ARE SOME LANGUAGES

MORE DIFFICULT TO LEARN THAN

OTHERS?

LCD 740.1Prof. Lauren Heffernan Fall 2014

• Bernadette López- Fitzsimmons

• Shelly Lekhraj

• Mingma Lama

• Lila Laizinou

• Janette Sarmiento

• Sandy Morris-Pryce

TODAY’S PROGRAMPresenter Topic

Bernadette López-Fitzsimmons

Introduction

Shelly Lekhraj Factors that make it easier/difficult to learn a language

Mingma Lama Nepali & Hindi

Lila Laizinou Greek & Italian

Janette Sarmiento Spanish & Italian

Sandy Morris-Pryce Conclusion

References & Images

INTRODUCTION

Bernadette López-Fitzsimmons

INTRODUCTIONWHAT MAKES A LANGUAGE DIFFICULT? Category 1:

Spanish, Swedish 575-600 hours French

Category 2: Russian Hebrew 1100 hours Icelandic

Category 1: Resemble English Many cognates

German = 750 hours Highly Complex Grammar

Category 2: Significant Linguistic & Cultural

Differences from English Harder to learn for an English

speaker

Vietnamese & Thai More difficult to learn

BUT Greek, Czech & Swahili are

easier

than Vietnamese and Thai

INTRODUCTION CONTINUED…

Category 3: Arabic Japanese 2200

hour

Mandarin

Most Difficult Arabic Cantonese Writing Mandarin Japanese Korean

Figure 1a.

INTRODUCTION CONTINUED…

Figure 1b.Figure 1c.

PHONOLOGY

SIMILARITIESMORPHOLOGYPHONOLOGYSYNTAXALPHABETWRITING SYSTEMLEXICOLOGYFactors that influence language learning

Nepali and Hindi

Greek and Italian

Spanish and Italian

Figure 1d.

FACTORS THAT MAKE IT

EASIER/DIFFICULT TO LEARN A LANGUAGE

SHELLY LEKHRAJ

Figure1

Figure 1. WorldLanguages. Adapted from Louis Diet Vorst’ blog: Hello World in Several Languages, 2012. Retrieved from – https://louisdietvorst.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/hello-world-in-several-languages-md.png

PHONOLOGY

Differences in articulation, rhythm, tone English lacks some vowel phonemes in French, leads to

difficulty for English speakers Sounds can cause difficulty if it does not exist in L1, is

pronounced differently, or occurs in a different position in a word English lacks some sounds in Japanese

Differences in how languages divide speech into syllables /-ts/ in English (cats) vs. /ts-/ in Japanese (tsuki) and Russian

(tsentr)

Differences in rhythm Japanese has a syllable-timed rhythm: /okinawa/ English has a stress-timed rhythm: /man/ vs. /manager/

Figure 2. Ringing Telephone. Adapted from Nomi Water’s image: Yellow Phone Ringing. 2011,

Retrieved from http://nomiwaters.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/yellow-phone-ringing.png

Figure 2

MORPHOLOGY Not all languages have the same grammatical system Chinese has no inflection, affix, number, gender, person,

tense, mood, aspect Chinese sentences contain independent words that express a

distinct idea Man love woman = The man loves the woman

Japanese, Arabic and Russian are inflectional and derivational /omeshiagarasekanemashitaraba/ Prefix o represents the speaker’s respect to the listener meshiagar is a stem verb meaning eat, drink ase means have/let or make someone do something kane means hesitate or impossible to do something mashitaraba means if someone does something Omeshiagarasekanemashitaraba means “if (you, Sir)

hesitate to have (someone) eat (something)”

Figure 3. Grammar Cloud. Adapted from Character Blog : Think Fast Grammar Quiz Answer Key,

2013, Retrieved from http://characterink.blogspot.com/2013/09/think-fast-grammar-quiz-answer-key.html

Figure 3

SYNTAX

All languages have SOV in sentences There are six possible orders, but 3

normally occur:

Figure 3a. Word Order

LEXICOLOGY Languages arrived from the same

original source have a genetic relationship

Figure 4. Russian Language Tree. Adapted from the University of Oregon (UO), Russian Language Tree: The Linguistic Origins of

Russian,n.d.,

Retrieved from https://interactivemedia.uoregon.edu/projects/russian-language-tree

Figure 4.

