".
  • 49.  Something similar happens in Italian, in fact.  The hard version of the letters "c" and "g" is used when you add an "h" besides them.  ➢In Italian we say "che."  In Italian, you make a hard sound adding "h" after "c" or "g"  For a hard sound, you use "h" in Italian and "u" in Spanish.
  • 50.  Examples:  che (Italian) = que (Spanish)= what.  They mean the same and are spelled the same.  quando (Italian) = cuando (Spanish) = when.  They mean the same, and they are pronounced the same way too.  quanto (Italian) = cuánto (Spanish) = how much  They mean the same, the are pronounced the same, but they are written differentl
  • 51.  In both languages there are many words with double consonants.  For example in Italian azzurro and bello, that makes the sound to be lengthened.  In Spanish there are only 2 double consonants l and r, they are.  Examples:  "llorar"-to cry-we pronounce llorar like "yorar"  llorar, llamar, llave  it sounds like the j from john  Perro
  • 53. In Spanish it is: • Yo amo • Tú amas • Él ama • Nosotros amamos • Ustedes aman • Ellos aman  the structure is the same: Pronoun + verb  The difference is in the form they are conjugat
  • 54. Spanish Italian Spanish basic sentence structure: SUBJECT+ VERB + COMPLEMENT Subject Pronouns & Verb Conjugation Verb Conjugation (Ser) Yo soy tú eres él/ella/usted es nosotros somos ustedes son ellos/ellas son "soy", "eres", "es", "somos", "son" y "son" The Italian basic form is: • subject (whoever the sentence is about) • + verb (the action that’s happening) • + object (not the subject) Verb Conjugation • io sono • tu sei • lui / lei è • noi siamo • voi siate • loro sono Different conjugations for each person • First Person = "I“ (sing.), "we,” (plural) • Second Person = "you" (singular & plural) • Third Person = "He/she/it/they) Person and Number in Spanish & Italian make learning these languages more difficult than learning English.
  • 56.
  • 57.  What makes a language difficult to learn?  What you have just heard is the many things that makes learning some languages more difficult to learn than others.  Learning a second language is dependent on the phonology, morphology, syntax, of L1 compared to L2.  Many of the difficulties in learning a second language are based on  how much they differ in structure from the first language and  how closely related the L1 and L2 structures are
  • 58.  Languages differ in phonology, the sound and rhythm of a language.  Sounds can be difficult especially if they do not exist in L1. A few languages use tones, a rising or falling pitch when a word is pronounced.  This can be very difficult for someone who has never used tones before. This is of the reasons why some languages are difficult to learn.
  • 59.  Morphology: rules of word formation, not all languages have the same grammatical system.  Some languages take a inflection and some do not, for example Greek, Italian, Spanish has more inflection than English.  In Nepali and Hindi verbs are inflected to show contrast between first, second and third person singular and plural
  • 60.  The syntax of most languages are different, Shelly mentioned that there are six possible orders but only three normally occur.  English and French, Spanish and Italian which derived from the Romantic languages follow a SVO syntax.  Nepali and Hindi share similar syntax and have a (SOV) order and adjectives are inflected for gender Figure 26.
  • 61.  Some nouns have different words in both languages.  Some verbs have different endings.  Some adjectives are different or have different endings.
  • 62.  The Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and a number of other languages) are famous for sharing many characteristics. It is not surprising since they all evolved from Latin.  Greek shares similarities in morphology and syntax with Italian. It would be easy for someone who learns one of these languages to go on and learn one of the others.  English borrows a lot of its words from other languages. There are many words in Spanish, Italian, and Greek that are cognates in English.
  • 63.  Learning a language closely related to your native language, or another that you already speak, is much easier than learning a completely alien one. Related languages share many characteristics and this tends to make them easier to learn as there are fewer new concepts to deal with.  Now think about this –  What is your native language?  How many languages have you learned?  How old are you?  In what environment are you learning the language?  All of these factors play a role in how challenging you may find a specific language.
  • 64.
