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  #1  
Old 25-Dec-2003, 10:38
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Default Which language is easier?

Which language is easier? Agglutivative or analytic?

"The grammar of a language determines how the conceptual structures are linearized as strings of words in a sentence. English and Chinese, for example, put the subject first, the verb in the middle, and the object at the end for an SVO word order. Irish and Biblical Hebrew are VSO languages that put the verb first. Latin and Japanese are SOV languages that put the verb at the end. The grammar also determines how the units of meaning, called morphemes, are combined to form words. Chinese is an extreme example of an analytic language in which almost all the morphemes can be used as stand-alone words. German is an agglutinative language, which forms compound words like Lebensversicherungsgesellschaftsangestellter (life insurance company employee). Old English was an agglutinative language like German, but as it evolved into modern English, it became almost as analytic as Chinese. "

from: Concepts in the Lexicon: Introduction , by John F. Sowa
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Old 26-Dec-2003, 17:41
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I guess you mean Which language is easier to learn? Is there any way to determine that?
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Old 27-Dec-2003, 16:15
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If you mean as a first language, then there is little or no difference.If you mean as a second language, then it depends on the learner's background. I am learning a non-European language at the moment and it is far more difficult than the European languages I have studied before.
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