Question: How do we understand some languages but not all

James Pope answered on 20 Mar 2015:

Hi KaiF,

To understand languages you need common words you can translate. From that you can learn the vocabulary and learn the language. We couldn’t understand Egyptian hieroglyphics for centuries until we found the Rosetta Stone, which had the hieroglyphics and the same phrase in another form of Egyptian and Ancient Greek. As we spoke the latter two languages, and knew the texts were all the same, we could translate the Hieroglyphics and from that start to work out the language.

Until we reach a point where we have that vocabulary it is impossible for understand a language.

It is the same for us, when we learn a new language. We start knowing nothing and start to work from basics up to sentances and phrases to be able to speak to people. For me that is presently Polish, which is a very tricky language to learn!