  • 65. Bal, B. (n.d.). Structure of Nepali grammar. Retrieved from http://lsn.org.np/wpcontent/uploads/2012/08/Comparative-Hindi-Punjabi_67-82.pdf Collins, L., Tromfimovich, P., White, J., Cardoso, W., & Horst, M. (2009). Some input on the easy/difficult grammar question: an empirical study. The Modern Language Journal, 93, iii. Lighthouse, P. M., & Spada, N. (2013). How languages are learned (4th ed., pp. 14-15; 65-71; 103-119). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. Morwood, J., & Warman, M. (2008). Our Greek and Latin Roots (2nd ed., pp. 5-11). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://education.cambridge.org/media/577331/our_greek_and_latin_roots__second_edition__ cambridge_education___cambridge_university_press_samples.pdf Munro, R. (2013, April 4). “How the world communicates.” In Idibon. Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://idibon.com/idibon-at-strata/ National Security Agency. (n.d.-a) Unclassified. Foreign language learning: a comparative analysis of relative difficulty. Retrieved from https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_spectrum/foreign_language.pdf “Nepali language at Cornell” (2014, December 5). In Cornell University, Department of Asian Studies. Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://www.lrc.cornell.edu/asian/courses/nepali?d=basic
  • 66. O'Grady, W., Archibald, J., Aronoff, M., & Rees-Miller, J. (2005). Contemporary linguistics: an introduction (5th ed., pp. 1-12). New York, NY: St. Martin's Press. Parrot, M. (2010 ). Grammar for English language teachers (2nd ed., pp. 152-169). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Singh, M. (Ed.). (n.d.). Basic Hindi grammar handbook. Retrieved from http://www.hindimasterjee.com/pdf/Preview%20Hindimasterjee%20- %20Basic%20Grammar%20Handbook.pdf “What makes a language difficult?” (2013, August 28). In The Economist. Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/08/economist-explains-19
  • 67. List of figures adapted from original sources.
  • 68. Figure 1a. Easy Languages, closely related to English. Adapted from Adapted from Daily Infografic: Easy to learn languages–to achieve proficiency, n.d., Retrieved from http://dailyinfographic.com/what-are-the-hardest-languages-to-learn-infographic Figure 1b and 1c. Medium & Hard Languages to Learn. Adapted from Daily Infografic: Medium & Hard Languages –to achieve proficiency, n.d., Retrieved from http://dailyinfographic.com/what-are-the-hardest-languages-to-learn-infographic Figure 1d. Czech Proverb on languages. Adapted from Lingholic: Top ten proverbs about language learning, n.d., Retrieved from http://www.lingholic.com/top-ten-best-proverbs-language-learning/ Figure 1. World Languages. Adapted from Louis Diet Vorst’ blog: Hello World in Several Languages, 2012, Retrieved from https://louisdietvorst.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/hello-world-in-several-languages-md.png Figure 2. Ringing Telephone. Adapted from Nomi Water’s image: Yellow Phone Ringing. 2011, Retrieved from http://nomiwaters.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/yellow-phone-ringing.png Figure 3. Grammar Cloud. Adapted from Character Blog : Think Fast Grammar Quiz Answer Key, 2013, Retrieved from http://characterink.blogspot.com/2013/09/think-fast-grammar-quiz-answer- key.html Figure 3a. Types of Sentence Word Order. Adapted from National Security Agency (NSA): Foreign language learning -- a complex analysis of relative difficulty, p. 6, n.d., Retrieved from https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_spectrum/foreign_language.pdf Figure 4. Russian Language Tree. Adapted from the University of Oregon (UO), Russian Language Tree: The Linguistic Origins of Russian,n.d., Retrieved from https://interactivemedia.uoregon.edu/projects/russian-language-tree
