The relative similarities between perl and C in terms of syntax are likely to make a significant difference if this is going to be your first serious project in something other than C. (Be sure to look at the perl man page called perltrap, which contains a section with lots of details about differences between perl and C.)

If you have experience with Bourne shell and unix utilities, again perl will give you an easier, shorter learning curve, because it provides a lot of idioms and facilities from that domain that are common and familiar (and very useful).