Method and Conclusion. See here.
Results. A ratings system was designed in terms of how difficult it would be for an English-language speaker to learn the language. In the case of English, English was judged according to how hard it would be for a non-English speaker to learn the language. Speaking, reading and writing were all considered.
Ratings: Languages are rated 1-6, easiest to hardest. 1 = easiest, 2 = moderately easy to average, 3 = average to moderately difficult, 4 = very difficult, 5 = extremely difficult, 6 = most difficult of all. Ratings are impressionistic.
Time needed. Time needed for an English language speaker to learn the language “reasonably well”: Level 1 languages = 3 months-1 year. Level 2 languages = 6 months-1 year. Level 3 languages = 1-2 years. Level 4 languages = 2 years. Level 5 languages = 3-4 years, but some may take longer. Level 6 languages = more than 4 years.
This post will look at the Tuyuca and Cuneo languages in terms of how difficult it would be for an English speaker to learn it.
Tucanoan
Eastern Tucanoan
Bará-Tuyuka
Tuyuca is a Tucanoan language spoken in by 450 people in the department of Vaupés in Colombia. An article in The Economist magazine concluded that it was the hardest language on Earth to learn.
It has a simple sound system, but it’s agglutinative, and agglutinative languages are pretty hard. For instance, hóabãsiriga means I don’t know how to write. It has two forms of 1st person plural, I and you (inclusive) and I and the others (exclusive). It has between 50-140 noun classes, including strange ones like bark that does not cling closely to a tree, which can be extended to mean baggy trousers or wet plywood that has begun to fall apart.
Like Yamana, a nearly extinct Amerindian language of Chile, Tuyuca marks for evidentiality, that is, how it is that you know something. For instance:
Diga ape-wi. = “The boy played soccer.” (I actually saw him playing).
Diga ape-hiyi. = “The boy played soccer.” (I assume he was playing soccer, though I did not actually see it firsthand).
Evidential marking is obligatory on all Tuyuca verbs, and it forces you to think about how you know whatever it is you know.
Tuyuca definitely gets a 6 rating!
Central Tucanoan
Cubeo, a language spoken in the Vaupes of Colombia, has a small closed class of adjective roots similar to Juǀʼhoan:
ɨra – “big/large”
kɨhĩ – “small”
bãbã – “new/young”
bɨkɨ – “old/great”
bẽa – “good/beautiful”
ãbẽ – “bad/ugly”
However, verbs can function as adjectives, and the adjective roots can either turn into nouns themselves or they can take the inflections of either nouns or verbs. Wild!
Similar to how the grammar of Tariana has been influenced by Tucano languages, the grammar of Tucanoan Cubeo has been influenced by neighboring Arawakan languages. The grammar has been described as either SOV or OVS. That would mean that the following:
“The man the ball hit.”
“The ball hit the man.”
Both mean the same thing: “The man hit the ball.”
OVS languages are quite rare.
Morphemes belong to one of four classes:
- Nasal (many roots, as well as suffixes like -xã = associative)
- Oral (many roots, as well as suffixes like -pe = similarity, -du = frustrative)
- Unmarked (only suffixes, e.g. -re = in/direct object)
- Oral/Nasal (some roots and some suffixes) /bãˈkaxa-/(mãˈkaxa-) – “to defecate” and -kebã = “suppose”
Just by looking at any given consonant-initial suffix, it is impossible to determine which of the first three categories it belongs to. They must be learned one by one.
Cubeo has nasal assimilation, common to many Amazonian languages. In some of these, nasalization is best analyzed at the syllable level – some syllables are nasal and others are not.
dĩ-bI-ko
/dĩ-bĩ-ko/
nĩmĩko = “She recently went.”
The underlying form dĩ-bI-ko is realized on the surface as nĩmĩko. The ĩ in dĩ-bI-ko nasalizes the d to the right of it along with the the b and and the I to the right of it, so nasal spreading works in both directions. However, it is blocked from the third syllable because k is part of a class of non-nasalizable consonants.
Pretty difficult language.
Cuneo gets a 6 rating, hardest of all.
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