The World's Most Efficient Languages

[wings7]

An interesting look...[8D]
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the ... id=UP72DHP

Patrick

[Capt. Harlock]

Peculiar there's no mention of Esperanto. Apparently they're only considering long-established languages.

[wings7]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

Peculiar there's no mention of Esperanto. Apparently they're only considering long-established languages.

Apparently so, you would think it would be listed, with all the people who speak it...

[Orm]

That article just left me confused. [&:] [:(]

[wings7]

ORIGINAL: Orm

That article just left me confused. [&:] [:(]

How so?

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: wings7

ORIGINAL: Orm

That article just left me confused. [&:] [:(]

How so?

What is efficiency in a language? Is it the language that conveys the most information in fewest words possible. The language that has the most words? The fewest words? The one that has twenty different names for different shades of Green or the one that just has one word for all green nuances. Is it efficient to have a separate word for my mothers fathers second cousin?

And extra information in a sentence might not be needed but at times it is needed. Is it then better to add the 'extra' information every time to reduce the risk of misunderstanding or is it better to be 'efficient' and only leave that information when needed or requested.

It may very well be that the article told me that but I didn't get it. Does that mean they didn't use the language in the article efficiently? And where there a list that I missed with the 'most' efficient languages and the reason for their efficiency?

So I think confused is a efficient way to describe my thinking after reading the article. [:)]

[Zap]

If efficiency is the level of judging it seems to me Latin would be the winner

[wings7]

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: wings7

ORIGINAL: Orm

That article just left me confused. [&:] [:(]

How so?

What is efficiency in a language? Is it the language that conveys the most information in fewest words possible. The language that has the most words? The fewest words? The one that has twenty different names for different shades of Green or the one that just has one word for all green nuances. Is it efficient to have a separate word for my mothers fathers second cousin?

And extra information in a sentence might not be needed but at times it is needed. Is it then better to add the 'extra' information every time to reduce the risk of misunderstanding or is it better to be 'efficient' and only leave that information when needed or requested.

It may very well be that the article told me that but I didn't get it. Does that mean they didn't use the language in the article efficiently? And where there a list that I missed with the 'most' efficient languages and the reason for their efficiency?

So I think confused is a efficient way to describe my thinking after reading the article. [:)]

To me all languages are unique, I never stop learning use & meanings, it's a lifetime learning experience! I try to read as much as possible, and have conversations (face to face or telephone) with people, so if they say something I'm not sure about I ask them questions about it. I can be frustrating at times but I wouldn't have it any other way! [:)] Learning multiple languages is the ultimate...I hope to do that someday.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: wings7

To me all languages are unique, I never stop learning use & meanings, it's a lifetime learning experience! I try to read as much as possible, and have conversations (face to face or telephone) with people, so if they say something I'm not sure about I ask them questions about it. I can be frustrating at times but I wouldn't have it any other way! [:)] Learning multiple languages is the ultimate...I hope to do that someday.

I abandoned my hopes to learn multiple languages a long time ago. I am, however, very happy that I managed to learn so much English that I usually get by.

[wings7]

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: wings7

To me all languages are unique, I never stop learning use & meanings, it's a lifetime learning experience! I try to read as much as possible, and have conversations (face to face or telephone) with people, so if they say something I'm not sure about I ask them questions about it. I can be frustrating at times but I wouldn't have it any other way! [:)] Learning multiple languages is the ultimate...I hope to do that someday.

I abandoned my hopes to learn multiple languages a long time ago. I am, however, very happy that I managed to learn so much English that I usually get by.

Yes, your English is excellent, it sounds like your primary language! [:)]

[Hofstadter]

*cracks knuckles*

Okay. Lets talk about the languages I know

All romance language are cancer. German, french, italian. They suck. All languages that require you to memorize gender and plural are inferior.
Russian has highly consistent rules, you can almost always tell the difference between a noun, a verb and an adjective by its endings. It is also regular in phonetics, all words are pronounced as they are spelled with 3 simple rules regarding devoicing, and stress. But generally you can ignore stress, youll just sound weird

Farsi is also highly efficient, the only irregular plurals are from arabic. Verbs end 100 percent regularly. The only problem is that you have to learn the present stem which is annoying

Finnish is pretty great, but all those cases and consonant gradation are a bit of a nightmare.

Turkish is very regular, i dont think there are any irregular nouns.

Chinese should not be a language. Im sorry but its terrible and is the most inferior language in the world.

Arabic is also a bad language, arabs never got it together and now they have to suffer for it. There is modern standard arabic, but nobody speaks it. Pretty much all of its grammar rules are taken from the Qoran, making it outdated.

The most efficient language I know is russian. Phonetics are simple, verbs are highly regular, the only time you need to memorize gender is with soft sign nouns, and those are rare. The language is also standardized across the country, very few dialects

[Agathosdaimon]

German is an excellent language! most efficient in packing the information into its verbs, nouns and declensions. To some extent syntax plays an ancillary role to intelligibility than does say English. I am not sure it is the most efficient but rules wise certainly more so than English and more consistent too, with its pronounciation too its words almost all follow the same rules. What though it doesnt have is the kind of standardization with its dialects - written german does seem pretty standard across die Schweiz, Austria and Germany but spoken german can be so distinctly different from region to region which is a pain for an outsider who will only get to learn Hochdeutsch. I would love to be fluent in Saechisches Deutsch as i love the region of Thuringia, but no chance unless i were to live there.

I guess Russian probably could well be one of the more efficient languages, if it is standardised. I wanted to learn Russian but i couldnt get past the pronouciation

[Mobius]

ORIGINAL: Agathosdaimon
German is an excellent language! most efficient in packing the information into its verbs, nouns and declensions.

Any language that adds a gender to something that has no gender she is fubar.

Though English, a fusion of three languages, has very many inconsistencies. Particularly plurals as it uses 's' to represent plural, but some are Norse plurals which are different words like 'wolves' for 'wolf'.