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Ugliest language | ||
Tags: Hit List | Multilingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| FrenchSilkPie Senior Member United States Joined 6622 days ago 125 posts - 130 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 17 of 80 16 May 2008 at 8:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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I wouldn't consider any language ugly, but rather which one has sounds I dislike hearing. In that case, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Thai do not exactly appease my ear.
And as Deniz wrote, it depends on who is speaking it. French, my favorite and the most beautiful to me, can sound nasally and boring if spoken by the wrong person! Once you get past the initial learning stage, things start to sound a lot better. I don't think it is offensive to say what languages you don't like the sounds of either. In what ways is it offensive? Not everyone can like every language. To each his own. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sulis Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6456 days ago 60 posts - 66 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 19 of 80 16 May 2008 at 9:07am | IP Logged | |||||
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I would say the least pleasing to my ears are:
Thai Urdu Mandarin Dutch 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7186 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 20 of 80 16 May 2008 at 9:07am | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't think you can call a language ugly but some sound better than others to my ear and so some sound worse. I think this is good post actually. I too don't know what the fuss is about, I'm certainly not offended if someone subjectively thinks my native language sounds ugly.
I used to think Mandarin sounded really harsh. The tonal nature of it was so alien to my senses. But now that I've studied it for a long time it sounds really pleasing to the ears. As for German many people think that sounds very harsh. Speaking that as a youngster I never had a feeling it was a bad language. I think all the negativity from the war is still present. I still think Russian can sound kind of harsh but then no doubt once I get round to learning it, I will change my opinion. I wonder what English sounded like to non native speakers before they learnt it? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| charlmartell Super Polyglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6249 days ago 286 posts - 298 votes Speaks: French, English, German, Luxembourgish*, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 21 of 80 16 May 2008 at 9:17am | IP Logged | |||||
Do you really not see the difference between "most beautiful" and "ugliest"? So you'd be in favour of voting for "the ugliest person in the room". Or, better still, the "most ridiculous person on this forum"? Never noticed that there is a big difference between positive versus negative as far as evaluation is concerned? I find that rather sad.
Who said you couldn't have an opinion? Of course you can, that is your good right. But you do not have to voice your subjective negative opinion. That is insensitive because it affects others. And doesn't do yourself any justice either. Edited by charlmartell on 16 May 2008 at 11:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7226 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 22 of 80 16 May 2008 at 9:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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A thread like this one was already made in the early months of this forum. It was locked, IMHO as it did not really direct people to learn languages, but away from it. I do understand the point of the thread starter. I am also curious, but I would compare languages to music. Both have a listening component to them. Opera (Italian), Classical (German), Pop (English), etc... different classifications, but all music (languages) and it depends on peoples interests and tastes. I hope the example was somewhat adequate, but I could not think of other music genres with other languages at the moment. It is subjective and all languages can be beautiful or ugly depending on the eye of the beholder. In this case the ear of the beholder. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7161 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 23 of 80 16 May 2008 at 10:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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Charlmartell,
I indeed see the difference between what's most beautiful and what's ugliest. Of course there is a matter of tact and you're more likely to get a nastier reaction if you said that someone looks ugly vs. someone's native language sounds/is ugly. Also knowing whether everyone would be willing or mature enough to handle this discussion without letting it rot into a shouting match is also important. The fact that things are still civil indicate that most people aren't interpreting this thread as a means to denigrate the character of native speakers of "ugly" languages. Of course, if you're one of those people who would take the connection between native language and personality to heart, then indeed this question would be offensive. The tone of your post makes me think that you're more sensitive to this than others. As you can see, there are some people who can make the distinction between their native language and the personality or being. Like delectric, I couldn't care less when someone says that English, my native language, sounds ugly. Every person is more than just his/her native language, and I'd be pretty shallow to write off someone just because he/she has a native language that I consider to be ugly. Ugliness, like beauty is subjective, but skewing the reporting or discussion to only positives isn't necessarily preferable to focusing on the negative end of the spectrum. This doesn't need to be as in kindergarten where the children aren't allowed to ever say anything bad about anything. Likewise an opinion on what is positive can be construed as pandering or sucking up to someone. I suspect that some people only want to hear positive things in life. You take the good with the bad, and move on. In any case, I repeat, a language's ugliness doesn't necessarily or always preclude someone from learning it. If I had to learn Dutch (despite my views on its sound), then I'd be off to the races with Dutch. Big deal. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| charlmartell Super Polyglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6249 days ago 286 posts - 298 votes Speaks: French, English, German, Luxembourgish*, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 24 of 80 16 May 2008 at 11:06am | IP Logged | |||||
Why do you think I keep harping on "ugliest"? I'm talking about the topic, not anybody's personal reaction to this language or that one. So far people have actually given very reasonable opinions that I wouldn't dream of objecting to. It's the topic itself that is objectionable and the thread should be closed as adding nothing but only leading to sparring matches. As seems to be happening already. I won't have any part in that any longer, for me it's <thread closed>. Have a nice day. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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