afam4eva:
I actually want to know if the average Ikwerre person can converse with a central Igbo person. I mean can the average Ikwerre person speak Igbo or something close?

Most Ikwerre people from Emohua can converse in Igbo confidently. I have lot of friends from there too.

Though i'm from s/w. I can boldly say hausa language is so simple n easiest to learn and speak.

Too funny thread. It's just biased opinions where people aren't even trying to be objective. Do you even notice how everyone have different opinions?

People saying I picked up that and that in a week, I picked up the language so easy when exposed to it etc. Do some of you even speak the language fluently? FLUENTLY. Knowing a couple of phrases and basic conversations is not knowing a language. Chances are you probably don't even know the grammatical rules, you've just picked up some material. Since when was this learning a language? And please tell me how picking up "hi" in Igbo is any different from picking it up in Hausa?

If you want an unbiased opinion, you'd have to look at someone who hasn't been exposed to these languages, and preferably speaks a language from another group.

Saying my language is harder than yours is stupid. No language is better than another, and imho, the difficulty of languages are irrelevant. Some say Chinese is hard to learn, did you know Chinese has no tenses (as we know it)? Very simple grammar from our point of view. The only thing you could actually call hard is the writing. But in the end, does it really matter? Having a "difficult" language really isn't a big deal, it just makes it more unnaccessable and annoying to learn, but in the end, it doesn't matter if you say "hi" in Zulu or Spanish, still the same.

This is why threads like these annoy me. Learn whatever language you want to learn, enjoy it to the fullest. No need to label languages as easy or hard.

This question is to be answered by someone who speaks both the 3 languages. Meanwhile i do speak the 3 of em. To me, when learning, yoruba was difficult buh i feel igbo is hardest. Hausa is more easier, why i cant say for Igbo much is because i am an igbo person and u dnt nid 2 b taught hw 2 speak it, its jst insyd you. I never grew in the southeast buh i speak igbo fluently. Yoruba language has this addictive approach, when they speak it, you get to like it and think its easy buh when learning it, it becomes complicated as u meet a word with more than 8 meanings. Hausa is one heck of a language that you dont need to be taught to learn it. Mere hearing it alone is self explanatory. Check out this word and say the truth u c in it, wich 1 dey self explanatory- "ina zua", "mó ngbó", "anam abia"?
Buh to conclude, all languages are hard and easy in their own way depending on the learners.

ChinenyeN: The hardest would have to be Igbo. Aside from the artificial dialect, there is no generally accepted standard. Then, even after learning the artificial dialect, you come to find out that it is practically useless to you, since most native speakers don't actively communicate in it. Instead, you hear tongues, accents, phonemes and even lexicon that are simply divergent.

Example; You learn 'ihere' (shame), based on the artificial dialect, only to come across a speaker saying 'whnuwhnerne'. This is just one of countless examples.

Don't get me wrong, each language has its selling points for difficulty, but the fact that Igbo can attest to such high degree of divergence, in such a comparatively close proximity, puts it a step or so above the rest (in my opinion), because learning 'Igbo' (the artificial dialect, doesn't mean you can speak with others, and that is the point of learning a language to begin with.

Nwanne, it's like that everywhere......Yorubas find it difficult to understand some dialects say ondo(akure)...... None is easy to learn.... I think the most important thing would be to learn the basics.... I'm currently serving in benue state(idoma zone)...I can now speak idoma a lil bit.. It took me a while to put some things together...sometimes if u wanna translate from english to idoma, people will tell u different things/versions...

owoo2: to me ibo is the hardest language to learn

it's Igbo not Ibo, no offence

afam4eva:
Ogbe-poor

it's ogbenye not ogbe

@Post

I wish I knew. Hausa maybe the easiest but don't take my word for it.

For those of you saying that IGBO language is difficult, give it a second try here https://www.nairaland.com/1098993/want-learn-igbo-language-thread

Igbo:

Oke - male
Oke - share/portion
Oke - rat
Oke - Boundary

Akwa - cry
Akwa - wrapper
Akwa - Eggg
Akwa - Nest

Ara - mad
Ara - breast
Ara - lick

Ike - strength
Ike - to share
Ike - Buttocks

Und so weiter :-)

I think everything boils down to the willingness of the people of that tribe in teaching outside people their language. based on this I think Hausa and Yoruba are easy to learn cos the people willingly teach others their language.

deadie: Igbo:

Oke - male
Oke - share/portion
Oke - rat
Oke - Boundary

Akwa - cry
Akwa - wrapper
Akwa - Eggg
Akwa - Nest

Ara - mad
Ara - breast
Ara - lick

Ike - strength
Ike - to share
Ike - Buttocks

Und so weiter :-)

Not quite sure what the point of this post is?

pharmow: I think everything boils down to the willingness of the people of that tribe in teaching outside people their language. based on this I think Hausa and Yoruba are easy to learn cos the people willingly teach others their language.

