Re: Hardest to learn between Russian and Irish
From: Fr. O'Malley (omalley_at_priest.com)
Date: 01/17/05
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Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 11:18:30 -0500
omega wrote in message ...
>Hello,
>
>I discovered these two languages recently and they both sound marvelous
>to me. I would like to learn at least one of the two, but I can't choose.
>
>So I think the best to do is to start by the simplest.
>
>What are your opinions about this ?
I don't know how to judge the relative simplicity of languages. I have
studied many but have found that there is always something more to
learn, even in my native one, English. Do I want to speak Estuarine?
I have to master the phonology and the idiom. Bronx? Same thing.
What is your ambition? In my remarks I will assume you want to be
able to read widely and communicate orally as quickly as possible.
"Fluency" and a "native" accent are the work of years or even decades
in any language. A talent for mimicry and an intellectual affinity for
discerning patterns distinguishes the tyro from the adept. But in
languages any degree of accomplishment is rewarding.
I don't know which is the simpler, but, having studied both, I would
suggest you start with Russian on the grounds that it is a language
of global importance and possessed of a world-class literature.
In short, there are more people to talk to and more to read in Russian.
I say this even though Irish (or "the Gaelic" as my grandmother called
it) was my grandparents' first language and was understood, though
poorly spoken, by my father. I had to learn the grammar in school
and through study on my own. But perhaps I can give you an insight
into some particular difficulties of each based on my experience.
First, the Russian alphabet should present little problem: in a week
you will be reading easy words. Russian's declensions are more
elaborate than Latin's or Greek's. There are three genders and some
strange anomalies when using numerals. Russian verbs have both
tense and aspect (aspect denotes completion / non-completion, or
iterative vs. semelfactive (done once)). These are in my opinion less
difficult to learn (there are exceptions to the theoretical rules in practice)
than the plethora of English tenses and aspects. If you are not a native
English speaker, you probably have scratched your head over the English
verbal chaos. The Russian past tense is not historically a "tense" but
rather a participle and changes for gender and number like an adjective
rather than person and number like a normal verb. And Russian has far
more participles than Latin but fewer than Greek. Modern Russian
lacks a verb "to be" in the present tense. Russian is of course
differentiated into dialects; once you learn some of the characteristics
it is fairly easy to read Ukrainian and Byelorussian. Also, as the Slavic
languages are much less differentiated amonst themselves than the
Romance languages, you will find it fairly easy to learn one of the West
or South Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian are
East Slavic).
Irish Gaelic has a standardized dialect which is taught in the schools.
It is based on the Connemara dialect; the other surviving dialects are
Munster (Cork and Kerry) and Donegal. My family spoke Munster but
that dialect's conjugations are a bit more complex than the Connemara
(West). Irish spelling, despite the reforms, is more of a challenge than
Russian (which, though not absolutely phonetic, is nearly so). I have
dictionaries in the old spelling and the new and I often cannot divine the
old spelling when looking up a word encountered in the new. Irish is a
Celtic language and as such changes the beginnings of the words as
well as the endings. The initial sounds are modified when the preceding
word ended (etymologically) in a nasal (eclipsis) or a vowel (aspiration).
This is a non-trivial phenomenon to master. On a practical basis, not
all the dialects are consistent in the use of these phenomena. You
will be understood and your efforts at speaking still greatly appreciated
even if you neglect them altogether. Nouns are declined in four cases.
Verbs have a wide variety of tenses (many are compounds like English).
The gerund or verbal noun replaces the infinitive but as a (declined) noun
it has a syntax which is awkward to learn initially. Prepositions are
"conjugated", i.e. the personal pronouns fuse with the preposition; but this
is fairly regular. The subject follows the verb and the pronoun is (in the
standard dialect) a separate word. In Munster the verbs are conjugated
much more like Latin with distinct endings (the Italic and Celtic languages
share many linguistic similarities).
In vocabulary, either language will present its own difficulties. Though
both are Indo-European, that is not much consolation for a native speaker
of English or a Romance or Germanic language. I think Russian might
be hard at least until you will have built up a large stock of roots. You
will find that calque translation will serve as a useful memory aid in many
cases.
Either one should be an enjoyable experience. Good luck. BTW, do
take a class if possible - your enthusiasm may flag without the support
of similarly motivated companions.
Fr. O'Malley
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