LEXICOLOGY Cognates – words in 2 languages that

share a smiliar meaning and spellingMan=mann, class=clase

Borrowing – borrow words from another languageSushi, croissant, taco, pizza

Figure 5.

Figure 6.

Figure 7.

Figure 8.

Figures 5-8. See below in Added Notes section.

WRITING SYSTEM

Some languages use English alphabetTurkish, French, Spanish, Italian use Latin

Some languages use scriptsCyrillic in Russian, Alifba in Arabic, Alepbet

in Hebrew, Hangul in Korean, Katakana in Japanese

Russian alphabet has 33 symbolsArabic alphabet has 28 consonantal

symbols and some vocalic symbols with different variations

Hebrew has 22 symbols with different variations

Figure 9. Pencil on paper. Adapted from Clipartclipart: Pencil Clip art, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K4WI2111-n4/U6ys8r87S6I/AAAAAAAAByY/TE0uNn2XQPI/s1600/writing.png

Figure 9.

~ALPHABET~

Turkish

SpanishItalian

FrenchFigure 10. Figure 11.

Figure 12.

Figure 13.

~SCRIPT~Russian

Arabic

Hebrew

JapaneseKorean

Figure 14.

Figure 15.

Figure 16.

Figure 17.Figure 18.

EXAMPLES OF SOME LANGUAGES

NEPALI & HINDIGREEK & ITALIAN

SPANISH & ENGLISH

NEPALI & HINDI Mingma Lama

NEPAL & NEPALI LANGUAGE

Nepal is a landlocked country located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and is bordered by China in the North and the East, West and South are bordered by India.Nepali is the national language of Nepal.Figure 19

Figure 19. Map of Nepal. Adapted from

NEPALI LINGUISTIC BACKGROUND Nepal is a multilinguistic country whose

heritage evolved from four language groups; Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Mangolian and various indigenous languages.

Major languages of Nepal are as follows; Nepali (69%), Maithili (7%), Bhojpuri (5%), Tharu (3%), Tamang (2%), Gurung (1.5%), Newari/Nepal Bhasa (1%),Rai (1%), Awadhi (1%) Bajjika (1%),Limbu (1%) and Magar (1%).

Nepali is considered the mother tongue and is used in nationwide educational, public administration and mass communication system.

NEPALI LANGUAGE HISTORY

Nepali is an Indo-Aryan language rooted from Sanskrit ( classical language of India).

History of usage of Nepali language dates back to 12th century A.D.

Nepali is written in Devangari alphabet which was in turn developed from Brahmi Script.

Nepali is linguistically most closely related to Hindi.

Linguistically, Nepali and Hindi have similar scripts and technical vocabulary with minor differences.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN NEPALI AND HINDI

• Indo-Aryan Language descendent of Indo-European language.

• Sanskrit is a common source of vocabulary.• Written in Devangari alphabet• Same vowel and vowel signs.• Same consonants.• Scripts have no capital letters. eg. Black = का�लो� (Kalo), का�लो� (Kali), का�लो� (Kala)• Same numerals : २ ३ ४ ५ ६ ७ ८ ९ ९ ੦ ੧ ੦

DEVANGARI ALPHABET (SYLLABARY)

Figure 20.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN NEPALI AND HINDI

Similar Syntax.

Verbs are placed at the end of the sentence. e.g., English (Subject Verb Object) =

I learn Hindi. Hindi/Nepali (Subject Object Verb) =

I Hindi learn.

Adjectives inflect for gender (masculine vs. feminine), and number (singular vs. plural).

e.g., Black (adj) = का�लो� (Kalo/M), का�लो� (Kali/F), का�लो� (Kala/pl. M/F))

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN NEPALI AND HINDI

Verbs inflect to show contrast between 1,2 and 3 person singular and plural numbers, gender and tense.

