It's all greek to me

[Absinthe]

I can personally identify the sound of most european languages, or at least, categorize them in their wider group.

So for example, I know when someone speaks slavic. I may not be able to tell whether it's russian or bulgarian, etc.

I know when someone speaks german or french and I can tell someone's speaking a scandinavian language, or a germanic language in general. I also can tell when someone's speaking a finno-ugric language. And of course I now know it when someone speaks albanian. :rolleyes:

Greek however, stands on its own on the language tree, and it is very distinct from anything else.

So I am curious:

how does greek sound to you? (and don't say 'all greek' :D)

I provide you a sample.

If you heard someone speaking greek on the street, could it confuse it with a slavic language, for example, could you tell it is greek or would you be at a loss as to indentifying what it is?

7eyFwMZnP2o

Tell me! :wink

[Absinthe]

And here's some more greek:

leHBq1zE88I

...with a more characteristic :icon_yell:tone...

:D

[SuuT]

Greek has always sounded like an admixture of Spanish, German, Latin and (odd as it may sound) a bit of Danish to me. At any rate, I wouldn't confuse it as something slavic.

EDIT: Greece is in that geographic/linguistic transitional zone, though, where the I.E. languages, including Indo-Iranian and other eastern I.E. tounges, all seem to melt together with more westerly ones. So it does sound unique in that respect.

[Vargtand]

To me it sounds like a mix between I don’t know.. Italian spoken by a Spaniard? I think the pronunciation sounds closer to Italian but the melody sounds more Spanish.. I think at least.


But damn… that woman was speaking fast… how the hell can you speak that fast? I can’t even speak at half that speed.

[Treffie]

At first it does sound slightly Slavic, but after a while it sounds distinctly Greek. Sorry Absinthe.

Portuguese sometimes sounds Slavic too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv5L9eG5lpk


Some people say that Welsh sounds like German spoken in an English accent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSmAFGTDUKE

[Loki]

First impression, it sounds a bit like Spanish to me! But then again I'm no expert in Spanish as I can't speak it.

[Birka]

BTW, that Greek reporter was soooo sultry looking. It has a Slavic sound to me. But us Americans are probably not good at this, we rarely hear another language in our daily lives.

[Beorn]

All I can hear is "bar bar bar bar" ;)

[Brynhild]

Ye Gods, do you all talk that fast? She'd talk the leg off a chair! :D I'd hazard a guess and say somewhere between Spanish and Italian. There's no mistaking the mediterranean inflection.

[Treffie]

All I can hear is "bar bar bar bar" ;)

Cheeky!! Only because your ancestors probably spoke it or something similar!

We say `meee, meee` - pronounced mehhhh!

[Eldritch]

Actually, to me Greek sounds like a much faster and slightly more "guttural" form of Finnish, and I'm not the first to make that observation either.

Actually you're one of only two non-Finns (the other one is this guy (http://www.eng.helsinki.fi/staff/holman.html)) whom I've ever heard speak Finnish without a noticeable foreign accent.

Of course the languages are worlds apart in the strict linguistic sense, but they do sound somewhat similar.

[Absinthe]

Of course the languages are worlds apart in the strict linguistic sense, but they do sound somewhat similar.

Yes, I was amazed at how easily I could pronounce finnish, as well as how naturally my friend Jenni could pick up greek phrases without sounding like a tourist. ;)

[SuuT]

Absinthe,

If I recall correctly, you have studied Sanskrit. How does Greek compare, and do you think it closer to Greek than to, say, German?

[Absinthe]

How does greek and sanskrit compare?

Well, there is similar grammar between sanskrit and ancient greek. There are sanskrit roots that can also be found in ancient greek words.

For example:

english: am, are, is
sanskrit: asmi, asi, asti
anc. greek: eemi, eesi, esti
modern greek: eeme, eese, eene


As for german and sanskrit...I'd tell you if I spoke german. :o

[SuuT]

How does greek and sanskrit compare?

Well, there is similar grammar between sanskrit and ancient greek. There are sanskrit roots that can also be found in ancient greek words.




I mean when comparing their spoken sound (I've never heard Sanskrit spoken): does Sanskrit 'sound' more like Greek than German 'sounds' like Greek?

[Absinthe]

Aaah sorry! :D

It has more similar sounds with greek, I would say, than with german.

But it doesn't sound particularly like greek.

[SwordoftheVistula]

If I heard it on the street I would have guessed Italian. It vaguely resembles French(latin) in tone but I don't recognize any words, it doesn't really sound like Spanish at all, so I would have guessed Italian.

Definitely doesn't sound Germanic or Slavic. All the Celts I have ever met only speak English, so I have no idea what any celtic language sounds like.

[Osweo]

I hear it, and immediately think of the Mediterranean. I have to listen a bit more to eliminate the Romance languages. You have the same 'music' perhaps, but a more jumpy rhythm. All the 'elleththelleththe' gives yous away, very easily! 'Th' in general is quite a rare sound, and rules out the Slavs and Shiptars. Southern Slavs, however, do have a common Balkan sound or accent to my ears with yourselves and the Albanians. Maybe even with Turks, but I've not heard them speak much. The Southern Slavs sound very different from their northern fellows, so a man can be forgiven for not so immediately saying 'Greek'! I actually heard a few Russian words in what the people were saying in the videos, but this is a usual phenomenon for somebody who only really speaks two languages; I heard Russian words in the speech of some Maasai on the telly once!