  • 69. Figure 5. Sushi. Adapted from Clementine Cuisine: Makis-Saumon-avocet-avocado-salmon-sushi-rolls, n.d., Retrieved from http://www.clementinecuisine.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/makis-saumon- avocat-avocadosalmon-sushi-rolls-1-of-1-3.jpg Figure 6. Croissant. Adapted from Expotec: Croissant and other classic, n.d., Retrieved from http://events.expotec.us/frls/exhibitor/103113 Figure 7. Taco. Adapted from Animal Welfare: Where’s the Beef?, n.d., Retrieved from http://animalwelfareapproved.org/2011/01/31/wheres-the-beef/ Figure 8. Pizza. Adapted from Alpha Coders. Pizza with Tomatoes, n.d., Retrieved from http://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=412226 Figure 9. Pencil on paper. Adapted from Clipartclipart: Pencil Clip art, n.d., Retrieved from http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K4WI2111-n4/U6ys8r87S6I/AAAAAAAAByY/TE0uNn2XQPI/s1600/writing.png Figure 10. Turkish Language. Adapted from Turkey Travel Planner: Sampler of Turkish, n.d., Retrieved from http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/AssetsTurkey/Miscellaneous/TkTextSample.jpg Figure 11. French Language. Adapted from Howard Besser’s web site: French, n.d., Retrieved from http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/T-Shirts/egfenton/french.jpg Figure 12. Spanish Language. Adapted from Year 7 Spanish: Escribe el contrario de las opinions, 2009, Retrieved from http://year7spanish.wordpress.com/2009/03/ Figure 13. Italian Language. Adapted from Typhophile: Italiano, c.a. 2007, Retrieved from http://typophile.com/files/Screen%20shot%202012-09-05%20at%2018.42.07.png
  • 70. Figure 14. Russian Language. Adapted from Micropress: Russian, n.d., Retrieved from http://www.micropress-inc.com/fonts/lafonts/latextdh.gif Figure 15. Arabic Language. Adapted from Al Islam, the Official Site of the Ahmadiyya, 2014, Retrieved from https://www.alislam.org/quran/search2/verses/024-003.png Figure 16. Hebrew Language. Adapted from Jewish Reconstructionist Communities, in association with Reconstructionist Rabbinical College: Hebrew, 2014, Retrieved from http://www.jewishrecon.org/files/resources/images/hassal-siddur-pesach.jpg Figure 17. Korean Language. Adapted from Dragos Roua: The Language of Happiness, 2014, Retrieved from - http://www.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/korean-paul-corinthians.jpg Figure 18. Japanese Language. Adapted from Washington State Department of Health: Japanese, 2014, Retrieved from http://www.doh.wa.gov/portals/1/images/4200/Japanese1.jpg Figure 19. Map of Nepal. Adapted from SAARC Tourism, Nepal: Nepal Map, 2009, Retrieved from http://nepal.saarctourism.org/nepal-map.html Figure 20. Devanagari (Hindi Alphabet). Adapted from Img.Kid—the image kid has it!: Hindi Alphabet, n.d., Retrieved from http://imgkid.com/hindi-alphabet-chart-with-pictures.shtml
  • 71. Figure 21 (above). Greek Alphabet. Adapted from The Fonts: Acorn Classical Greek Alphabet, n.d., Retrieved from http://thefonts.com/A/AlphaFr/GreekClass.htm Figure 22 (below). Latin Alphabet. Adapted from Italia blogspot: L’alfabeto italiano, n.d., Retrieved from http://italia-upn.blogspot.com/2010/08/lalfabeto-italiano.html Figure 23. Italian Alphabet. Adapted from Importance of Languages: Importance of Italian, n.d., Retrieved from http://www.importanceoflanguages.com/LearnItalian/learn-italian-alphabet/ Figure 24. Spanish Alphabet. Adapted from Importance of Languages: Importance of Spanish, n.d., Retrieved from http://www.importanceoflanguages.com/LearnSpanish/tag/learn-spanish- alphabet/ Figure 25. Articles: Italian & Spanish. Adapted from Our Greek and Latin Roots: Syntax-Articles in Italian and Spanish, n.d., Retrieved from http://education.cambridge.org/media/577331/our_greek_and_latin_roots__second_edition____ cambridge_education___cambridge_university_press_samples.pdf Figure 26. Types of Sentence Word Order. Adapted from National Security Agency (NSA): Foreign language learning -- a complex analysis of relative difficulty, p. 6, n.d., Retrieved from https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_spectrum/foreign_language.pdf
  • 72. Bernadette López-Fitzsimmons Shelly Lekhraj Mingma Lama Lila Laizinou Janette Sarmiento Sandy Morris-Pryce

Editor's Notes

  1. Figure 1a. Easy Languages, closely related to English. Adapted from Adapted from Daily Infografic: Easy to learn languages–to achieve proficiency, n.d., Retrieved from http://dailyinfographic.com/what-are-the-hardest-languages-to-learn-infographic
  2. Figure 1b and 1c. Medium & Hard Languages to Learn. Adapted from Daily Infografic: Medium & Hard Languages –to achieve proficiency, n.d., Retrieved from http://dailyinfographic.com/what-are-the-hardest-languages-to-learn-infographic
