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What’s beautiful about English? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| starrye Senior Member United States Joined 5095 days ago 172 posts - 280 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 25 of 34 07 June 2011 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Among other native English speakers, there are plenty of people who consider different English accents to be beautiful, or appealing, for various reasons. But, I've actually never had any non native speakers tell me they thought English was beautiful (particularly not American English)... Sure, there are works of literature and songs that may be described as beautiful. But as far as the language itself and it's features, I never hear anyone describe it that way.
Most of the descriptions I often hear about English is that is sounds "cool, modern, chic, fashionable, sleek, hip, friendly, fun" There's a strong association with it being a global language, and thus the language of information and knowledge. So some people say it has a modern chic about it, and that's what makes it sound impressive. These are the impressions I've gotten from foreigners who have positive things to say about English. :) But no, no one ever tells me they think it sounds "pretty".
That's interesting. I notice subconsciously too, the way that men sound when speaking a particular language (I'm female) plays role in influencing how beautiful I consider the language to be. Whereas I'm more neutral about the relative beauty of languages when I hear other women speaking them. Kind of odd how that happens, but not surprising. Edited by starrye on 07 June 2011 at 4:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Minya Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4903 days ago 22 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 26 of 34 17 July 2011 at 5:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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I like English because it's so versatile I guess?
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| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5248 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 27 of 34 17 July 2011 at 10:05am | IP Logged | |||||
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I love the grammar of English, I am a noob in only my first foreign language, but it seems to me that English grammar allows for a huge variety of artistic execution. I would reference Mark Twain for some awesome strokes of English ingenuity while still staying down to earth. Edited by BobbyE on 17 July 2011 at 10:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5229 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 28 of 34 18 July 2011 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've nothing against my native language, but I can't say that, phonologically, it's particularly pretty. The Germanic plosives are harsh sounds, muscular to be sure, inspiring, but not beautiful. The diphthongs are quirky. The English "r" in rhotic varieties is essentially made by attempting to shove one's tongue down his own throat and produces a sound about as pretty as you'd expect from this bizarre maneuver.
Not to say there aren't moments of beauty in the English oeuvre: Four elements and five Senses, and man a spirit in love Tangling through this spun slime To his nimbus bell cool kingdom come And the lost, moonshine domes, And the sea that hides his secret selves Deep in its black, base bones, Lulling of spheres in the seashell flesh... But there are few Dylan Thomases in the world (fewer nowadays to be sure). And though there is something delicious in our "sh" sound sitting so softly on the tongue, the language at large, for beauty, can't compare with the sparkle of Italian or the sensuality of French. Edited by ScottScheule on 22 July 2011 at 8:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| CS Groupie United States Joined 5129 days ago 49 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic, Latin, French | Message 29 of 34 18 July 2011 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm not much of a Germanicist, but I don't agree with this at all. For one thing, the various Germanic languages sound pretty different to me.
Ah, we have pretty different ideas of beauty. I love French, but for its utility to me - primarily its texts - not its sounds. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5229 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 30 of 34 18 July 2011 at 9:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, I am a licensed Germanicist, and I am qualified to tell you that I am exactly correct, and, moreover, that all German languages sound exactly the same, especially the similar sounding ones. In fact, it's well known that by running a few transformative rules you can convert one dialect of Germanic into another easily, like so: 1. Take English. 2. Turn all double "p's" to "pf's." 3. Add umlauts. 4. German! 5. Add even more umlauts. Throw a slash through every other "o". 6. Norwegia-Sweda-Danish! (Gesundheit.) 7. Replace open syllable vowels with double vowels. 8. Add some Anti-Russian idioms. 9. Finnish? You've made a wrong turn here. Go directly to Grimm's Law--do not pass Frisian, do not collect any aspirated voiced stops. Q.E.D. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Aquila123 Tetraglot Senior Member Norway mydeltapi.com Joined 5307 days ago 201 posts - 262 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Italian, Spanish Studies: Finnish, Russian | Message 31 of 34 22 July 2011 at 8:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Speaking English gives me an impression in my mouth of chewing porridge. Sorry to say it, but generally I do not like the English language.
However, with a lot of artistic skill it is possible to make it sound beautifully, but you must controle the behaviour of the r-sound and not swallow syllables. And you must controle the aspiration of the p,t,k and other air outlets. Edited by Aquila123 on 22 July 2011 at 8:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5229 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 32 of 34 22 July 2011 at 8:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'll try to keep my other air outlets under control. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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