administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7375 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map
| Message 1 of 297 14 February 2005 at 2:17pm | IP Logged |
Which language is the most beautiful to your ear?
My personal choice is Italian. Any speaker of Italian, educated or not, with a coarse voice and a heavy accent, sounds beautiful to me.
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Seth Diglot Changed to RedKingsDream Senior Member United States Joined 7223 days ago 240 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Persian
| Message 2 of 297 14 February 2005 at 3:53pm | IP Logged |
I work in an Italian restaraunt (so I hear it all the time), and to be brutally honest, Italian has always struck me as rather arrogant. A strong italian accent on English also sounds horrible....in my humble opinion.
I have always enjoyed the water-like flow of French.
Whatever stirs your coffee, huh?
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administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7375 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map
| Message 3 of 297 15 February 2005 at 1:05am | IP Logged |
Seth, you are right that "Des goûts et des couleurs il ne faut disputer" - French is my mother tongue and has less fascination for me. Still it's nice to hear that people would enjoy the way it sounds!
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Seth Diglot Changed to RedKingsDream Senior Member United States Joined 7223 days ago 240 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Persian
| Message 4 of 297 15 February 2005 at 3:30pm | IP Logged |
I would say in America the general opinion is that French is one of the most beautiful languages out there--even to many that know absolutely no French!
Though you bring up an interesting point. I myself have always wondered what English "sounds" like. (Like a softer German perhaps?) Guess I'll never know sense it just sounds like talking to me.
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jradetzky Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom geocities.com/jradet Joined 7206 days ago 521 posts - 485 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanB1
| Message 5 of 297 04 March 2005 at 11:28am | IP Logged |
I personally think English is both the most beautiful and the most horrible language. I love to listen to an educated Englishman or Englishwoman on the BBC (it sounds so uppish and refined). On the other side I hate to listen certain accents of English like American (it sounds so commonplace) or Indian English.
There are other very unpleasant-sounding languages, though. For instance Swedish (their intonation is awful) and East Asian languages like Chinese and Vietnamese (they sound like cats talking!).
Edited by jradetzky on 04 March 2005 at 11:33am
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gogurt Newbie United States Joined 7206 days ago 17 posts - 19 votes
| Message 6 of 297 06 March 2005 at 11:20pm | IP Logged |
Italian rocks. I love Italian. After I learn Spanish, I will target Italian. It's the unique stress and lilting of the voice that just simply sounds awesome.
I really disliked French until I actually went there for 2 weeks. My opinion changed after being immersed in it and hearing the real deal. (Paris subway kicks butt!) Anyway, now that I'm back and drowning in a tub of anti-French propoganda and crappy French impressions, I've grown disinterested again. Send me some sound clips, Francois!
jradetzky: My mother shares your opinion that BBC English sounds better than US english. So do my grandparents in China. (My mother learned English in her 30's)
Also, having learned the Northern variety of Chinese as a child, I will also say that I also find the southern variety to be somewhat displeasing--although it can be annoying that the southern variety is the type that most foreigners stereotype ALL Chinese language as.
Jimmy Jin
Olympia, WA, US
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administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7375 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map
| Message 7 of 297 07 March 2005 at 12:50am | IP Logged |
Jimmy, I'm glad somebody agrees with me on Italian!
For French you can watch the TV news on the internet. The most spectacular is the 8PM news show on www.tf1.fr, followed by that on www.france2.fr
With real audio and a good connection I think you can even navigate between the topics discussed.
There are other fine radios you can listen to, such as www.france-info.fr or www.france-inter.fr
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souley Senior Member Joined 7240 days ago 178 posts - 177 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: Arabic (Written), French
| Message 8 of 297 07 March 2005 at 11:15am | IP Logged |
jradetzky
Could you elaborate on the things you said about the Swedish language? Swedish being my native language, I don't really know what it sounds like to a non-speaker, so It would be interesting to hear your thoughts and get some perspective on it =)
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