Verbs also inflect to show honorifics in second and third person.

Eg. To write = lekhnu/na2ND Person (Respect) = lekhdije (Hindi) = lekhdinush (Nepali)2ND Person (Equal) = lekhdho (Hindi) = lekhdeu (Nepali)2nd Person (Junior) = lekhde (Nepali and Hindi)

NEPALI /HINDI VOWELS

Free forms of vowel and vowel signs are used when single vowel constitutes the syllabus. Free Vowels : अ,आ,इ,ई,उ,ऊ,ऋ,ए,ऐ,ओ,औ Vowel sign: ◌◌� �◌◌ ◌� ◌� ◌� ◌� ◌� ◌ ◌� ◌!

When the vowels are preceded by consonants, the conjunct forms of vowels or vowel signs are written. Consonants का,ख,ग,घ,ङ,च,छ,ज,झ,ञ,ट,ठ,ड,ढ,ण,त,थ

Example: �◌ग = �◌◌ before the consonant ग सी� = ◌� after the consonant सी

CONJUNCT CONSONANTS

In Nepali and Hindi when two or more consonants occur without a vowel and the combination is written as a single unit, it is known as conjunct consonant.

For example; छ in बः4छ, baschha (sits) or Iछ in मा�Iछ�, manchhe (man) are written as a single unit.

The elements in both the above conjunct consonants are half characters preceding the full characters and are parts of consonant characters सी and न respectively.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NEPALI AND HINDI Some nouns have different words in both languages.

e.g., Window = Jhayl (Nepali),

Khidki (Hindi)

Some verbs have different ending.

e.g.,To write = Lekhnu (Nepali)

Lekhna (Hindi)

Some adjectives are different or have different ending.

e.g. Fat = Moto (Nepali)

Mota (Hindi),

GREEK & ITALIAN

Lila Laizinou

GREEK LANGUAGE

Do you know these words?

alphabet, anatomy, anecdote, astronomy, classical, democracy,

dialogue, diphthong, dyslexia, enthusiasm, etymology, geography,

hypothesis, metaphor, metamorphosis, orthography, paraphrase, phenomenon,

psychiatrist, political, sympathy, synopsis

Then you know some Greek!

GREEK - ITALIAN LINGUISTIC BACKROUND

Ancient Greek and Latin had a lot of similarities, especially in Morphology and Syntax, as they were both classical languages.

They were used as Lingua Franca at the classical period.

They both belong to the Indo-European family languages.

The Hellenic Branch consists only of Modern Greek.

The Latin Branch include Italic or Romance languages. The five most widely spoken Romance languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian.

SIMILARITIES

Greek and Italian are both synthetic languages.

A synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low one which is described in isolating languages e.g., Isolating Languages--like English and Chinese— have a low morpheme-per-word ratio.

Syntactic relations within sentences are expressed by inflection.

The suffixes that are used in both languages can indicate the role of a word within a sentence. That was a characteristic of Ancient Greek and Latin.

MORE ON SIMILARITIES… Greek and Italian are inflected languages, like the other

languages of the Latin Branch. Verb changes form for

Person Number Tense Mood Aspect Voice (e.g., Passive vs. Active)

For example: «χορεύουμε» (v) “baliamo” = “we are dancing”

(1st person, plural, present tense, progressive, indicative, active voice)

«χόρευαν» (v) “balavano” = “they were dancing” (3rd person, plural, past progressive, indicative, active voice)

A single inflected verb may contain as much information as an entire English sentence with

various words.

