>On the issue of difficulty, it is certainly true that it is hard to
>measure difficulty, that a lot depends on what you already know, and
>that a language may be easy in some respects and difficult in others...
This reminds me of the comments made by Betty Harnum, Commissioner for
Official Langugaes of the Northwest Territories, who has learned both
Inuktitut and some Athabaskan (I'm not sure which language), at a
conference here in Ottawa last fall. She likened Inuktitut to a Lego set -
acquire the blocks and you'll have a fair chance of putting something
together that will be recognizable. Athabaskan languages, on the other
hand, are like oil paints, with all sorts of unpredicatable effects coming
out of combining the different elements, and a lifetime needed to master
the art. This certainly seems to bear out Bill's suggestion.
-- Mark Fettes | Ech guto malgranda, konstante frapante... 695-B King Edward Ave. | (progresas, ho Dio! - tre lante!) Ottawa, Ontario | - S. Urban Canada K1N 7N9 | (with apologies to L.L. Zamenhof)