The Icelandic language
I have tried hard to learn Icelandic, I really have. For two stints of several months each, I spent three-quarters of an hour every morning listening to audio files and reading grammar and teach-yourself books. I'm currently several months in to a lockdown-inspired third attempt. At first it seemed easy. Many words, especially the simpler ones, are close to English. For example, sokkur is sock, takk is thanks and blár is blue. Easy, right? Wrong. The grammar is a killer . Everything has to agree with everything else. There are cases, moods, tenses, genders. It’s like Latin, but more complicated. And the natives really care if you get it right. For example, the words for the first four numbers are significantly different depending on the gender of the thing you are counting. In French you only need five words to count to four: un, une, deux, trois, quatre. In Icelandic you need twelve: einn, ein, eitt, tveir, tvaer, tvö, thrír, thrjár, thrjú, fjórir, fjórar, fjögur