Best sounding language?

[Yaroslav]

Chose one from the list

[Arthur Scharrenhans]

That French should include Occitanian and Romansh (!), or that Spanish should include Catalan, etc., makes no sense, they have very distinct sounds. "Finnish-Estonian-Hungarian-Turkish" is an especially ludicrous grouping...

Anyway, I voted for Icelandic.

[lepa]

Serbo-Croatian.

[Rereg]

Ancient latin language!

[MandM]

Italian

[Libertas]

Italian

Provided its not spoken in a whining or sing-song manner.

Then it could lead to terminal irritation or worse.:D

[Virtuous]

This should be multiple choice.
I like Slavic and Germanic languages :D.

[Queen B]

Mine, Greek, and Spanish. I couldn't vote 2, so I chose my own :)

[Comte Arnau]

Spanish, including Catalan? :confused3: Why not English including Dutch then? :icon_ask:

[Styggnacke]

"Finnish-Estonian-Hungarian-Turkish"

Yeah, they're all really similar languages. :rolleyes2:

Finnish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqUU7geqN-U
Estonian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Mp7ri7uUM
Hungarian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWVsrM0hqIc
Turkish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH-edujla-E

Finnish and Estonian are similar, but Hungarian and Turkish...

[Graham]

Provided its not spoken in a whining or sing-song manner.

Then it could lead to terminal irritation or worse.:D

I like sing songy Italian or English spoken by an Italian. :) Also like to hear Welsh, but not to look at. As an assortment of random scrabble letters.

[Corvus]

I have a certain affinity for the Slovene language,
I really like to listen to it.

[Yaroslav]

Spanish, including Catalan? :confused3: Why not English including Dutch then? :icon_ask:

Dutch is dialect of German.

http://www.anesi.com/rmap2.jpg




"Finnish-Estonian-Hungarian-Turkish"

Yeah, they're all really similar languages. :rolleyes2:

Finnish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqUU7geqN-U
Estonian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Mp7ri7uUM
Hungarian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWVsrM0hqIc
Turkish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH-edujla-E

Finnish and Estonian are similar, but Hungarian and Turkish...

To foreign ear they sound the same, and they are all part of same language family called Turanian.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/Linguistic_map_of_the_Altaic,_Turkic_and_Uralic_la nguages.png/500px-Linguistic_map_of_the_Altaic,_Turkic_and_Uralic_la nguages.png

[Vasconcelos]

Dutch is dialect of German.

Don't think our most well known dutch member will enjoy reading this, coming from someone who lives on the wrong side of the Atlantic. :)

[Europa]

[QUOTE=OrthodoxUnity;825735]Dutch is dialect of German.


You probably meant West Germanic?English is Germanic too..

[Styggnacke]

To foreign ear they sound the same,
I've never heard of anyone who has confused Finnish with Turkish...

and they are all part of same language family called Turanian.
The idea of a Turanian language family is outdated.

[Comte Arnau]

Dutch is dialect of German.

http://www.anesi.com/rmap2.jpg


You base language classification on a racial map?

The thing is, you could have a point in joining Portuguese with Galician, Czech with Slovak, English with Scots, Italian with Corsican... Different standards for languages springing off a same root. But considering Catalan a dialect of Spanish, Romansh a dialect of French or Sardinian a dialect of Italian just means you're simply misinformed about these languages, to say it in a polite way.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Romance-lg-classification-en.png/500px-Romance-lg-classification-en.png

[Foxy]

I voted for French because as an Italian I cannot understand how my language sounds. In Italy we say that French is the language of love so I went with it.

[Foxy]

Provided its not spoken in a whining or sing-song manner.

Then it could lead to terminal irritation or worse.:D


I like sing songy Italian or English spoken by an Italian. :) Also like to hear Welsh, but not to look at. As an assortment of random scrabble letters.

Can you post me a video where someone speaks with a sing-songy Italian? I wanna understand what it means...

[Graham]

Can you post me a video where someone speaks with a sing-songy Italian? I wanna understand what it means...

The opposite of monotone, dull.


singsong
1. (Linguistics) an accent, metre, or intonation that is characterized by an alternately rising and falling rhythm, as in a person's voice, piece of verse, etc.
2. . A monotonously rising and falling inflection of the voice.

In Italian Speaking English. I can find this well known chef in the UK.
Gino D'Acampo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clTz2i4nG6s&feature=fvst

[Lithium]

I guess that must be the Polish language :D

[Minesweeper]

Dutch and Afrikaans, I really enjoy listening them.

