Foreign languages are hard to learn, and especially those that we are unfamiliar with, like indian languages. While we’re on this topic, have you ever wondered what the hardest Indian language to learn is? If it’s the case, you’re not alone.
Many learners set their sights on Hindi because it is one of India’s most widely spoken languages and has plenty of learning resources. But is it really the easiest place to start?
Keep on reading to find out!
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Key Takeaways
- Malayalam is often considered one of the hardest Indian languages to learn, thanks to its script, atypical sounds, and complex word structure.
- Tamil has a written-spoken language gap that can make everyday conversations tricky for learners who are used to textbook Tamil.
- Telugu and Kannada require a good ear for vowel length. Pronouncing a vowel for the wrong duration can change a word’s meaning.
- Punjabi uses tones to distinguish meaning, which can be tricky for learners whose native languages don’t use tones.
- The hardest Indian language depends on your native language and experience.
What Is The Hardest Indian Language To Learn?
Malayalam is often considered one of the hardest Indian languages to learn.
Why?
There are several reasons, but the main ones are its writing system, unusual sounds, and stacked words.
One thing to keep in mind, though, is that there is no official ranking of Indian languages by difficulty. As a result, languages like Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada often appear just as frequently on these “difficulty leaderboards.”
How Is Indian Language Difficulty Assessed?
Learners generally assess the level of difficulty of languages by taking into account the following aspects :
- The writing system, especially those with complex characters
- Complex phonetic systems with a tonal nature and unfamiliar sounds
- Tricky grammar with unusual sentence patterns and numerous grammatical cases adding suffixes
All in all, challenging languages are often labelled as such because they sit very far from the languages we speak (like European languages).
Which Indian Languages Are The Most Difficult To Learn?
India is home to more than 121 major languages that include approximately 19,500 dialects. Among these languages, only 22 have an official language status and, coincidentally, some also have a “hard language” reputation.
1. Malayalam And Its Stacked Word Structure
Malayalam is an agglutinative language. This means that it forms words by adding suffixes to roots, allowing a single word to express meanings that English might convey using several words.
Moreover, the Malayalam script and its many joined letters are notoriously difficult to grasp, and the retroflex “zh” sound (ഴ) takes a long time to master.
2. Tamil And Its Two Styles
Tamil is a tricky language because of its duality. In fact, it has a formal written style and a casual spoken form.
Therefore, what you learn in standard Tamil isn’t always what you’ll hear on the street: the spoken language and its standard form are quite different, which can make the language more difficult to learn.
3. Telugu, Kannada And Their Long Vowels
Telugu and Kannada are closely related, especially in their writing systems. Although they belong to different branches of the Dravidian language family, this proximity makes learning them easier.
However, both follow a vowel length rule, which means that a long or short vowel can change the meaning of a word.
Learning these languages therefore takes time, practice, and a well-trained ear!
4. Punjabi And Its Tones
Punjabi is hard to learn because it has tones, which is a very rare exception among the Indo-European language branch, which languages are typically not tonal.
And as you may know, tonal languages such as Thai, Chinese, Cantonese, and Vietnamese are notoriously difficult to master. In fact, one wrong tone can change the entire meaning of a sentence!
Why Do Native English Speakers Find Indian Languages Hard?
If English speakers tend to struggle with hard languages like Indian languages, it’s mostly due to linguistic distance.
With new writing systems (different from the usual Latin alphabet), unfamiliar pronunciation, as well as different word order, sentence structure, and grammar rules, native English speakers can’t grasp the full logic of the linguistic patterns they see and hear.
In fact, according to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), some Indian languages like Hindi or Tamil only belong to Category III of the language difficulty ranking.
This means they are way less difficult to learn than really hard languages like Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, or Japanese, which belong to Category IV.
As such, it is possible to say that Indian languages are only perceived as difficult by English speakers (and by speakers of most other languages as well). They are not that difficult to learn in reality.
FAQ – The Hardest Indian Language To Learn
What Is The Hardest Indian Language To Learn?
Malayalam is often considered the hardest Indian language to learn, because of its complex script and sounds. Other languages like Tamil and Kannada are not far behind, but there is no official ranking or rating that gives a clear answer to this question.
Which Indian Language Is The Easiest To Start With?
Hindi is usually the easiest language to start learning. It belongs to Category III of the FSI language difficulty chart and offers plenty of resources to learn from, unlike other Indian languages that are often overlooked by major language platforms.
Are Indian Languages As Difficult For Hindi Speakers?
Not as much as it is for English speakers. Hindi is one of the major languages in India, and it shares some vocabulary and historical influences, particularly from Sanskrit, with other Indian languages. However, not all Indian languages belong to the same language family, so their grammar and vocabulary can differ significantly.
So, although Hindi speakers may still face some difficulties when learning another Indian language, they may find certain languages easier to learn than languages that are linguistically more distant from Hindi.
Ready To Start Learning A Difficult Language With Ling?
Indian languages can be hard to learn indeed. But did you know that learning a hard language is not that hard? And that some language apps like Ling actually help you take the easy path to hard languages?
Well, now you know!
The Ling app breaks 70+ languages, from easier ones to difficult ones, into short lessons with native speaker audio and real conversations to start speaking from day one! With 10M+ downloads and a 4.7/5 rating, you’ll benefit from quality content and a big community of global learners!
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