varvara

I will need to know a non Indo-European langauge to enter grad school, and i only be able to learn it myself. what language is possible to be learned like that, at least basics. and what is the best material i can find in the usa, like order it from the amazon.com or sth like that.
thanx

Lina

Here are a fex non-Indoeuropean languages :

- Basque
- Finnish
- Hungarian
- Lappish

I think you have also all the Asian languages and Arabic. But I can't help you further, for I speak none of them. You should go and ask in these forums.

Jonne

If i should order them by their grammars (easiest-most difficult) it'd be

basque
sámi/lappish
finnish/hungarian

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pluiepoco

Lappish is rural source of Finnish (known as suomi in their own language), they are the same language, we tell them because Lappish is a vulgar name, and Finnish is a national name, if we say Lappish or Lap down to the face of a Fin, s/he may be angry, it's insulting!
Am I right, Jonne? Or I got mixed?
LAp--Lappish
Sami--Suomi
Fin---Finnish?
but I thought Finnish is the national state of Lappish, or Suomi?

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刘晓雨 pluiepoco
Home of Asia, 中国语言论坛(Chinese Forum of Languages), 西瓜村

Jonne

No no,

Lappish is some other name for Sámi, which is not same as Finnish (not either a dialect). It's a language spoken in northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

And it isn't either much insulting to call someone a lap if s/he lives in lapland (northern part of Finland).

I don't actually know how they made up the name "Lappish" for Sámi

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pluiepoco

Thank you Jonne,
but I got more mixed, I was told by a Finnish official cultural websites that, in Finland, there are two majority languages, Swedish and Finnish, what we call Finnish here is to distinguish with Swedish, and the Finnish language is actually suomi spoken by Fin people, while a minority language Lappish is spoken by sami people, which is also called sami language.
And from the words suomi and sami, they look same in name, and in fact, the two languages are also almost same? Because they both belong to the Finno-Ugrian Language.
Aren't they?

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刘晓雨 pluiepoco
Home of Asia, 中国语言论坛(Chinese Forum of Languages), 西瓜村

Jonne

Finnish and Swedish are the two official/national languages here. Then we have minority languages, like Sami and Russian. Not every lapp know Sámi. I think it's only spoken by 10 000 people here. The language names are releated, and both belong to the finno-ugric language group, but aren't identical at all. If I didn't know Sami, I could not understand a word of it, except for the loan words.

I'll give you an example:

Sámi: Buot olbmot leat riegádan friddjan ja olmmošárvvu ja olmmošvuoigatvuoðaid dáfus dássásažžab, Sudhuude kea addib huervnu ha ianedivdym ha vyigjat gakget neabbydut gyunnuudeaset gyivdy vuekhakaš vuoiŋŋain.

Finnish (standard): Kaikki ihmiset syntyvät vapaina ja tasavertaisina arvoltaan ja oikeuksiltaan. Heille on annettu järki ja omatunto, ja heidän on toimittava toisiaan kohtaan veljeyden hengessä.


Then there are also many sami dialects/languages. I think the difference between them is nearly as big as between some Chinese languages.

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