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Funny-sounding languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Marlowe Triglot Newbie Norway Joined 5714 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish Studies: French, German | Message 9 of 54 24 May 2009 at 6:12am | IP Logged | ||
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Swedish because of the sing-song melody.
Dutch because it sounds like a mix between English, German and Norwegian. I also think Japanese sounds quite funny. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maya_star17 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5917 days ago 269 posts - 291 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 10 of 54 24 May 2009 at 6:33am | IP Logged | ||
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I can't bring myself to get used to Finnish. It sounds funny, period :)
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6274 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 11 of 54 24 May 2009 at 8:14am | IP Logged | ||
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I know a historical example of a "funny-sounding language".
In the book Microcosm, by Norman Davies and Roger Moorhouse, an incident is mentioned towards the end of WWII. A number of Silesian Poles were inducted into the German Army. Their corporal in training, from the Rhineland, ceaselessly mocked their Polish accents and bad German. They were "German" enough to get killed for the Fatherland, but too Polish to be respected. Then the corporal found out he was to go into battle with them against the oncoming Soviets. So he suddenly tried to be friendly. The battlefield is no place to be with people who have a grudge against you. Too late. He achieved Heldentod or "a hero's death". The bullets in his back were probably not made in the USSR. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sakvaka Triglot Newbie Finland Joined 5666 days ago 6 posts - 7 votes Speaks: Finnish*, Swedish, English Studies: Italian | Message 12 of 54 24 May 2009 at 9:36am | IP Logged | ||
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How about Xhosa? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPaC4ErPpDY
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| graybox Newbie United States Joined 5666 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Studies: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 13 of 54 24 May 2009 at 9:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Cantonese sounds so ugly to me, such that it becomes funny in a way.
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| Rafa v. 2.0 Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5685 days ago 36 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 14 of 54 24 May 2009 at 11:25am | IP Logged | ||
Oh my God, this was supposed to be an innocent, light-hearted thread. There was no need to bring WWII... For example: Czech does sound funny for a Polish ear, because a lot of its words do resemble the diminutive forms of Polish lexemes. I'm sure this also applies the other way round. Having said that, I'd like to say that the Czech Republic has always been one of my favorite countries, with a breathtaking history (i.e. Operation Anthropoid - Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis were true heroes, John Hus), splendid literature (especially Milan Kundera and Hrabal), great film-makers (Milos Forman), beautiful women (too many to mention) and - what's quite important for me - excellent football players... :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6274 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 15 of 54 24 May 2009 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's not always easy to tell that something is light-hearted, especially on the Internet.
The fact is, foreigners speaking foreign languages are the Other, and the Other is often ridiculed, or even feared and even hated for being different. The word barbarian, I believe, comes from the view of the ancient Greeks that non-Greek ethnic groups had languages that just consisted of saying bar-bar-bar. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Satoshi Diglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5825 days ago 215 posts - 224 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese | Message 16 of 54 24 May 2009 at 7:31pm | IP Logged | ||
Is it Anthropological speech I smell? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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