Polyglot Ranks Top 5 Most Difficult Languages in the World

Thanks for the sponsorship, #Grammarly!

LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE WITH MY METHOD!

✉️ Join my newsletter and discover how I pick up new languages quickly
(and learn how you can do the same):

📚 Check out my Street-Smart Language courses:

[NonsenseOblige]

I'm a linguist at the University of São Paulo that has done some work in studying native Brazilian languages, in particular one geographically close to the Pirahã people, and I just gotta say that Everett's affirmations on the Pirahã language are highly contested. He's notoriously for making categorical claims that he cannot back up, he's no longer a missionary but works close to missionaries with questionable ethics in research, he's backed on his affirmation about the nonexistence of recursion in the Pirahã language (it still stands that there is not way to construct infinitely long sentences, but they have a particle that marks the existence of previously known information that must be recovered to understand the full meaning of what is being said)... Even the story about thinking in abstractions is complicated because you can say "the word for leaving literally means ceasing to exist", but that doesn't mean they actually think you stopped existing, at some moment a man's wife is going to leave everyone sight and he'll still understand her as his wife when she comes back, so clearly they have the concept of object permanence, they also communicate in whistles with people they aren't seeing while they hunt.

There are a series of problematic affirmations made by Everett that have been sensationalized by media about the Pirahã language that are extremely, if not impossible to prove. If not saying they're wrong, I'm just saying there's not sufficient evidence in favor of some, while others have been disproved by further study and observation.

I could put you in contact with some of my professors that have contact with the Pirahã language and literature on it, if you wish, they could give you a more complete rundown on it and it's peculiarities without the sensationalized and problematic claims made by Everett.

[psilovecybin]

I was on vacation on the canary Islands and went to a restaurant that had some waiters from Gomera. They told us about their language and naturally it's hard to believe that it's a whole unique language. So to prove it they had us order and then whistled our order to the kitchen crew. We 5 people ordered 5 different dishes, drinks and it all came as ordered. I was blown away.

[jmbarbarossa]

People who live in the mountains of Turkey also have a whistle language version of Turkish like in the Canaries

[craftyape]

Piraha wife: how many beers have you had?
Piraha husband: I don't know what numbers are
Piraha wife: oh okay

[Bobbias]

Ithkuil is absolutely brilliant. Nearly impossible to use, but it is very likely the most supremely precise language ever created.

[AustinJASMR]

"The language is so complex that the creator can't speak it."
The dark side of conlangs they don't tell you about.

[DarkDruid]

The fact that people can communicate with whistles and tongue-clicking actually motivates me more to learn the scribbles of Japanese.

[jimmykaming]

I can understand Cantonese and mandarin. when I listened to the wenzhounese cartoon clip, my jaw literally dropped open .

[aquacelot]

Pirahan: I’M GOING TO REMOVE YOU FROM EXISTENCE!!
Some guy: no you can’t
Pirahan: Yes I can. *closes eyes*

[__-bkmm]

A Piraha courtroom drama would be amazing, confusing as hell but amazing.

[kyll]

"don't sleep there's snakes" is a book written by a dude who lived with the piraha and it was super interesting! talked abouot the cultural differences between american society and their tribe.

[silviaying]

Wenzhounese here. Born and Raised. After 16 years of my life, I still cannot speak it at all. My parents talk in Maderin at home, I was raised by my grandma and she is not from Wenzhou. So I never talked to people in Wenzhounese even though I Lived there. Now I am 20, living in the
U.S. often wish that I could learn it when I was little. I lost all the listening to Wenzhounese now So I can’t even understand it anymore. It is basically impossible....my mom’s side of the family is from Wenzhou, every new year when I go visit them I need to have my mom to be my translator, honestly it is so embarrassing. Also it just shows how hard Wenzhounese really is

[monikastark]

the fastest silbo Gomero course ever, By Juanma Machado (this is my sisters channel and she allow me to write this) :) :

There are 4 vocals in silbo Gomero: A, E, I and O.... some experts whistlers could feel the U vocal but it is not usual.
Their order in the scale are from down to high in piano notes:

O and U: aprox. D1
A: G1
E: G#2
I: A2

The consonants are reduced to 5 groups:

K: Q, C and K
Ch: S, C(like cecilia), Z, Ch, X and T
J or G (Spanish sound): J and G
F: M, B, P, V and F.
i: N, L, R, D. (Is a very short i)

Silbo Gomero is not a language per se, is a phonetic interpretation of any language sound, in this case, spanish because is the oficial language in Canary Islands.
There is whistle communication in other parts of the planet like Tukey, Nicaragua and North Africa. Our cultural heritage in Canary Islands is Amazigh (Berber) so I guess it comes from there.

The key for understand Silbo is context. Mearly context. I could whistle anything in Silbo Gomero but if you (listener) are not in the context of what I´m whistling you won´t understand.
For example, If we are in the beach and one of us decide to go to the cantin to grab some beers I could whistle from the other side of the beach to tell you "grab one for me" o "I change my mind, bring me a coke". But if I start to whistle a Poem by Pedro García Cabrera you won´t understand most of it.

For me and my people is important to preserve this way of communication because is our cultural heritage, but also because is very useful in the cliffs and the mountains when we are practicing "Salto del pastor"(Check for it), a canarian extreme sport that we practice on cliffs and high rocks. Useful when groups splits or when you want to get directions from locals who are in a village 3 kilometres away.

I hope this summary clarified something about it. You are very welcome to come and visit my country any time and I guarantee you I can teach you in less than 2 months.
Love your channel.
Best wishes,
Juanma.

[lakersouthpaw]

Expected a mildly interesting video about some tough languages, but I actually learned so much about a bunch of languages which I had never heard of. Well-researched, man!

[carsynagen]

So glad you talked about el Silbo! such a beautiful language that needs to be preserved, and one that clearly demonstrates the way geography can influence language

[mddupont]

2:28 #5 Wenzhounese Chinese
4:01 #4 Silbo Gomero
6:11 #3 Taa
7:45: #2 Piraha
11:32 #1 Ithkuil

[nicswie]

People speaking the Taa language could easily wipe out the whole beatboxing scene

[amouramarie]

These were fascinating languages, wow. My favorite was #2, the language that doesn't allow its speakers to understand abstractions or counting. Made me think of what kind of things WE can't conceive of because our languages don't allow us to think of them??

[noellejones]

I really appreciate you explaining the linguistic aspects in layman's terms. It's a pretty complex topic but you make it so interesting, it's very refreshing to see and a reflection of your intellect and passion for languages! Merci xiaoma

[VMYeahVN]

Piraha language has completely and entirely blown my mind. I can't even comprehend how that language is possible. It's basically like a language built on Aphantasia (a condition where you don't have a "mind's eye", you can't visualize things mentally). That's so fascinating.