SIMILARITIES CONTINUED…

The subject of the verb is indicated by the suffix and person can be dismissed. For example:

Πιστεύω [pιstέv-o] /Credo [krέd-o]= I believe Πιστεύουμε [pιstέv-ume] / Credemo [krεd-έmo]= We believe

Adjectives and nouns indicate gender and number through the use of morphological endings. «όμορφο αγόρι» [omorf-o aγor-ι] “ragazzo bello” [ragač-o bεl-o] «όμορφα αγόρια» [omorf-a aγorι-a] “ragazzi belli” ” [ragač-i bεl-i] «όμορφη κοπέλα» [οmorf-ι kopel-a] “ragazza bella” [ragač-a bel-a ] «όμορφες κοπέλες» [οmorf-εs kopεl-εs] “ragazze belle”[ragač-ε bel-ε ]

MORE ON SIMILARITIES… Productivity in Greek and Italian are a

considerable characteristic of both languages.

A lot of derivational affixes are used and form new words through a very productive system.

Every suffix has several grammatical functions. Examples:

Παίζω (v)/ play (v) παίχτης-παίχτρια, παιχνίδι, παιχνιδιάρης, παιχνιδιάρα, παιδί, παιδικός ...and a lot of other words.

Giocare(v), giocatore/ giocatrice Calcolare (v), calcolatore/ calcolatrice

SIMILARITIES CONTINUED …

Greek and Italian follow the SVO pattern. Subject (S) Verb (V) Object (O)

However, the word order in a sentence can change in various ways. Changing the word order demonstrates lots of

freedom in Greek language.

Examples: Πηγαίνω στο σχολείο κάθε μέρα. Κάθε μέρα πηγαίνω

στο σχολείο. Στο σχολείο πηγαίνω κάθε μέρα. I’m going to school every day. *Every day I’m going to

school. * At school I’m going every day.

The above sentences structure are acceptable in Italian Language.

Vado a scuola ogni giorno. Ogni giorno vado a scuola. A scuola vado ogni giorno.

PRONUNCIATION

Phonology Stress and Intonation

Modern Greek is an almost completely phonetic language: Not as much as Italian

and Spanish. Much more than English

or French.

Some sounds may be changed depending on their surroundings. An Italian native speaker

could acquire the Greek pronunciation.

Stress is dynamic in Greek and Italian. There is a stressed syllable

that sounds launder than an unstressed syllable.

Greek and Italian intonation when asking questions-“raising”- of the voice is similar. Raising one’s voice doesn’t

cause any difficulties between two languages.

DIFFERENCES

AlphabetGreek and Latin

Alphabets

The Greek Alphabet is non-Latin.

Even though the Latin Alphabet is derived from the Greek.

The Greek Alphabet has 24 letters.

The Latin Alphabet The basic alphabet consists of 21 letters. The latters J,K,W,X and Y are not part of the proper alphabet and are used only for foreign words.

The English alphabet has 26 letters like the Latin Alphabet.

Figure 21 (above). Greek Alphabet.

Figure 22 (above) Latin Alphabet.

PRONUNCIATION AND ORTHOGRAPHY

Italian language lacks velar continuants /γ/ /x/, dental continuants /δ/,/θ/

which existed in Greek.

The Greek vowels sounds coincide with the five vowels of the Italian alphabet: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/

Whereas, Greek Orthography is related to ancient Greek roots which are reflected in today’s words. These are commonly seen

in Greek consonants combinations known as Greek diphthongs.

Greek includes several digraphs, including various pairs of vowel letters that are pronounced as diphthongs but have been shortened into monophthongs in pronunciation.

A digraph is a pair of letters used to write one sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters in sequence.

Vowel combination in Greek οι, ει, ι, η, υι, refers to the

sound/e/ aι, ε refers to the sound /ε/ ου refers to the sound /u/ αυ to /av/ορ /ef/ ευ to /ev/or

/ef/

PRONUNCIATION AND ORTHOGRAPHYCONTINUED …

In both languages there are words with double consonants.

In Italian language, double consonants makes the sound to be lengthened or, sometimes change the pronunciation.

For example:

be-ll-o /a-nn-o/ no-nn-a ch-iamo [kiamo] raga-zz-o [ragatso]

Whereas, in Greek language two identical consonants are pronounced as a single sound.

Γρα-μμ-α /γrama/ = letter, τέ-σσ-ερα /tεčεra/ = four

Two different consonants

are pronounced with a single different sound or two different sounds.