[Peter Nirsch]

German, Dutch and Danish.

[Vasconcelos]

After listening to Occitan I think it deserves a (separate) mention on the list ;)


As for myself, there are a few I like quite a lot, notably French, Italian and scandinavian languages. Since I can only pick one here, I won't vote.

[Chego]

I'm proud of my Gallo-Italian:)

[Comte Arnau]

Can you post me a video where someone speaks with a sing-songy Italian? I wanna understand what it means...

Italians have a very recognizable intonation, which is often parodied. Sometimes the only fact of recognizing them here (apart from the extremely clear vowels) is that intonation.

[The Ripper]

Chose one from the list


Finnish-Estonian-Hungarian-Turkish

:coffee:

[Hurrem sultana]

french sounds sexy on girls


english on guys(but not that american redneck accent)

ex-yu languages sound sexy on guys(but that's because i am Bosnian maybe?!?)

[Foxy]

The opposite of monotone, dull.



In Italian Speaking English. I can find this well known chef in the UK.
Gino D'Acampo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clTz2i4nG6s&feature=fvst

I don't think this accent is beautiful at all! Anyway I think he's exaggerating his accent (his accent is southern Italian, specifically Neapolitan). Northern Italians speak English more like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0Y1Wk2wr74

[Arthur Scharrenhans]

Italians have a very recognizable intonation, which is often parodied. Sometimes the only fact of recognizing them here (apart from the extremely clear vowels) is that intonation.

In Italy the various regional accents (including intonation!) are strikingly different, and I'd be surprised if at least some of it didn't carry over when speaking foreign languages. So, I doubt there is one Italian intonation. As a matter of fact, the stereotypical intonation that foreigners use when imitating an Italian accent has always stroken me as particularly fake: it is clearly more or less based on southern Italian accents, but it doesn't exactly correspond to any of them, and is of course quite wrong for northern (or even central) speakers.

[billErobreren]

German. point fucking blank! no other language is just as sexy:nod:

[purple]

Russian and German are ''badass'' languages.
Spanish,French and Italian are ''gay'' languages.
Bulgarian is ''sad'' language.
:D

[billErobreren]

German, Dutch and Danish.

Danish along with those two?....well too bad they didn't put them in the same category...or sound alike nor are that related:rolleyes:

[Olika]

Spanish,French,German,Russian,Ukrainian.

[Comte Arnau]

In Italy the various regional accents (including intonation!) are strikingly different, and I'd be surprised if at least some of it didn't carry over when speaking foreign languages. So, I doubt there is one Italian intonation. As a matter of fact, the stereotypical intonation that foreigners use when imitating an Italian accent has always stroken me as particularly fake: it is clearly more or less based on southern Italian accents, but it doesn't exactly correspond to any of them, and is of course quite wrong for northern (or even central) speakers.

I was obviously referring to the Italian accent when Italians speak a foreign language. When I hear architect Benedetta Tagliabue speak in Catalan, I instantly know she's Italian. When I hear Rafaella Carrà, Laura Pausini, Eros Ramazzotti, Nek... speak in Spanish, I instantly know they are Italian. All of them might speak with different accents when they speak in Italian, but it gets uniform when they speak in a foreign language in something that is clearly identified as "Italian accent", which here consists of mainly vowels and the singy intonation, but which has more elements in English (Italians don't pronounce initial h's, pronounce th as a t or s, etc).

It's not just Italian, of course. Same thing could be said of many other languages.

[Caismeachd]

English is the most nuanced I think but it depends on dialect. It can sound either very nice or as stupid as imaginable. For singing (especially female singing) I love French. Spanish sounds nice when spoken in it's true form. Andalusian Spanish etc. German can sound nice but can often sound a little harsh when sung by female singers. Karalian Finnish (not true Finnish) sounds very nice. Bit more flat version of Finnish without as many hard or abrupt consonants.

[Arne]

English is the most nuanced I think but it depends on dialect. It can sound either very nice or as stupid as imaginable. For singing (especially female singing) I love French. Spanish sounds nice when spoken in it's true form. Andalusian Spanish etc. German can sound nice but can often sound a little harsh when sung by female singers.

I really doubt that German is sounding harsh and if you can´t really judge it uppon the whole based on a few songs you know.
We need to consider some examples first
Decided myself for a very cheeky female..
u4MgMbujv1U

Btw. i like "english" but i wouldn´t underrate German.
By sounding some german dialects are rather rough such as dutch (if i put it into the dialects which could be reasonable for some)
Dutch and German can not be compared.

