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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Alejeather Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5126 days ago 9 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian | Message 265 of 297 16 April 2010 at 1:22pm | IP Logged |
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I've never completely understood the fascination with Italian. Now that I'm learning
it, though, I can't really "hear" it anymore, in the sense that I can't hear how the language sounds to people who don't speak it. The "e" sound is a bit raw to me and I prefer the sound in Spanish. I love the Spanish accent(s) in Spanish. (I can't reliably distinguish between them yet.) I love the way Portuguese sounds, particularly when it is sung. I think I prefer Brazilian Portuguese to European Portuguese, though, much to the disappointment of my Portuguese friend! Everything she says sounds like sh-sh-sh-sh- to me! I also seem to be in the minority of people who like the way Catalan sounds. It sounds rustic and hearty to me and I love it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5128 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 266 of 297 16 April 2010 at 1:39pm | IP Logged |
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I personally like the melody of Japanese, Taiwanese Mandarin, Portuguese and French...they sound very pleasing to my ears...on the other hand, it also depends very much who's speaking the language. When I was living in Paris, one could sometimes hear (actually pretty often) French spoken by some youths or other social groups, and I must say that their spoken French definitely does NOT sound nice at all!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tenebrarum Groupie United States Joined 5194 days ago 84 posts - 115 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi | Message 267 of 297 16 April 2010 at 11:16pm | IP Logged |
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I think each language offers up its own interesting sounds, but most beautiful to me
would probably be Arabic (no dialect in particular as I'm not familiar with their differences) and Hindi. Japanese also sounds rather nice. But I'll note that for me it also depends on who is speaking the language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| unityandoutside Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5802 days ago 94 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin, Mandarin | Message 268 of 297 17 April 2010 at 7:16am | IP Logged |
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Icelandic is probably the most entrancing language I've ever heard. It sounds mythical and surreal to my English ear. To a lesser degree, I also like the sound of the other Scandinavian languages (except for Danish). I actually like most of the Germanic languages quite a bit, although I'm on the rails as to whether I think Deutsch is beautiful or not. As far as West Germanic goes, I'd have to say Old English is my favorite.
Between Icelandic and the other Scandi languages are my favorites from the Slavic languages. Russian is my absolute favorite, followed by Serbo-Croation. Other than that I haven't been exposed to the others enough to make choices, although I think that Czech is a bit heavy on the ear. Honorable mentions include Japanese, Cherokee, and Malaysian. A few languages that I think would be beautiful by looking at them but have never had the chance to hear are Finnish, Inuit languages, and Latvian. I'm not really fond of Romance languages, but I do really like Romanian. I've noticed that my attitudes about language beauty usually change significantly with exposure. For example I used to like Arabic and dislike Japanese, but after hearing more of these languages in my environment, my opinion has reversed- I find well spoken Japanese to be light but yet passionate, and Arabic to sound more akin to choking -- I could really like it, but there are just a few consonants that sound so harsh that I immediately think about gagging. I have also grown to really enjoy the sound of spoken Malaysian (my hometown is a harbor for recent immigrants from Malaysia). Edited by unityandoutside on 17 April 2010 at 7:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5123 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 269 of 297 26 April 2010 at 5:14am | IP Logged |
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My favorite language is English, hands down. I don't have any memories of not understanding it so I don't know what it sounds like to someone who doesn't speak it but I do remember thinking it sounded cool when I was younger, mostly because phrases like "Whatever", "Face it" and "I'll be back" sound cool in English but horrible when you translate them into Dutch. I like pretty much all accents but my favorite is probably a nice and clear RP accent, especially because of the way it pronounces words like "gorgeous" and "extraordinary". I often get tired of it after a while though when I start longing for the laid back and slurring way Americans talk. Scottish, Irish, Australian, New York, Welsh, Estuary, Boston, I love listening to all of them. The only ones that can get on my nerves after a while are Cockney (the -th sound is the most wonderful thing about English so I'm not fond of their replacing it with an -f sound) and the way English is spoken in Africa. I don't know why but it just annoys me, maybe because it's a bit harder for me to understand.
My other favorite is French, because it sounds so beautiful and flows so well. I love hearing and speaking it and the written form looks pretty as well, though the overload of accents sometimes drives me a little crazy. I've never understood how anyone can consider German an ugly language. It so obviously rocks! I love pronouncing it because it has this kind of.....bumpiness about it. I can't really describe it. I don't mind guttural sounds because my native language has them as well so I'm used to them and I think they add something tough to a language. That's something Romance languages don't have but then they have those beautifully trilled r's and awesome rhythms that I love as well. I also love listening to Greek, Arabic and Hebrew and like seeing their alphabets as well, especially the Greek one which I think is more beautiful than our Latin alphabet. Edited by ReneeMona on 26 April 2010 at 5:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| horshod Pentaglot Groupie India Joined 5558 days ago 74 posts - 107 votes Speaks: Hindi, Marathi*, Bengali, Gujarati, English Studies: German, Spanish, Turkish | Message 270 of 297 28 April 2010 at 6:12pm | IP Logged |
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I recently read that Bengali was voted the sweetest language in the world in a vote conducted by UNESCO. Spanish ranked second sweetest. Does anyone know about this? Is there any truth to this?
1 person has voted this message useful | |
 arashikat Diglot Pro Member United States Joined 4465 days ago 53 posts - 80 votes Speaks: Tagalog*, English Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 271 of 297 13 February 2012 at 7:12pm | IP Logged |
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The most beautiful language for my ears is definitely Japanese. Women speaking it in a natural and calm manner is the best. It sounds good even when spoken in an ungodly high-pitched tone. I've also seen and heard Japanese men shout and yell their most brutal words while beating up a guy (in movies! Ha!) and it still doesn't come close to sounding "harsh" to me.
A close favorite is Russian. It sounds so elegant and self-assured. I like it very much. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Ellsworth Senior Member United States Joined 4745 days ago 345 posts - 528 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Irish | Message 272 of 297 13 February 2012 at 7:18pm | IP Logged |
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My vote is for Finnish! Sounds like the language of elves or something.
3 persons have voted this message useful |
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