If someone is willing to teach you his/her language, then does that not mean they're more welcoming and less hostile.

That's what we've been saying about Yorubas. I'm always willing to teach anyone who cares Yoruba. Even simple phrases or greetings.

Hausas are just bipolar lol.

Joanna Sedley:
it's Igbo not Ibo, no offence

Actually it is neither Igbo nor Ibo .The point must be made that we are writing here using ENGLISH alphabets.
If people are mindful of that we will avoid needless arguments and controversy.

gb as written with English alphabets is completely different from gb which is a stand alone alphabet in "Igbo,Ibo Eboe" or whatever the perfect spelling might be .
IGBO in English will always be rendered Eeg- bo .

As far as the English language is concerned The accepted forms are Igbo and Ibo as any dictionary will show and even the earlier publications of books like things fall apart. The gb sound just does not exist in English.
When writing in the index alphabet Igbo is the only correct form but we are writing in English and Eeg-bo will mean different things to different people. In fact the gb sound is a quite unique and distinct one when compared to other Nigerian groups with a gb like sound and it is perhaps impossible to do that inimitable sound justice with the English Alphabet. So let us learn to be flexible and open minded

The number of Yoruba and Igbo that speak Hausa fluently is more than the number of Hausa and Igbo that speak Yoruba and both more than the number of Yoruba and Hausa that speak Igbo. For me, I have only met one non-Igbo(defined narrowly as Yoruba and Hausa, holding others constant) that speaks Igbo and but met thousands of Igbo that speak Yoruba or Hausa.

On a lighter note, Zik and Ojukwu spoke the 3 languages very fluently

Jarus: The number of Yoruba and Igbo that speak Hausa fluently is more than the number of Hausa and Igbo that speak Yoruba and both more than the number of Yoruba and Hausa that speak Igbo. For me, I have only met one non-Igbo(defined narrowly as Yoruba and Hausa, holding others constant) that speaks Igbo and but met thousands of Igbo that speak Yoruba or Hausa.

On a lighter note, Zik and Ojukwu spoke the 3 languages very fluently

what is the source of your numbers ? THe bible?
I have only met one man from Sao Tome,an albino, I guess I may conclude it is a country of albinos??

The question should rather be how willing are u to learn?

Jarus: The number of Yoruba and Igbo that speak Hausa fluently is more than the number of Hausa and Igbo that speak Yoruba and both more than the number of Yoruba and Hausa that speak Igbo. For me, I have only met one non-Igbo(defined narrowly as Yoruba and Hausa, holding others constant) that speaks Igbo and but met thousands of Igbo that speak Yoruba or Hausa.

On a lighter note, Zik and Ojukwu spoke the 3 languages very fluently

You're not far from the truth. The reason is because Lagos and Abuja are the places that attract people from every part of Nigeria and the dominant language in these places apart from English and Pidgin are Yoruba and Hausa respectively. Kaduna and Kano are also popular with non-indigenes, so that's why hausa takes the cake followed by Yoruba. Even people in Port-hacourt where Igbo is supposed to be dominant speak more Pidgin English than Igbo.

It has to be one of those Niger-delta languages.

stillwater: It has to be one of those Niger-delta languages.

You're confusing inaccessibility of a Language to difficulty.

afam4eva:
You're confusing inaccessibility of a Language to difficulty.

I'm just looking at the topic now and realized it's about the three major languages, lol.

Jarus: The number of Yoruba and Igbo that speak Hausa fluently is more than the number of Hausa and Igbo that speak Yoruba and both more than the number of Yoruba and Hausa that speak Igbo. For me, I have only met one non-Igbo(defined narrowly as Yoruba and Hausa, holding others constant) that speaks Igbo and but met thousands of Igbo that speak Yoruba or Hausa.

On a lighter note, Zik and Ojukwu spoke the 3 languages very fluently

And what does that prove? That you've met more Yoruba and Hausa speaking people.

If you're going to make a statement, then give a good explanation. Saying a language is harder when pulling out random numbers is not really trustworthy or good arguementation. What is it that makes the language difficult? Grammar? Pronunciation?

Also, spare me for the Igbo dialect thing, Igbo is not the only language with distinct dialects. Yoruba also has many dialects with variant degrees of mutual intelligibility.

Lol. The truth is that no one can say this or that language is harder than these or those. All language is spoken by man. Unless certain languages are the result of different, divergent or even non-human physiological differences related to speech, then I see no reason why one language would be more difficult than the next. After all, babies supposedly have the capability of learning multiple unrelated languages simultaneously, so they (whoever "they" are) say.

