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最も難解な言語は何か
9ヵ国語を操るマルチりんがるであり、また外国語教員を専門とする大学教授という職業柄、筆者はよく「一番難しい言語は何か」との質問をよく受けるという。そこで筆者が用意しているのは、以下に述べる5通りの解答。なるほど、どれも「正解」だ。
What's the most difficult language?
Ever since I was a child, I've been interested in languages. Perhaps it's because I was born in Canada -- a bilingual country. Or perhaps it's because I love mysteries, and language is one of the biggest mysteries of all.
I grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was lucky to have a mother who spoke fluent French. As a child, I remember spying on her weekly French conversation group, listening to her friends speak in French and wondering, "What are they saying? I can't understand a word. It must be a secret language. I have to break the code!"
As a university student, I majored in linguistics. Now I speak nine languages: French, German, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and English.
As a linguist, one common question I often get asked is, "Which language is the most difficult?" For me, there are five answers.
The first answer is that the most difficult languages are those most different from your mother tongue. English and Japanese are linguistically distant, so English can seem difficult for Japanese speakers. In contrast, English and German are linguistically quite close, so Germans can learn English relatively easily.
The second answer is that the most difficult languages are those with a complex linguistic structure. Russian, for example, has a complicated grammatical system with complex verb cases, word endings and sound combinations. In contrast, Swahili has a relatively simple structure, which makes it easier to learn.
The third answer is that all languages are equally difficult. They just hide their difficulties in different places. Russian keeps its difficulties in its grammar and pronunciation. Japanese hides its difficulties in its writing system and honorifics. In other words, all languages are difficult. They're just difficult in different ways.
The fourth answer is that all languages are equally easy. Here's why. Imagine that we give a new-born baby girl to an Arab family. If we visit her 10 years later, we'll find she speaks fluent Arabic. Give the same baby to a family in China. After 10 years she'll speak fluent Chinese. It doesn't matter what kind of family we leave her with. In each case, she'll learn to speak their language fluently in the same amount of time. For babies, all languages are equally easy!
The final answer is that languages -- like other things -- are easy if you love them. If you love mountain climbing, you climb mountains even if they're difficult because you enjoy the challenge. In the same way, if you love a language, then studying it is a joy and you come to enjoy the difficulties.
What can we learn from this? First, that some questions have multiple answers. Second, that if you love languages, they can be easy. Motivation is everything!
- bilingual
- 二言語(英語と仏語)を併用する
- mysteries
- 神秘的な物事
- British Columbia
- ブリティッシュコロンビア州
- fluent
- 流暢な
- spying on 〜
- 〜をのぞき見する
- wondering
- 不思議に思って
- break the code
- 暗号を解読する
- majored in 〜
- 〜を専攻した
- linguistics
- 言語学
- Arabic
- アラビア語
- linguist
- 言語学者
- mother tongue
- 母語
- linguistically
- 言語学的に
- distant
- かけ離れて
- In contrast
- それに対して
- relatively
- 比較的
- complex
- 複雑な
- linguistic structure
- 言語構造
- complicated grammatical system
- 複雑な文法体系
- verb cases
- 動詞の格変化(=主語の人称や時制に応じて動詞の形が変わること)
- word endings
- 語尾
- sound combinations
- 音声配列
- Swahili
- スワヒリ語
- equally
- 等しく
- pronunciation
- 発音
- writing system
- 書記体系(=文章などを文字によって表記する際の系統的な方法)
- honorifics
- 敬語
- Here's why.
- 以下がその理由だ
- leave 〜 with
- 〜を預ける
- In each case
- いずれの場合も
- challenge
- 挑戦
- multiple answers
- 何通りもの解答
- Motivation
- やる気