Αγγλία /aglia/= England άγχος /aγxos/ = anxiety

GRAMMAR: CASES, PREPOSITIONS, SUFFIXES, ETC.

Modern Greek has four grammar cases for Articles Nouns Adjectives

EXAMPLE : Nominative

η όμορφη κοπέλα la ragazza bella

Genitive της όμορφης κοπέλας della ragazza bella

Accusative την όμορφη κοπέλα la ragazza bella

Vocative (-) όμορφη κοπέλα ragazza bella

The variety of suffixes in nouns and adjectives indicate a different genders and cases.

This variation in suffixes can cause some difficulties .

Italian lost its case system, even though the cases existed in Latin.

Italian and the languages of the Latin Branch indicate grammar cases

through prepositions (example)

NOUNS, ADJECTIVES & GENDER

Greek language has three gender forms for nouns and adjectives: Masculine Feminine Neuter

Italian language has two gender forms: Masculine Feminine

Adjectives follow the nouns in Italian language in most of the cases.

“E una ragazza buona.” In Greek language,

adjectives precede nouns, even though they could in some cases follow the nouns as well (to give emphasis).

«Είναι μια όμορφη κοπέλα.»(adj-noun)

«Είναι μια κοπέλα όμορφη.»(noun-adj)

SPANISH & ITALIAN

Janette Sarmiento

SPANISH AND ITALIAN: BACKGROUND

Italian and Spanish, along with French and Romanian, are from the Romance language family.

Italian and Spanish developed from everyday Latin.

Everyday Latin was called Vulgar Latin, from the word 'vulgis', and this comes from the Latin word which means ordinary people is vulgus.

Italian and Spanish developed from the language they spoke.

ALPHABETS: ITALIAN & SPANISH

21 letters

Italian words with j, k, w, x or y, they are borrowed from another language.

29 letters

Figure 23.Figure 24.

MORPHOLOGYSPANISH VS. ITALIAN

Italian Spanish English

migliore morto

tempo la porta

la risposta forte

Giardino

mejor muerto tiempopuerta

la respuestaFuertejardín

BetterDeadTimeDoor

The responseStrong

Garden

Words in Italian and Spanish are similar because they share the same Latin root.

PHONOLOGY: SPANISH & ITALIAN

VOWELS

Spanish Italian Both Spanish & Italian

There is one, only one sound for /e/

and /o/

If you say "amor", "mamá", "papá", "amigo", the /a/

will have the same sound in all cases, and so /o/, /i/, and

the rest of the vowels.

Spanish when the syllable is stressed.

-/o/ has two versions, and so

/e/Examples: Morto

(dead)Posto (position)

-One similarity is in the following vowels: /a/, /i/ and /u/. They

sound very similar in both languages.

PHONOLOGY: SPANISH In Spanish, you can change the way you

pronounce "g" and "q", adding an "u"The word "gente" (people) is pronounced

different to the word "guerra" (war). That's because of the "u.”

In Spanish we added "u". Now, instead of the "u", we add an "h" in Spanish we say "que". In Spanish, you make a hard sound adding

"u" after "q" or "g".

PHONOLOGY: ITALIAN Something similar happens in Italian, in fact.

The hard version of the letters "c" and "g" is used when you add an "h" besides them.

➢In Italian we say "che." In Italian, you make a hard sound adding "h"

after "c" or "g"

For a hard sound, you use "h" in Italian and "u" in Spanish.

PHONOLOGY: SIMILARITIES

Examples: che (Italian) = que (Spanish)= what. They mean the same and are spelled the

same.

quando (Italian) = cuando (Spanish) = when. They mean the same, and they are

pronounced the same way too.

quanto (Italian) = cuánto (Spanish) = how much

They mean the same, the are pronounced the same, but they are written differentl

CONSONANTS In both languages there

are many words with double consonants.

For example in Italian azzurro and bello, that makes the sound to be lengthened.

In Spanish there are only 2 double consonants l and r, they are.

