vilas Pentaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6959 days ago 531 posts - 722 votes Speaks: Spanish, Italian*, English, French, Portuguese
| Message 97 of 130 10 October 2007 at 1:34pm | IP Logged |
I apologize with all of you .
Maybe I have been too much sarcastic but Xtremelingo was extremly provoking.....
I'm sorry . Vilas
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William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6271 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French
| Message 98 of 130 12 October 2007 at 7:56am | IP Logged |
I would say the nicest-sounding language is standard Italian. Russian, a language with many heavily palatised consonants, often has a soft, pleasing sound. Mind you, all languages can be harsh or pleasing, it seems to me, depending on who is speaking them and what they say.
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FSI Senior Member United States Joined 6358 days ago 550 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 99 of 130 12 October 2007 at 2:35pm | IP Logged |
re: the stereotypes discussion...
The thing about threads like these is that they're bound to be rife with stereotypes whether intentionally made or not. That's the inevitability of such a topic. We've all been raised in cultures where other languages (and the people who speak them) are lionized or demonized, glorified or slandered for wholly political reasons. This occurs in *every* country, and it plays a larger part in how we view cultures, people, and "beautiful spoken languages" than most of us would care to admit.
It makes me smile when people speak of the "sophistication" of French or the "efficiency" of German or the "(insert stereotype here)" of "(insert language)", as it's clear as day where such people were raised, and which governments force-fed these thoughts into their heads as children. However, people get mad when this is pointed out (how dare you imply I only see Russian as a spy language because I was brainwashed through the Cold War!), so it's much more fun to pretend we all arrived at our conclusions of how all of these languages sounded without any of the political programming we carry. Yes, you think language X is pretty and language Y is not solely because of how they "sound" to you. Your perspective is neutral, and is not the product of your sociocultural environment.
Right. :^)
To continue in the spirit of the thread, though, I've heard enough music to know this is a question without an answer; every time I think I've found a language I just can't stand the sound of, I find an album or an artist absolutely thrilling in said language, and I've got to start the search anew. Besides that, there are so many people who speak so many languages, it ultimately comes down to the person one is speaking with, rather than the language itself. There isn't a language on Earth that sounds ugly in the mouth of a happy child. This is also visible (or audible) when listening to artists who sing in multiple languages. Manu Chao carries his personality through each language he uses on his albums; Keren Ann sounds just as sleepy in French as she does in English; etc. I have yet to come across a person I enjoyed listening to (in speech or in song) in one language, yet detested in another (or vice-versa).
In the end, every human language is simply a dialect of a global human language; the person producing it will affect how we perceive it at any given moment.
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joan.carles Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6332 days ago 332 posts - 342 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, French, EnglishC1, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Hungarian, Russian, Georgian
| Message 100 of 130 12 October 2007 at 4:11pm | IP Logged |
Good post, FSI!
FSI wrote:
We've all been raised in cultures where other languages (and the people who speak them) are lionized or demonized, glorified or slandered for wholly political reasons. |
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We could also share how languages are viewed from other language's perspectives, which is something subjective though in this case it's a whole community' subjectivity and I'm afraid sometimes it´s a bit negative.
As an example (though maybe this should be in a new thread) the Spanish word: algarabía, which implies gibberish, unintelligible speaking or language... It´s origin is obvious, from "al 'arabiya", ie, the Arabic language, after the many centuries the Arabs stayed in Spain. By the expression it is clear that Arabs were seen as the intruders, foreigners that spoke a "confusing" language.
Another example: "esto suena a chino" - "that sounds Chinese" because it´s also unintelligible.
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patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7014 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map
| Message 101 of 130 12 October 2007 at 6:22pm | IP Logged |
FSI wrote:
There isn't a language on Earth that sounds ugly in the mouth of a happy child. |
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Very true!
Edited by patuco on 12 October 2007 at 6:23pm
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Jee Senior Member Australia Joined 6308 days ago 105 posts - 105 votes Studies: English
| Message 102 of 130 13 October 2007 at 10:42am | IP Logged |
vilas wrote:
Okay Xtremelingo Let's go with stereotypes !
Canadians spend half of their time explaining to americans time that they are not British and the other half explaining to british they are not americans.
Hindi and Punjabi sound very good for begging...
German sounds very nazi
Italian sounds very mafioso
French sounds chauvinist
Arab sounds like it's time to put some bomb somewhere...
Hebreu sounds stingy... |
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haha u r so funny
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vilas Pentaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6959 days ago 531 posts - 722 votes Speaks: Spanish, Italian*, English, French, Portuguese
| Message 103 of 130 13 October 2007 at 12:14pm | IP Logged |
Jee wrote:
vilas wrote:
Okay Xtremelingo Let's go with stereotypes !
Canadians spend half of their time explaining to americans time that they are not British and the other half explaining to british they are not americans.
Hindi and Punjabi sound very good for begging...
German sounds very nazi
Italian sounds very mafioso
French sounds chauvinist
Arab sounds like it's time to put some bomb somewhere...
Hebreu sounds stingy... |
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haha u r so funny |
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I forgot Chinese .....Chinese sounds cheating and gambling ....
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GoatBoy Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6250 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian
| Message 104 of 130 14 October 2007 at 12:38am | IP Logged |
Russian.
All other languages that I'm "familiar" with can swing anywhere from lovely to irritating and vice-versa depending on my mood, the speaker, etc... The only language that consistently satisfies my carnal linguistic desires is Russian. The sounds always seem perfect for whatever is being expressed while always being beautiful, no matter who's the speaker. I'm in love with it.
I'm Brazilian, by the way.
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