ChinenyeN: Lol. The truth is that no one can say this or that language is harder than these or those. All language is spoken by man. Unless certain languages are the result of different, divergent or even non-human physiological differences related to speech, then I see no reason why one language would be more difficult than the next. After all, babies supposedly have the capability of learning multiple unrelated languages simultaneously, so they (whoever "they" are) say.

As I said earlier, it really doesn't matter if one thinks a language is "harder" than another, if there even is such a thing. Language is language and is used to communicate. You can say hi in 300 different languages and the meaning is still the same or close. Point is, no language is superior.

Actually some languages are inferior in that they fail to evolve and are no longer fit for purpose.That is exactly what is happening to all our Nigerian languages.English is dominant because it borrows widely and unashamedly from everywhere. English is essentially of Germanic origin but has taken extensively from Latin which has now DIED.Many of our languages are dying with our collusion in that process. If a language does not evolve to integrate mathematics,science and technology then I am sorry it is inferior.
It is not too late for us to save our languages by modernizing them in a formal stuctured way but i doubt we have the political will

I wonder how many can express the bolded in any Nigerian language

aribisala0: Actually some languages are inferior in that they fail to evolve and are no longer fit for purpose.That is exactly what is happening to all our Nigerian languages.English is dominant because it borrows widely and unashamedly from everywhere. English is essentially of Germanic origin but has taken extensively from Latin which has now DIED.Many of our languages are dying with our collusion in that process. If a language does not evolve to integrate mathematics,science and technology then I am sorry it is inferior.
It is not too late for us to save our languages by modernizing them in a formal stuctured way but i doubt we have the political will

I wonder how many can express the bolded in any Nigerian language

The bolded can very easily be expressed, at least in Yoruba. Pick up any modern dictionary and see for yourself.

Many technical terms are already in place, the problem is that they are useless as long as the Nigerian languages aren't used for higher education and English remains the official language. English needs to go to make way for Nigerian languages.

StarFlux: Don't let your own lack of knowledge drag others down. The bolded can very easily be expressed, at least in Yoruba. Pick up any modern dictionary and see for yourself.

do not let your father's lack of knowledge hold you down. If he does not know how to behave among humans return him to the zoo

O digbaa l'uhu ahu anyi idofuta okwu anyi we hnaznia kwoo eye kegbuo, ma m'echegh la anyi njinu erne nnaa a.

It is not too late for us to save our languages by modernizing them in a formal stuctured way but i doubt we have the political will

ChinenyeN: O digbaa l'uhu ahu anyi idofuta okwu anyi we hnaznia kwoo eye kegbuo, ma m'echegh la anyi njinu erne nnaa a.

It is not too late for us to save our languages by modernizing them in a formal stuctured way but i doubt we have the political will

Good Job sir,Respect!!

I am a white South African man and I can speak 14 languages fluently. I have started to learn Igbo and I can have full conversations in it, as long as I speak with people from Anambra state. The other dialects are just too vast and I find I battle to understand people and be understood. Even grammatical differences can cause confusion.

I can't speak on behalf of Hausa or Yoruba, but Igbo is definitely extremely difficult.

OchaZA:
I am a white South African man and I can speak 14 languages fluently. I have started to learn Igbo and I can have full conversations in it, as long as I speak with people from Anambra state. The other dialects are just too vast and I find I battle to understand people and be understood. Even grammatical differences can cause confusion.

I can't speak on behalf of Hausa or Yoruba, but Igbo is definitely extremely difficult.

Wow, this is nice. I am Igbo myself. Are you married to someone from Anambra state? What sparked your interest in the language?

StarFlux:
Why not stop with these threads?

What language is harder depends on your mother tongue. Iny my opinion dialects doesn't make a language difficult. When exposed to these dialects you will pick them up naturally. If you want to "measure" difficulty (if there even is such a thing) then you would have to look at two specific dialects/languages and compare, because dialects have similarities, which is what makes them dialects. If we are however, talking about dialects so distinct that they could be considered their own language, then it's no longer comparable and I doubt even Igbos (from other areas with other dialects) would understand. That is simply a lot of dialects (truth with modifications), and doesn't really make the language more difficult, just richer.

Good point!.

And be informed what you said here is not just your opinion, but the standard opinion of linguists. Languages are only difficult to learn because the learner didn't grow up speaking that language. For a child growing up speaking a language, there're no difficulties learning it, because the learning happens naturally. In fact, if a child grow up in a small community where 20 languages are spoken, he/she would learn to speak all the 20 languages with ease. This's because the learning being natural happens so effortlessly that the child have no idea he/she is even learning.

"All languages are doing exactly the same thing in their own way"........... Noam Chomsky (best linguist alive)