i hate to sound like an idiot, but...
 

what programming language are apps written in for wm5?

apps can be written in any language for win mobile 5, as long as there's a compiler / interpreter for Windows Mobile.

There are Java, Python, VB, C#, C++, etc. out there.

what's the most prevalent?

VC++ and VB .NET are probably the most common

which would be easiest from start to finish? the reason I ask, I sit at my computer here at work for like ten hours a day but only work for maybe one. I have seen the entire internet, I beat the boss... twice! and since I'm sitting here reading all this stuff I figured I might as well learn something.

If you're looking to develop for only WM5 devices (actually WM2003 as well) then go for VB .NET. It's what all the cool kids are using these days. Going forward with WM5, you can pretty safely target the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 as we are now building that into Apache ROMs and otherwise it's freely downloadable.

You will need to get your hands on Visual Studio 2005 and the WM5 SDK. Then you'll just need to read and read and read some more. There are books on the subject at amazon or your local bookseller. Probably the same info is available online if you get your google on.

I speak as a non-developer, so any more detailed questions will have to be tackled by someone else.

Best of luck!