Examples:

"llorar"-to cry-we pronounce llorar like "yorar"

llorar, llamar, llave

it sounds like the j from john

Perro

SYNTAXFigure 25.

SIMPLE TENSES

In Spanish it is: • Yo amo • Tú amas• Él ama• Nosotros amamos• Ustedes aman• Ellos aman the structure is the same: Pronoun + verb The difference is in the form they are conjugat

BASIC WORD STRUCTURESpanish Italian

Spanish basic sentence structure:SUBJECT+ VERB + COMPLEMENT

Subject Pronouns & Verb Conjugation

Verb Conjugation (Ser) Yo soy tú eres

él/ella/usted es nosotros somos

ustedes son ellos/ellas son

"soy", "eres", "es", "somos", "son" y "son"

The Italian basic form is: • subject (whoever the sentence is

about) • + verb (the action that’s

happening) • + object (not the subject) Verb Conjugation • io sono• tu sei• lui / lei è• noi siamo• voi siate• loro sono

Different conjugations for each person • First Person = "I“ (sing.), "we,”

(plural)• Second Person = "you" (singular &

plural)

• Third Person = "He/she/it/they)

Person and Number in Spanish & Italian make learning these languages more difficult than learning English.

CONCLUSION

Sandy Morris-Pryce

CONCLUSION

ARE SOME LANGUAGES MORE DIFFICULT TO

LEARN THAN OTHERS?

What makes a language difficult to learn?

What you have just heard is the many things that makes learning some languages more difficult to learn than others.

Learning a second language is dependent on the phonology, morphology, syntax, of L1 compared to L2.

Many of the difficulties in learning a second language are based on how much they differ in structure from the

first language and how closely related the L1 and L2 structures

are

Languages differ in phonology, the sound and rhythm of a language.

Sounds can be difficult especially if they do not exist in L1. A few languages use tones, a rising or falling pitch when a word is pronounced.

This can be very difficult for someone who has never used tones before. This is of the reasons why some languages are difficult to learn.

PHONOLOGY

MORPHOLOGY

Morphology: rules of word formation, not all languages have the same grammatical system.

Some languages take a inflection and some do not, for example Greek, Italian, Spanish has more inflection than English.

In Nepali and Hindi verbs are inflected to show contrast between first, second and third person singular and plural

SYNTAX The syntax of most languages are different, Shelly

mentioned that there are six possible orders but only three normally occur.

English and French, Spanish and Italian which derived from the Romantic languages follow a SVO syntax.

Nepali and Hindi share similar syntax and have a (SOV) order

and adjectives are inflected for gender

Figure 26.

MINOR DIFFERENCES IN NEPALI AND HINDI

Some nouns have different words in both languages.

Some verbs have different endings.

Some adjectives are different or have different endings.

RELATED LANGUAGES The Romance languages (French, Spanish,

Italian, Portuguese and a number of other languages) are famous for sharing many characteristics. It is not surprising since they all evolved from Latin.

Greek shares similarities in morphology and syntax with Italian. It would be easy for someone who learns one of these languages to go on and learn one of the others.

English borrows a lot of its words from other languages. There are many words in Spanish, Italian, and Greek that are cognates in English.

Learning a language closely related to your native language, or another that you already speak, is much easier than learning a completely alien one. Related languages share many characteristics and this tends to make them easier to learn as there are fewer new concepts to deal with.

Now think about this – What is your native language? How many languages have you learned? How old are you? In what environment are you learning the

language? All of these factors play a role in how

challenging you may find a specific language.

REFERENCES

REFERENCESBal, B. (n.d.). Structure of Nepali grammar. Retrieved from

http://lsn.org.np/wpcontent/uploads/2012/08/Comparative-Hindi-Punjabi_67-82.pdf

Collins, L., Tromfimovich, P., White, J., Cardoso, W., & Horst, M. (2009). Some input on the easy/difficult grammar

question: an empirical study. The Modern Language Journal, 93, iii.

