Do you want to learn a new language? Consider Georgian. Before you roll your eyes, let me convince you why.
Yes, it’s a different alphabet, but it may be easier than English.
There are no capital letters.
There is no gender, unlike the Romance languages of French, Italian or Spanish (This should be one of Georgia’s selling points to a progressive E.U. ).
There are no silent letters. English is horrific for all it’s exceptions and unpronounced letters.
Every letter is always pronounced the same way, every time. No long and short vowels. Did I say, every time the same. How easy is that.
There are no diphthongs or combinations of letters like ’th’ or ’sh.’ Every letter stands the same, every time.
You can say things using fewer words than in English. Usually, English is much shorter than Spanish for example to say the same thing. English is more economical in length. But Georgian is even more thrifty with space.
Simply put, there are no exceptions. Zero. Unlike English, which has a lot.
There are 33 letters. Five vowels and 27 consonants. With all the other benefits, you’ll survive the extra letters.
Sometimes what takes a whole sentence in English can be said in one word in Georgian. The most common example is "შემომეჭამა" which means “I couldn’t help myself so I ate the whole thing.”
By now you may be thinking, “Hmmm. This may not be so hard.” But what I didn’t tell you is that the Georgian language does have complex features such as “split ergativity” and “poly personal” verb agreement. Don’t ask me to explain, because I can’t. I only know one word, ‘Madlova,' meaning ’Thank You.’
And the only way I can remember that is to use a verbal trick of thinking “madly love ya” then shorten it by dropping some letters. If I did that for the whole language it would defeat the purpose. I’d be creating something crazier just to speak something simpler.
So on second thought, maybe Georgian language 101 is not where you or I should start. How about Russian or Chinese!
Madlova . . . for reading this!
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