Tuesday 22 December 2009

the world's most difficult language* (i read online)

Jim Funck explains how frustrated he gets when people who don't understand statistics rubbish statistics. He analogises it to Tucuyan, which The Economist says is the hardest language to learn on earth:
Most fascinating is a feature that would make any journalist tremble. Tuyuca requires verb-endings on statements to show how the speaker knows something. Diga ape-wi means that “the boy played soccer (I know because I saw him)”, while diga ape-hiyi means “the boy played soccer (I assume)”. English can provide such information, but for Tuyuca that is an obligatory ending on the verb. Evidential languages force speakers to think hard about how they learned what they say they know.

*It is not the language of love

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