French so different from other romance languages

[Anglojew]

Why does french sound so different from other romance languages and how great was the frankish or germanic influence on it. It's grammar is difficult and I think it's frankish influenced too. But it doesn' sound like german,dutch or even english. Doesn't sound germanic at all. Just sounds very distinctive. You wouldn't confuse it for anything. Portuguese you might confuse for slavic at times, but it doesn't have any slav influence and I don't know about the germanic influence there.

Yes, Portuguese does sound Slavic sometimes. Any linguistic reason?

[TheForeigner]

Yes, Portuguese does sound Slavic sometimes. Any linguistic reason?

I heard some Slav slaves ended up in Muslim Moorish ruled Iberia, but still I don't think they were numerous or influential enough or that they really influence the language. Portuguese still seems more Latin to me and their names more so.

[Arthur Scharrenhans]

Yes, Portuguese does sound Slavic sometimes. Any linguistic reason?

I'd say: a) the centralized vowels [ɐ, ɨ], b) lots of palatal(ized) consonants.

This basically means that European Portuguese sounds a bit like Russian. I.e., I don't think that Brazilian Portuguese sounds anything like, say, Croatian, or Czech.

Anyway, I think that the perceived phonetic similarity to 'Slavic' stops here. And of course it arose by chance, i.e. totally independent phonetic developments leading to vaguely similar sounds - no substrate influence, no historical connections.

[Anglojew]

I'd say: a) the centralized vowels [ɐ, ɨ], b) lots of palatal(ized) consonants.

This basically means that European Portuguese sounds a bit like Russian. I.e., I don't think that Brazilian Portuguese sounds anything like, say, Croatian, or Czech.

Anyway, I think that the perceived phonetic similarity to 'Slavic' stops here. And of course it arose by chance, i.e. totally independent phonetic developments leading to vaguely similar sounds - no substrate influence, no historical connections.

Excellent answer. Thanks. That's exactly what I was wondering.

[Antimage]

french isn't that different than other romance languages in my opinion. every romance language is unique on their own way....

[Chocolate_Hound]

French are their own thing to me. Not Germanics but not really like Italians/Spaniards either.

Geographically speaking though I would say south of Lyon is definitely Southern Europe.

[Tooting Carmen]

(1) French have always liked to be 'exceptional'. (2) It has more Germanic and Celtic influences than most other Romance languages do.