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What does English sound like to Foreigners? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Plymouth Newbie United States Joined 4870 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, French | Message 1 of 25 27 July 2011 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey, I'm (obviously) new here! I thought to start out I might as well get a question off my chest that has been nagging me for a while now: What does English sound like to non-native speakers? I've seen the YouTube video by that eccentric Italian man imitating English -- titled prisincolinainsininecusol, or something to that effect -- however, I didn't find it to be particularly illuminating.
So, I guess I have three basic questions: 1. What does English sound like? I have a hard time even imagining, personally. As a Germanic base with a considerable amount of Franco-Latin vocabulary, I would imagine that English sounds unique (although perhaps this is not the case; I obviously have no way of knowing). Is English distinct from other Germanic languages in its sound? For instance, if there are three people speaking Germanic languages in front of me, I can always pinpoint which is German, which is Dutch, and which is Scandinavian (precisely what kind of Scandinavian -- ie Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, etc -- passes me by, as they all more or less sound similar). Or, instead of sounding unique, could English be grouped in with one of the other "groups" of Germanic languages in terms of how it sounds (is it nearly indistinguishable from Dutch, German, or the Scandinavian languages), like said conglomeration of Scandinavian languages I talked about above? 2. Is English generally considered a pleasant sounding language (like French)? Did you enjoy listening to it prior to becoming fluent? 3. Finally, if you could pick one or two words to describe the general aural vibe, as it were, of English, what would they be? (For example, someone might describe German as "harsh" or "forceful.") Thanks in advance for the replies. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 2 of 25 27 July 2011 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This has been here before, but I couldn't resist a re-post of What American English sounds like to foreigners. Enjoy the video!
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 25 27 July 2011 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The one revealing feature that shines through almost every time an Anglophone speaks another language is the unwanted diphtongation of vowels. So for me that's the most important factor in the pronunciation of English. Edited by Iversen on 28 July 2011 at 11:45am 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 4 of 25 28 July 2011 at 2:34am | IP Logged | |||||
That's the prisencolinensinaincusol referred to in the original post. As a non-native speaker of English, I'd say that English sounds like trying to speak Scots while running on ice in leather-soled shoes. :-) Edited by Cainntear on 28 July 2011 at 2:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Plymouth Newbie United States Joined 4870 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, French | Message 5 of 25 28 July 2011 at 4:29am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks, guys. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5554 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 6 of 25 28 July 2011 at 5:22am | IP Logged | |||||
That's a terribly rude generalization. I'm an "anglophone" and yet NEVER, ever do that. I know anglophones who do and some who don't. But "almost every time" one of us speaks a language? Wow. I pronounce diphthongs as diphthongs and monophthongs as monophthongs. Have some faith. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4950 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 7 of 25 28 July 2011 at 7:45am | IP Logged | |||||
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Iversen made a great point, to many English sounds like a language in which every vowel is drawn out, glided and diphtongized. Certainly when a Spanish speaker wants to imitate an English speaker talking in Spanish it will be someting like this:
''Hooula, aaamigoou... coumou eistaas? You queerer toumar muucha cerveizaaa...'' To Spanish speakers, English sounds like a constantly gliding parade of vowels and monosyllabic words. Here is the funny part (though thus far I only have ONE experience with this, perhaps native Germans can confirm or deny): I saw the same be attributed to English in a German show!! It was a childrens program, and they were doing a sketch about planes and one of the characters was Amelia Earnhart. While she spoke in German, they made her draw out all the vowels: ''Giuuteein Teeag... Wieee Gaeeihts?? Eiich heisssee Ameeeleeah Eaarnheeart" Perhaps to German and Spanish speakers this is an obvious trait because both German and Spanish have mostly pure vowels, and I suspect the same would be for Italians. It would be interesting to see what French or Portuguese speakers for example, say that English sounds like. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| FinnDevil Triglot Newbie Finland Joined 5393 days ago 7 posts - 15 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish | Message 8 of 25 28 July 2011 at 10:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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In my opinion, English does sound a little like German (or at least it sounds Germanic),
though softer. The sound of English is neutral to me,neither beautiful nor ugly. On the other hand, I disagree a bit on the "harshness" of German. Maybe that idea comes from Nazi movies etc., but normal people in normal everyday situations do not sound that aggressive. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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