  3. Figure 1d. Czech Proverb on languages. Adapted from Lingholic: “Top ten proverbs about language learning,” n.d., Retrieved from http://www.lingholic.com/top-ten-best-proverbs-language-learning/
  4. Figure 3a. Types of Sentence Word Order. Adapted from National Security Agency (NSA): “Foreign language learning -- a complex analysis of relative difficulty,” p. 6, n.d., Retrieved from https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_spectrum/foreign_language.pdf
  5. Figure 5. Sushi. Adapted from Clementine Cuisine: Makis-Saumon-avocet-avocado-salmon-sushi-rolls, n.d., Retrieved from http://www.clementinecuisine.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/makis-saumon-avocat-avocado-salmon-sushi-rolls-1-of-1-3.jpg Figure 6. Croissant. Adapted from Expotec: Croissant and other classic, n.d., Retrieved from http://events.expotec.us/frls/exhibitor/103113 Figure 7. Taco. Adapted from Animal Welfare: Where’s the Beef?, n.d., Retrieved from http://animalwelfareapproved.org/2011/01/31/wheres-the-beef/ Figure 8. Pizza. Adapted from Alpha Coders. Pizza with Tomatoes, n.d., Retrieved from http://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=412226
  6. Figure 10. Turkish Language. Adapted from Turkey Travel Planner: Sampler of Turikish, n.d., Retrieved from http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/AssetsTurkey/Miscellaneous/TkTextSample.jpg Figure 11. French Language. Adapted from Howard Besser’s web site: French, n.d., Retrieved from http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/T-Shirts/egfenton/french.jpg Figure 12. Spanish Language. Adapted from Year 7 Spanish: Escribe el contrario de las opinions, 2009, Retrieved from http://year7spanish.wordpress.com/2009/03/ Figure 13. Italian Language. Adapted from Typhophile: Italiano, c.a. 2007, Retrieved from http://typophile.com/files/Screen%20shot%202012-09-05%20at%2018.42.07.png
  7. Figure 14. Russian Language. Adapted from Micropress: Russian, n.d., Retrieved from http://www.micropress-inc.com/fonts/lafonts/latextdh.gif Figure 15. Arabic Language. Adapted from Al Islam, the Official Site of the Ahmadiyya, 2014, Retrieved from https://www.alislam.org/quran/search2/verses/024-003.png Figure 16. Hebrew Language. Adapted from Jewish Reconstructionist Communities, in association with Recontructionist Rabbinical College, 2014, Retrieved from http://www.jewishrecon.org/files/resources/images/hassal-siddur-pesach.jpg Figure 17. Korean Language. Adapted from Dragos Roua: The Language of Happiness, 2014, Retrieved from - http://www.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/korean-paul-corinthians.jpg Figure 18. Japanese Language. Adapted from Washington State Department of Health: Japanese, 2014, Retrieved from http://www.doh.wa.gov/portals/1/images/4200/Japanese1.jpg
  8. Figure 20. Devanagari (Equivalent to Alphabet). Adapted from
  9. Figure 21 (above). Greek Alphabet. Adapted from The Fonts: “Acorn Classical Greek Alphabet,” n.d., retrieved from http://thefonts.com/A/AlphaFr/GreekClass.htm Figure 22 (below). Latin Alphabet. Adapted from Italia blogspot: “L’alfabeto italiano,” n.d., Retrieved from http://italia-upn.blogspot.com/2010/08/lalfabeto-italiano.html
  10. Figure 23. Italian Alphabet. Adapted from Importance of Languages: Importance of Italian, n.d., Retrieved from http://www.importanceoflanguages.com/LearnItalian/learn-italian-alphabet/ Figure 24. Spanish Alphabet. Adapted from Importance of Languages: “Importance of Spanish,” n.d., Retrieved from http://www.importanceoflanguages.com/LearnSpanish/tag/learn-spanish-alphabet/
  11. Figure 25. Articles: Italian & Spanish. Adapted from Our Greek and Latin Roots: “Syntax-Articles in Italian and Spanish,” n.d., retrieved from http://education.cambridge.org/media/577331/our_greek_and_latin_roots__second_edition____cambridge_education___cambridge_university_press_samples.pdf
  12. Figure 26. Types of Sentence Word Order. Adapted from National Security Agency (NSA): “Foreign language learning -- a complex analysis of relative difficulty,” p. 6, n.d., Retrieved from https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_spectrum/foreign_language.pdf