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Ugliest language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| madass88 Diglot Groupie NorwayRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6073 days ago 83 posts - 98 votes  Speaks: English, Norwegian* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 33 of 80 16 May 2008 at 10:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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The danish language... Period
Go to youtube and search for the danish language. you will se a comedy scetch by norwegian comedians about the danish language, and how nobody understands it, not even the danish! I cant remember if some part of it were in norwegian, but most of it was in English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| pitwo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6164 days ago 103 posts - 121 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 34 of 80 16 May 2008 at 10:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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As for me, I don't particularly like spoken English (in all it's forms), Chinese (in all it's forms) and, to a lesser degree, Quebec French (even though it's what I speak natively). All that does depend highly on who is speaking, and all three can sound fantastic at times.
Actually, I'm not too sure what languages sound pleasant to my ears. Edited by pitwo on 16 May 2008 at 10:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6047 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 35 of 80 16 May 2008 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I understand your point. However, if you have three people in a room and vote for the most beautiful person and the second most beautiful person then even though you haven't actually uttered that taboo word that should never be mentioned you've made yourself pretty clear. I think the discussion has been very fruitful. For example, I agree with the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that when you start learning a language you may end up changing your opinion. Who know's if Nazi Germany was Italian speaking then maybe we'd think that Italian sounds harsh. The more German I learn the more I like it! 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 36 of 80 17 May 2008 at 12:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Amen! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| freakyqi Newbie United States Joined 6135 days ago 32 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 37 of 80 17 May 2008 at 1:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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FIRST
No, I wouldn't want to hold an "ugliest person in the room" contest, but I wouldn't want to hold a "most beautiful person in the room" contest either. But I have no problem with this thread. Maybe "ugly" wasn't the best word choice, but I think we all know no one here means any offence, it's just opinion, like "what music do you like best?" SECOND When I was growing up in the US never hearing real chinese, for some reason we all had the idea it sounds like "ching chong chang" or something ridiculous. It was never in my life seen as a "beautiful sounding" language, in fact it could sound annoying at times. But as someone said, this is because it's incredibly different to our ears. Once I started learning it, I realized why we thought it sounded like "chingchong chang" (which it doesn't at all once you learn what sounds they are actually making; similar but not the CH we all assume it is)... and I had a handsome guy teaching me some new words once.... i head his voice in my head a long time to come... ahhh... haha And now after hearing and singing some songs, and being immersed in it, it doesn't sound disagreeable AT ALL, and in fact bears a huge resemblance to french (a lot of vowels actually) and I can even think it sounds sexy. :D Also, I thought middle eastern languages were kind of icky, anything with that throat-clearing sound in it (german too)... but after hearing some songs, I can hear those languages as quite appealing... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Vlad Trilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member Czechoslovakia foreverastudent.com Joined 6589 days ago 443 posts - 576 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Czech*, Slovak*, Hungarian*, Mandarin, EnglishC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Serbian, French Studies: Persian, Taiwanese, Romanian, Portuguese | Message 38 of 80 17 May 2008 at 2:01am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Look,
If someone told me Slovak is an ugly language, I would take it personally. Someone else might not get offended, but a lot of people would..thus I think by calling languages ugly you necessarily offend a lot of people any way you look at it. For some people their native languages form a big part of their culture (I mean.. how do you separate a Czech person from a Pole or a Slovak for instance?.. we all look the same, it's the language, culture and history that separate us).. for centuries books have been written in them and so on and so on.. so by saying that a language is ugly for some of us you touch upon a sensitive topic. Poems, songs, novels.... have been written in them and were meant to be beautiful and understood that way. You have to respect, that when you start calling a language ugly, for a lot of people (me included) it clashes with this personal point of view. For me..it's a different concept, when you say that the SOUND of a language is unpleasant to the ear, or that the LANGUAGE itself is ugly..just mentioning that, since that is the topic of this thread. I agree that the 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' and that any language can be beautiful when spoken by a charismatic person and ugly when spoken by a drunk construction worker..and that someone might get offended and someone might not.. but why hate? Just like you say that there are different tastes in a lot of things.. getting or not getting offended is one of them and in this case, I think you would not have a problem finding a lot of people that would effectively get offended if you say that their native language is ugly (not that the sound of the language is unpleasant to the ear). Edited by Vlad on 17 May 2008 at 2:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Rameau Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6112 days ago 149 posts - 258 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanC1, Danish Studies: Swedish, French, Icelandic | Message 39 of 80 17 May 2008 at 2:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I always really liked the sound of Danish. I think it sounds way better than Swedish, whose intonation always seemed rather strange to me... Honestly, the only language whose sound I've ever actually disliked is English, and even then only in certainly regional variations (western Pennsylvania, I'm looking at you). Ultimately, it' a matter of the individual speaker--the right voice can soften even the harshest sounds, or completely murder even the most lyrical. Edited by Rameau on 17 May 2008 at 2:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| LanguageGeek Triglot Senior Member GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6112 days ago 151 posts - 159 votes 4 sounds Speaks: German*, English, Hungarian Studies: French, Russian | Message 40 of 80 17 May 2008 at 3:01am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It is interesting how many replies this thread spurred since the last time I checked. There also seems to be a rough tendency into which most forum members gravitate
(Russian, Mandarin, Thai, German among the most mentioned) It is by the way, as some have noted, not necessarily an obstacle to starting to learn a language. I wouldn't know how to describe the sound of English since I have total comprehension of it and the meaning of words somehow blots out the auditory sensation or auditory impression of a given word, if you will. So it is totally unimportant and inconsequential wether it is beautiful or ugly as far as its sound is concerned. That being said I can imagine to learn languages of which I don't like the sound initially because I know that after time and exposure this superficial impression is bound to wane. Point in case for me: I am deeply fascinated by Turkish. I think it sounds ugly, yes, but its grammar is intriguing. Adding to that its structural similarities with Hungarian and I am starting to feel some wanderlust here... Quite the contrary with French: It sounds cosmic but I feel no motivation to learn it. But I need to learn it also for professional reasons. The grammar is boring, the verb irregularities make no sense, the ridiculous number of tenses taxes my brain... Trying to actually speak it is also hard work. Too idiosyncratic is its pronunciation to come easy to a foreigner. So what good does it do, that it sounds nice? I would rather learn ugly Turkish .... Edited by LanguageGeek on 17 May 2008 at 3:12am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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