English langauge question

[varistus]

There is so much written about this I hate to continue but this is a bit different. Hispanics people here say that English has so many similar words that it is not difficult to pick up. Also, they were told in Mexico that if you learn Latin English will be easier.
To complicate this my sons German exchange student Friend says that he feels that Spanish seems closer to English and Latin seems closer to German in sounds. Latin is not very phonetic like some of the 'so called' Latin languages. Latin is not smooth sounding at all like Spanish,French and Italian.
He says that modern linguistic experts say English is more of an international language with influence beyond just Celtic,Latin and German.
Then why is English so easy to Hispanics who claim there are so many similar words?

[Publius Nonius Severus]

Varistus-

I am not a linguistic expert but I find the evolution of language fascinating. Also as someone who has learned, German, Spanish, and Latin (in that order) - maybe I can share some insight based on my experiences.

As a native English speaker, I found learning Spanish easiest. The reasons for this I think could be applied in reverse as well (Spanish->English).

1) There are MANY cognates (words that look the same and have the same meaning) just a few examples: decide - decidir, legal - legal, tourist- turista. This makes learning vocabulary much easier.

2) Both English and Spanish have minimal case use and declension of nouns and pronouns. English has even fewer application of case and declension than Spanish and for the most part only applies to pronouns (English: I, Me, Mine - Spanish Yo, me/mi, mi)

3) Application of mood tenses are also both similar in English and Spanish (present, past, future) and English is even easier because use of the subjunctive is rare.

4) Sentence word order is very similar between English and Spanish. Subject-Verb-Object; Subject-Auxiliary Verb-Verb-Object.

These are the major reasons in my opinion. Arguments can also be made that for almost all of the above reasons the relationship between English/German and English/Latin are more complex. There are still a lot of cognates but not as many or not as frequently used, German and Latin are much more dependent on cases and declension, German and Latin Word order vary a lot more.

As far as the smoothness of the sound of the languages. The reason I think German and Latin sound harder than English or the Romance languages is that there are a lot more hard consonants in Latin and German than than others. In Latin and German "C" and "G" are always hard (always pronounced like "K" and "G" - never like "Ch or S" or "J")

I will say though if you have ever heard someone speak Latin fluently (not me!) I think it does sound quite smooth and beautiful.

I hope that helps!

[varistus]

For one that says ' I am not an expert' you certainly sounds like one!