Lighthouse, P. M., & Spada, N. (2013). How languages are learned (4th ed., pp. 14-15; 65-71; 103-119). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Morwood, J., & Warman, M. (2008). Our Greek and Latin Roots (2nd ed., pp. 5-11). New York, NY: Cambridge University

Press. Retrieved from http://education.cambridge.org/media/577331/our_greek_and_latin_roots__second_edition__

cambridge_education___cambridge_university_press_samples.pdf

Munro, R. (2013, April 4). “How the world communicates.” In Idibon. Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://idibon.com/idibon-at-strata/

National Security Agency. (n.d.-a) Unclassified. Foreign language learning: a comparative analysis of relative difficulty.

Retrieved from https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_spectrum/foreign_language.pdf

“Nepali language at Cornell” (2014, December 5). In Cornell University, Department of Asian Studies. Retrieved

December 7, 2014, from http://www.lrc.cornell.edu/asian/courses/nepali?d=basic

REFERENCES CONTINUED …O'Grady, W., Archibald, J., Aronoff, M., & Rees-Miller, J. (2005). Contemporary linguistics: an introduction (5th

ed., pp. 1-12). New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.

Parrot, M. (2010 ). Grammar for English language teachers (2nd ed., pp. 152-169). Cambridge,

United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Singh, M. (Ed.). (n.d.). Basic Hindi grammar handbook. Retrieved from

http://www.hindimasterjee.com/pdf/Preview%20Hindimasterjee%20-

%20Basic%20Grammar%20Handbook.pdf

“What makes a language difficult?” (2013, August 28). In The Economist. Retrieved December 7, 2014, from

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/08/economist-explains-19

FIGURES

List of figures adapted

from

original sources.

FIGURESFigure 1a. Easy Languages, closely related to English. Adapted from Adapted from Daily Infografic: Easy to learn languages–to achieve

proficiency, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://dailyinfographic.com/what-are-the-hardest-languages-to-learn-infographic

Figure 1b and 1c. Medium & Hard Languages to Learn. Adapted from Daily Infografic: Medium & Hard Languages –to achieve

proficiency, n.d., Retrieved from http://dailyinfographic.com/what-are-the-hardest-languages-to-learn-infographic

Figure 1d. Czech Proverb on languages. Adapted from Lingholic: Top ten proverbs about language learning, n.d., Retrieved from

http://www.lingholic.com/top-ten-best-proverbs-language-learning/

Figure 1. World Languages. Adapted from Louis Diet Vorst’ blog: Hello World in Several

Languages, 2012,

Retrieved from https://louisdietvorst.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/hello-world-in-several-languages-md.png

Figure 2. Ringing Telephone. Adapted from Nomi Water’s image: Yellow Phone Ringing. 2011,

Retrieved from http://nomiwaters.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/yellow-phone-ringing.png

Figure 3. Grammar Cloud. Adapted from Character Blog : Think Fast Grammar Quiz Answer Key,

2013,

Retrieved from http://characterink.blogspot.com/2013/09/think-fast-grammar-quiz-answer-

key.html

Figure 3a. Types of Sentence Word Order. Adapted from National Security Agency (NSA): Foreign language

learning -- a complex analysis of relative difficulty, p. 6, n.d.,

Retrieved from https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_spectrum/foreign_language.pdf

Figure 4. Russian Language Tree. Adapted from the University of Oregon (UO), Russian Language Tree:

The Linguistic Origins of Russian,n.d.,

Retrieved from https://interactivemedia.uoregon.edu/projects/russian-language-tree

FIGURES CONTINUED…Figure 5. Sushi. Adapted from Clementine Cuisine: Makis-Saumon-avocet-avocado-salmon-sushi-rolls, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://www.clementinecuisine.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/makis-saumon-

avocat-avocadosalmon-sushi-rolls-1-of-1-3.jpg

Figure 6. Croissant. Adapted from Expotec: Croissant and other classic, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://events.expotec.us/frls/exhibitor/103113

Figure 7. Taco. Adapted from Animal Welfare: Where’s the Beef?, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://animalwelfareapproved.org/2011/01/31/wheres-the-beef/

