HyeLezûn Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6682 days ago 33 posts - 41 votes Speaks: English*, Armenian* Studies: French
| Message 1 of 130 13 August 2006 at 6:49am | IP Logged |
Just a quick poll: I'm curious as to what people think is the most beautiful spoken language. I say spoken language so script wouldn't be taken into consideration. Perhaps you might have two; that's fine.
I personally think that French is the most beautiful language (cliche...I know), and also Italian (though I suspect Italian is beautiful not so much because of the language but because of the accent and the Italians who speak it with such gusto).
Out of the more "exotic" languages, I think Farsi sounds very cute: it's a fascinating blend of rough deep-throat sounds and tender, softer sounds.
That's my opinion, anyway.
Thanks.
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Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6767 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek
| Message 2 of 130 13 August 2006 at 8:45am | IP Logged |
French is definitely #1.
Contrary to what some think, I think Mandarin is quite beautiful when spoken well, particularly the Taiwan accent — all those soft fricatives and sing-song tones.
Japanese is awfully cute when spoken by girls. :)
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Thomaskim Groupie Joined 7268 days ago 84 posts - 85 votes
| Message 3 of 130 13 August 2006 at 12:09pm | IP Logged |
I personally think that French is the most beautiful language (cliche...I know), and also Italian (though I suspect Italian is beautiful not so much because of the language but because of the accent and the Italians who speak it with such gusto).
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I don't fully get your drift here. Accent is part of how a language is spoken (?)Are you referring to stress or intonation? Please elaborate
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lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6889 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian
| Message 4 of 130 13 August 2006 at 12:30pm | IP Logged |
I quite like the sound of French, although it depends on who is doing the talking. On the whole, French has a sophisticated sound but sometimes the nasal sounds can sound a little less pleasing.
Japanese is another language I like listening to. It has a nice rhythm and the lack of tones is certainly appealing after hearing Mandarin, Taiwanese and Hakka on a daily basis. Having said that, I find Japanese a little hard to listen to when it comes from an adult woman who is trying too hard to be 'cute' and speaks in a painfully high-pitched tone!
While I've never tried to study it, I think Hawaiian has quite a melodic and beautiful sound to it. Maybe it's done to the heavy use of vowels in the spoken language. The same can be said of most of the other 'Polynesian' languages, including Maori. On the opposide end of the scale, Georgian has a very interesting sound. While it has some tough-to-mimic consonant sounds in there, I really like listening to the spoken language, even if its beauty doesn't fully match that of the Georgian script.
Greek has also started to grow on me. It has the vague sound of a Romance language but yet different and exotic in some way. I love the sound of words like 'tha' and 'thela' (sorry, don't have the Greek input running on my laptop yet). Greek seems to roll off the tongue quite nicely. :)
As for ones I *don't* like, I'd have to say that Cantonese is the language I least like to listen to (apologies to any Cantonese speakers!). To my uneducated mind, Cantonese sounds a little too erratic and even angry. A friend of mine once described it as sounding like cats arguing and I can only say that it certainly doesn't sound as pleasant to my ears as standard Mandarin does.
German is perhaps the only other language I dislike with such a passion. It just sounds too harsh to my ears (I'm far too used to the Romance languages) and has some less than pleasant sounds. Dutch is not too far off either with that 'g' sound.
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Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7155 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish
| Message 5 of 130 13 August 2006 at 12:47pm | IP Logged |
Hungarian has the best sound for me with Slovak coming in second.
I'm indifferent to the sound of Romance languages, but I note that speakers of Spanish speak at a seemingly higher volume on average than speakers of other language. Or maybe it's just my ears that are playing tricks on me...
Mandarin has the worst sound for me. It sounds out of tune compared to Cantonese. Vietnamese and Dutch are also hard on my ears but they aren't as bad as Mandarin.
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patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7014 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map
| Message 6 of 130 13 August 2006 at 12:56pm | IP Logged |
I like Italian (sounds like singing) and Arabic (sounds tough and no-nonsense).
Chung wrote:
I note that speakers of Spanish speak at a seemingly higher volume on average than speakers of other language. |
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YES, YOU'RE RIGHT.
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lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6889 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian
| Message 7 of 130 13 August 2006 at 1:15pm | IP Logged |
patuco wrote:
Chung wrote:
I note that speakers of Spanish speak at a seemingly higher volume on average than speakers of other language. |
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YES, YOU'RE RIGHT. |
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Higher volume and often faster! I can guarantee that Spanish as spoken by Andalucians is one of the fastest spoken languages on the planet. :P
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patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7014 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map
| Message 8 of 130 13 August 2006 at 2:43pm | IP Logged |
lady_skywalker wrote:
I can guarantee that Spanish as spoken by Andalucians is one of the fastest spoken languages on the planet. |
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Probably because there are so many letters that are left out! Makes it rather ugly in my opinion.
Edited by patuco on 13 August 2006 at 2:43pm
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