[Absinthe]

All the 'elleththelleththe' gives yous away, very easily!

Yes, sort of like the "saatanasvittuperkele" for Finns :D

[Óttar]

When I hear Greek I sometimes confuse it with Portuguese. While many here say Greek sounds like Spanish, I know it isn't because Spanish isn't so harsh and I can recognize much Spanish vocabulary.

I think Greek sounds Portuguese because it has many vowels which go together and aren't enunciated as clearly as Spanish.

For example, in Portuguese "s" is pronounced "sh" so "Lisboetas" (natives of Lisbon) is pronounced "Lishbo-ay-taash."

And instead of the soft Spanish suffix -cion with accent over the "i", the same suffix is "cao" in Portuguese with a strange "~" accent over the a. Portuguese also has a harsh /dz/ sound.

Compare Spanish "yo soy" (I am) containing soft "c" sound and Portuguese "eu seu" containing harsh "sh" sound. "eu" and "seu" kind of smash together cacaphonously.


Some people say that Welsh sounds like German spoken in an English accent.

Some people must not be familiar with German.

[Óttar]

I've never heard Sanskrit spoken

One must hear a proper Vedic chant. There is a thing called candas, "chund' us' with short 'u' sound" which is the proper intonation of a Sanskrit chant which is with a particular metre such as the gayatri. This is to be distinguished from the rather crude and infantile tunes of the common Indian folk song.

Listen to the Gayatri mantra with proper intonation and gayatri metre:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDjYdpOmV1s

Hear also a Tantrik chant called Sri Chakra using a proper metre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmKo72JSLac

[Frigga]

To me, it sounds like a cross between Spanish and Russian.

[Phlegethon]

Sounds all Greek to me. Like all Mediterranean languages it is usually spoken at a speed and with so many regional aberrations that it is impossible to comprehend. As I am basically a book person I am much better in reading foreign newspapers, with a basic knowlege of about half a dozen modern European languages, literacy in three others and more than just basic knowledge of two dead ones. ;)

[Angantyr]

Greek does not stand out from Indo-European nor is it more distinct than any other language. True, it is a branch of Indo-European that has only one member, Greek. But the same can be said of Armenian and Albanian. And Baltic currently only has two surviving languages.

That being said, there are some distinguishing characteristics of Greek that can help one in identifying the language when spoken, even if you do not understand the words.

Greek has the [θ] sound, like English "th" in thin. This is found in a limited number of languages in Europe...English, Albanian, Greek, Welsh, Castilian Spanish and several others.

About 40% of all Greek spoken vowels are [i] due to the historical convergence of η, ι, υ, ει, οι, υι. The five other vowels sounds comprise the remaining 60%. This is a very lopsided representation of vowels.

Greek [s] σ and [z] ζ are lamino-alveolar and are articulated approximately as [ɕ] and [ʑ], which to many will sound like English "sh" and "zh".

Listen to the recordings agains and you will clearly notice these features.

[jerney]

It sounds like a mix of Slavic and Romance words/sound to me.

[Óttar]

Does Sanskrit 'sound' more like Greek than German 'sounds' like Greek?

I would have to say Sanskrit sounds more like Greek as vowels are very clearly a large component of the "sound" of both languages. They are both not as guttural as German.

German: (thou) art, am, he/she is, they are = (du) bist, (ich) bin, er/sie ist, sie sind.

Sanskrit: mother, father is amba/mata, pita

Greek is Meter which is similar to German Mutter, but Greek retains a /p/ word for father, like Sanskrit pita whereas German is Vater, which has an /f/ phoneme. Meter also sounds like mata, so Greek is IMO closer to Sanskrit on all fronts.

However, both Sanskrit and German mash adjectives and nouns together to form new words, which can be rather long.

[Útrám]

To my unfamiliar ears, Greek sounds mostly Gallo-Iberian with a modicum of west-Slavic. It does remind me a bit of Portuguese, a romance language which coincidentally sounds slavic.

[Tabiti]

For me Greek sounds ...Greek.
Maybe a distant similarity with Roman languages, but still quite different.

[Absinthe]

Haha, all those guesses are so interesting. And I love it when people look at me funny when I am abroad and I pick up my cell phone :D

[Will]

To me it sounds like my cousins. :p

[Guapo]

Portuguese sometimes sounds Slavic too.

I noticed that too, maybe because it is stronger sounding than other Romance languages. Greek to me sounds like a mixture of Spanish and Finnish, very soft :D


To me it sounds like my cousins. :p

Nicko, Nick and Nickolas? :D

[Treffie]

For example, in Portuguese "s" is pronounced "sh" so "Lisboetas" (natives of Lisbon) is pronounced "Lishbo-ay-taash."

And instead of the soft Spanish suffix -cion with accent over the "i", the same suffix is "cao" in Portuguese with a strange "~" accent over the a. Portuguese also has a harsh /dz/ sound.

Compare Spanish "yo soy" (I am) containing soft "c" sound and Portuguese "eu seu" containing harsh "sh" sound. "eu" and "seu" kind of smash together cacaphonously.



More specifically, Lisboa is pronounced Lizh-bo-ah in Portuguese, the -zh sound is very common and I think that's one of the reasons people assume that it's a Slavic language at first.