Figure 8. Pizza. Adapted from Alpha Coders. Pizza with Tomatoes, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=412226

Figure 9. Pencil on paper. Adapted from Clipartclipart: Pencil Clip art, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K4WI2111-n4/U6ys8r87S6I/AAAAAAAAByY/TE0uNn2XQPI/s1600/writing.png

Figure 10. Turkish Language. Adapted from Turkey Travel Planner: Sampler of Turkish, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/AssetsTurkey/Miscellaneous/TkTextSample.jpg

Figure 11. French Language. Adapted from Howard Besser’s web site: French, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/T-Shirts/egfenton/french.jpg

Figure 12. Spanish Language. Adapted from Year 7 Spanish: Escribe el contrario de las opinions, 2009,

Retrieved from http://year7spanish.wordpress.com/2009/03/

Figure 13. Italian Language. Adapted from Typhophile: Italiano, c.a. 2007,

Retrieved from http://typophile.com/files/Screen%20shot%202012-09-05%20at%2018.42.07.png

FIGURES CONTINUED ….Figure 14. Russian Language. Adapted from Micropress: Russian, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://www.micropress-inc.com/fonts/lafonts/latextdh.gif

Figure 15. Arabic Language. Adapted from Al Islam, the Official Site of the Ahmadiyya, 2014,

Retrieved from https://www.alislam.org/quran/search2/verses/024-003.png

Figure 16. Hebrew Language. Adapted from Jewish Reconstructionist Communities, in association with

Reconstructionist Rabbinical College: Hebrew, 2014,

Retrieved from http://www.jewishrecon.org/files/resources/images/hassal-siddur-pesach.jpg

Figure 17. Korean Language. Adapted from Dragos Roua: The Language of Happiness, 2014,

Retrieved from - http://www.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/korean-paul-corinthians.jpg

Figure 18. Japanese Language. Adapted from Washington State Department of Health: Japanese, 2014,

Retrieved from http://www.doh.wa.gov/portals/1/images/4200/Japanese1.jpg

Figure 19. Map of Nepal. Adapted from SAARC Tourism, Nepal: Nepal Map, 2009,

Retrieved from http://nepal.saarctourism.org/nepal-map.html

Figure 20. Devanagari (Hindi Alphabet). Adapted from Img.Kid—the image kid has it!: Hindi Alphabet, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://imgkid.com/hindi-alphabet-chart-with-pictures.shtml

FIGURES CONTINUEDFigure 21 (above). Greek Alphabet. Adapted from The Fonts: Acorn Classical Greek Alphabet, n.d., Retrieved from http://thefonts.com/A/AlphaFr/GreekClass.htm

Figure 22 (below). Latin Alphabet. Adapted from Italia blogspot: L’alfabeto italiano, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://italia-upn.blogspot.com/2010/08/lalfabeto-italiano.html

Figure 23. Italian Alphabet. Adapted from Importance of Languages: Importance of Italian, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://www.importanceoflanguages.com/LearnItalian/learn-italian-alphabet/

Figure 24. Spanish Alphabet. Adapted from Importance of Languages: Importance of Spanish, n.d.,

Retrieved from http://www.importanceoflanguages.com/LearnSpanish/tag/learn-spanish- alphabet/

Figure 25. Articles: Italian & Spanish. Adapted from Our Greek and Latin Roots: Syntax-Articles in Italian and Spanish, n.d., Retrieved from http://education.cambridge.org/media/577331/our_greek_and_latin_roots__second_edition____

cambridge_education___cambridge_university_press_samples.pdf

Figure 26. Types of Sentence Word Order. Adapted from National Security Agency (NSA): Foreign language learning -- a complex analysis of relative difficulty, p. 6, n.d., Retrieved from https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_spectrum/foreign_language.pdf

THANK YOU!Bernadette López-Fitzsimmons

Shelly Lekhraj

Mingma Lama

Lila Laizinou

Janette Sarmiento

Sandy Morris-Pryce