Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Best and worst languages for song?

 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio Post Reply
45 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>
COF
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5832 days ago

262 posts - 354 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 1 of 45
04 April 2012 at 2:09pm | IP Logged 
Which languages would you say are the best for singing in terms of flow, rhyming ability and just generally sounding good in that form? And which language would you say is the worst for singing?

I would say:

Best: Italian

Worst: Spanish

Spanish may be an unusual choice, but I just don't like the sound of it when it is being sung. Particularly in rock music, it just doesn't work. It can work for some pop music, but Spanish rock music is a big no-no.

On the other hand, rock music in Italian sounds quite good, which is suprising considering both are Romance languages and have a similar sound system.

Edited by COF on 04 April 2012 at 2:10pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 5057 days ago

2096 posts - 2972 votes 
Speaks: Russian*

 
 Message 2 of 45
04 April 2012 at 2:14pm | IP Logged 
tonal languages are the worst because they loose their tones. languages without stress,
phonemic length and tone are the best.
1 person has voted this message useful



Kyle Corrie
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4830 days ago

175 posts - 464 votes 

 
 Message 3 of 45
04 April 2012 at 2:30pm | IP Logged 
German is not a language that was meant to be sung.

The word order just ruins the flow.
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6598 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 4 of 45
04 April 2012 at 2:48pm | IP Logged 
Kyle Corrie wrote:
The word order just ruins the flow.
You're totally biased :P

OP, that's so surprising for me! I love rock in Spanish. Heroes del silencio, Mago de Oz, Juanes (some songs are too pop though). On the other hand in Italian I only know Ligabue.

For me music is such a huge part of language learning (god bless lyricstraining.com) that if I like a language I also like music in it, and if there's no music I like, this doesn't let me truly love the language (aw with Esperanto). There's even one song in French that I like, despite not liking the language.

Edited by Serpent on 04 April 2012 at 2:48pm

1 person has voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4708 days ago

5310 posts - 9399 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 5 of 45
04 April 2012 at 2:49pm | IP Logged 
I don't know about rock sung in Italian, but Italian bands singing in English is usually a huge fail.

English and French are the best for my money.
1 person has voted this message useful



atama warui
Triglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 4702 days ago

594 posts - 985 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, Japanese

 
 Message 6 of 45
04 April 2012 at 4:03pm | IP Logged 
I like Japanese songs.
Too bad lyricstraining.com doesn't support that language.
1 person has voted this message useful



COF
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5832 days ago

262 posts - 354 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 7 of 45
04 April 2012 at 4:13pm | IP Logged 
I would agree that the tones of Mandarin don't exactly make it an easy language to sing in, but I think a well-crafted Mandarin song actually sounds pretty good, it's a hard language to sing in compared to some other languages, but certainly not impossible.

Edited by COF on 04 April 2012 at 4:13pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Ari
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 6583 days ago

2314 posts - 5695 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese
Studies: Czech, Latin, German

 
 Message 8 of 45
04 April 2012 at 4:58pm | IP Logged 
Марк wrote:
tonal languages are the worst because they loose their tones.

Cantonese keeps its tonal distinctions when sung. Tonal languages != Mandarin.


1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 45 messages over 6 pages: 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.4063 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.