Official languages in schools as well as government

[tkk7406]

What about Slovenian language having besides singular and plural another form called dual?

Example: Midva greva ven.
Translation: We two are going out.

*troll face*

Here's a site which shows how to write a verb in different tenses and "persons" in Ancient Greek:

https://sites.google.com/site/arxaiag/g ... /klise-lyo

And that's a regular verb. You can't even imagine how the irregular verbs are! We don't have a "dual" form, but we do have other issues to worry about!

[La_FuAzz]

What about Slovenian language having besides singular and plural another form called dual?

Example: Midva greva ven.
Translation: We two are going out.

*troll face*

Here's a site which shows how to write a verb in different tenses and "persons" in Ancient Greek:

https://sites.google.com/site/arxaiag/g ... /klise-lyo

And that's a regular verb. You can't even imagine how the irregular verbs are! We don't have a "dual" form, but we do have other issues to worry about!

Oh my, I need to learn almost all verbs in there for school...

In ancient Greek you have a lot of words which don't mean anything at all. Is this still the case in modern Greek? I often hear modern Greek is more English-like than ancient Greek (grammatically and the words-that-don't-mean-anything). Is that true?

I think what you're talking about is the tiny 2 lettered or 3 lettered words that go in the beginning of the verb or sentence. In that case, it's both yes and no. Yes because those words don't really translate into English but no because they are essential for the sentence to make sense. You get more of those words in Ancient Greek. As for the grammar, you're right. Modern Greek is a lot easier than Ancient Greek but I wouldn't go so far as to saying it's English-like. Yes, they do share more grammatical rules with each other than Ancient Greek but not that many to be honest.

Yes, I mean those tiny words Thanks!

[tkk7406]

Oh my, I need to learn almost all verbs in there for school...

And that's just ONE verb. That's the verb most use to remember all the other regular ones because it's easy. And depending on what you're learning in Anc. Gr., yes, you'll probably learn all of the verbs.

[La_FuAzz]

Yeah I meant the variations on the verb (aoristi, media, active verbs and of course the praesens, aoristus, imperfectum, do you call them like that too?) But I also need to learn the irregular verbs and the Verba Contracta and some other verbs. I find nouns supriseley easy ('η οικια, 'η νικη, 'ο νεανιασ, το τεκνον, 'ο δουλοσ, 'ο δαιμων, το σωμα etcetera). You Greek guys still use these words (I don't think you have slaves btw )?

[LoaderSaints]

It's not because English is compulsory that we know speak english

We have the same thing with Swedish here in Finland, hehe.

[LA-MJ]

Speaking of hard languages, and I am obviously subjective here, but I don't think many surpass Lithuanian. Sure we use an extended LTR latin script and many latin/greek/sanscrit/slavic derived words and the spelling is more straightforward than in English but that's where all the easy stuff ends.

There are many similarities to German but many things are extra over-the-top here.

You know German has 4 cases for declension, right? We have 7. Those apply to pronouns and adjectives as well obviously. There are 5 groups/rules for noun declension, 3 groups for adjectives (those have comparative and superlative ofc) and a few types of pronouns (can't even remember the nomenclature now:P). Nouns, pronouns and adjectives have 2 main genders and an extra one for some person-less expressions like 'it's cold today'. Some nouns have irregular plurals just like in English. By the way, prepositions cause as much a havoc as in German.

As for verbs, we have 3 different persons for both singular and plural, 4 main tenses and at least 5 different participles (the main one has all those tenses as well). Many of those verb forms have different active and passive voices as well. Many things can be grouped together and derived just looking at the word endings. There are always exceptions though, irregular verbs, I guess you would call them. The good news is we have only one infinitive and modal verbs are less of a pain than in English. The bad news is verb prefixes mean everything.

Obviously almost all words in a sentence must have their endings concerted just like in German. That's because word order is practically undefined. You can switch them all you like with the meaning (mostly) intact due to those word endings.

Don't even get me started on all the different rules for stressing syllables when speaking. Damn the Sanskrit origins. Most Lithuanians (including me) can't do it properly in many cases Oh and believe it or not we do have dialects as well. 3 million people and still we can't understand one another

Why so convoluted, you ask? The reason is our language is supposedly most archaic in all the Indoeuropean group and there is no push to simplify it, on the contrary, it is quite protected.

And to think many ignorant people think we speak Russian...

[tkk7406]

I find nouns supriseley easy ('η οικια, 'η νικη, 'ο νεανιασ, το τεκνον, 'ο δουλοσ, 'ο δαιμων, το σωμα etcetera)

Yeah, the nouns are quite a lot easier.

. You Greek guys still use these words (I don't think you have slaves btw )?

Don't really understand what you're trying to say, I'll just gloss over that.

Yeah I meant the variations on the verb (aoristi, media, active verbs and of course the praesens, aoristus, imperfectum, do you call them like that too?)

No I don't call them like that. We have different names in Greek. If you're talking about the tenses, only the aoristus is similarly pronounced in Greek.

[n4gix.bill.leaming]

Honestly, I think Yiddish is likely the most convoluted and difficult language to master...

Not only are most words 'borrowed' from Middle-High-German*, there's a healthy dose of Hebrew thrown in for good measure...

...and the written form is entirely in Hebrew, which is of course written right to left.

What is truly comical to me are the number of Yiddish words that have found their way into English!

"Oy veh! Just look at the shnoz on that shlimazl! All that meat there means his shvantz must be tiny!"

* In reality, there are a lot of words from Slovenian languages as well.

[volan123]

Slovenian languages? Did you mean Slavic languages?