I never had had a fascination for a foreign language. Hindi and English were and still are, what constitutes my world, if you exclude those zombie languages such as C, C++, Java etc. Sorry that was a very bad joke!
It is close to an year and a half since I came to Cyprus. Greek is the official language here. While they sounded very different at first, the Greek words, on look, had an unusual familiarity to them. The Greek alphabets all constituted the mathematical notations like alpha, beta, theta etc. I know the previous sentence should have been said otherwise. But that was how I felt on reading the Greek words, mathematical equations sans numbers and equality sign. It was easier though to make out their English equivalents if they were written in majuscule (capital) form, as most of the Greek alphabets in Capitals have the same form as those in English. Exceptions are there but they can be learned.
Having studied a bit of Greek now, I usually don't find much problem in identifying the words. But it is their phonetics which are giving me a tough time. First they have got an emphasis, a bit more than usual I think, on a few syllables in a word. Unless you have specifically memorized which ones to stress, you can't just make out on instinct (notwithstanding diacritical signs on the alphabets suggesting likewise). Worse still, even if you know, you will invariably fail to pronounce them perfectly to the tone and level desired. I know it happens with one trying to get familiar with a new language, but I can't help noticing the fact that the same alphabet gets pronounced differently under different conditions.
And it is here where Hindi scores. Hindi has alphabets which are pronounced the same way, no matter where and how they are used. So, for a novice trying to get acquainted with Hindi, it will be much easier to pronounce newer words on his own. It has got more alphabets, which is a downside I admit, but there is a very good demarcation of the way they are going to be pronounced. For instance, when I was learning the usage of the articles 'a' and 'an' before a word, English Grammar had many exceptions to the fact that 'an' is to be used before a vowel and 'a' before a consonant. I found a simple solution to this problem. I quickly transliterated the word to be preceded, in Hindi, and ascertained to use 'an' or 'a' based on whether the first alphabet of the transliterated word was a 'swar' or a 'vyanjan'. Swars and Vyanjans are the vowels and consonants in Hindi. And see they never fail here.
Hindi is more complex undoubtedly, significantly simpler than Sanskrit though- its parent and the only language considered to be truly perfect for computers. The larger number of alphabets, the 'ikaars' and 'ukaars' differing the pronunciation etc. are a deterrent, but they constitute a more complete set to play with. On personal note, I like English more, for its simplicity and unobtrusive hold on me, but I do realise Hindi is more complete.
It is close to an year and a half since I came to Cyprus. Greek is the official language here. While they sounded very different at first, the Greek words, on look, had an unusual familiarity to them. The Greek alphabets all constituted the mathematical notations like alpha, beta, theta etc. I know the previous sentence should have been said otherwise. But that was how I felt on reading the Greek words, mathematical equations sans numbers and equality sign. It was easier though to make out their English equivalents if they were written in majuscule (capital) form, as most of the Greek alphabets in Capitals have the same form as those in English. Exceptions are there but they can be learned.
Having studied a bit of Greek now, I usually don't find much problem in identifying the words. But it is their phonetics which are giving me a tough time. First they have got an emphasis, a bit more than usual I think, on a few syllables in a word. Unless you have specifically memorized which ones to stress, you can't just make out on instinct (notwithstanding diacritical signs on the alphabets suggesting likewise). Worse still, even if you know, you will invariably fail to pronounce them perfectly to the tone and level desired. I know it happens with one trying to get familiar with a new language, but I can't help noticing the fact that the same alphabet gets pronounced differently under different conditions.
And it is here where Hindi scores. Hindi has alphabets which are pronounced the same way, no matter where and how they are used. So, for a novice trying to get acquainted with Hindi, it will be much easier to pronounce newer words on his own. It has got more alphabets, which is a downside I admit, but there is a very good demarcation of the way they are going to be pronounced. For instance, when I was learning the usage of the articles 'a' and 'an' before a word, English Grammar had many exceptions to the fact that 'an' is to be used before a vowel and 'a' before a consonant. I found a simple solution to this problem. I quickly transliterated the word to be preceded, in Hindi, and ascertained to use 'an' or 'a' based on whether the first alphabet of the transliterated word was a 'swar' or a 'vyanjan'. Swars and Vyanjans are the vowels and consonants in Hindi. And see they never fail here.
Hindi is more complex undoubtedly, significantly simpler than Sanskrit though- its parent and the only language considered to be truly perfect for computers. The larger number of alphabets, the 'ikaars' and 'ukaars' differing the pronunciation etc. are a deterrent, but they constitute a more complete set to play with. On personal note, I like English more, for its simplicity and unobtrusive hold on me, but I do realise Hindi is more complete.