Non-German speakers don´t get really the fine nuances.

[Caismeachd]

That's a very brash song in the first place so it's a little hard to gauge.

Here are some German folk inspired songs.



2d7__TOpWL0

4N1BL5XpDB0

QWDA5GfOdjQ


I like them all and wasn't saying that I don't think German is beautiful. French is a little more of a musical language though I think because is more rounded with less hard consonants than German.

w32WvYkfpO8

[Comte Arnau]

There is only a way of making German sound softer. And it's only with a foreign Romance accent. :D


PZCu3sXdy6k

But German doesn't have to sound sweet. I find the language extremely musical in its own full way, whether in Hölderlin's poems or in the European anthem (excerpt from the Ode to Joy), which in no translation has the power it has in German.


Bylj_hZPv-8

[Caismeachd]

That's true. German has a very dramatic and strong flair to it that you can't find in softer languages. Which can be used very well musically and poetically.

[Peyrol]

Occitane is the best of the romance languages.

X56RmIFgxfc

htJpFS6133w

ZaJEpA_IODE

[Arne]

That's true. German has a very dramatic and strong flair to it that you can't find in softer languages. Which can be used very well musically and poetically.

English isn´t softer in any way..
Non native speakers pronounce it more soften (for example the following female of french background)
PEda1X2gGaU

Here´s a guy with Southgerman pronouncation.
It doesn´t sound anyhow harsh.
Bn9TD_FCVcM

[Geronimo]

Romanian
Russian
Italian
Dutch (the cooler version of both english and german)

[Lithium]

I just want to note the fact that the Polish language fits perfect agressive, romantic and funny moods at the same time. It's so universal! :D

[Peyrol]

I like also piedmonteis (a language related with occitane, but heavy lombardized)

2dQRl58x9Lo

[Comte Arnau]

Occitane is the best of the romance languages.


Specially when it includes Catalan, in its very broad sense. :D

Oh wait, I didn't remember that according to the poll, Catalan is Spanish and Occitan is French, lol.

[Vasconcelos]

ZaJEpA_IODE

Holy mother of God that's a great song.

[Didriksson]

Lithuanian and Latvians sounds really different. Saying that Latvian and Lithuanian sounds the same is like saying that Enlgish and German sound the same or Spanish and Portuguese sound the same.

[The Ripper]

It's not on the list but I really like Sámi. Its familiar and exotic at the same time. :) (I suppose it sounds close enought to Turkish? :D )

aYevBLUtuLc

[Peyrol]

Holy mother of God that's a great song.

Are you able to understand the lyrics? :D

[Styggnacke]

It's not on the list but I really like Sámi. Its familiar and exotic at the same time. :)
I agree. Sámi is cool:
Qq3WEB_DTO8

[Arne]

Polish is quite rough
yutZgExaH0Q

Here listen to Northgerman which is even more soft than Dutch.
I love plattdütsch.. :D
They are lovely people..

f2mNnYXlFN0

[sturmwalkure]

German obviously.

There is no more beautiful language that is able to convey such power, dramatic emotions and refinement.

EO7NIzsBf44

CcZpoGIP-zY

eNdW9nDceyk

ca3PQ7FS17A

Need I say more? :D

[Arne]

Plattdütsch
Wo ik herkam
VIhVN1xmxAs

[Comte Arnau]

It's not on the list but I really like Sámi. Its familiar and exotic at the same time. :) (I suppose it sounds close enought to Turkish? :D )


Sámi is a Turkish dialect. I thought the poll left it clear enough. :p

[Arne]

Plattdütsch (german)

fsKsbthjALM

[Vasconcelos]

Are you able to understand the lyrics? :D

A part of it, yes, but it's much clearer for me to read them. I suppose that knowing french helps, though :p

[juizdelinha]

French obviously, Russian being a very distant second

[Albion]

Everyone votes for their own language including myself, this thread won't work. ;)

English is of course far superior, it can go from primitive and harsh sounding Northern dialects to refined Southern dialects. :thumb001:

[rashka]

I think Serbo-Croatian is a very nice sounding and rich language.

The verb to be: biti
sqfFha5EYPg

Beautiful Serbian song
xtwPpcY19lw

Finnish musicians playing this beautiful Serbian music from Kosovo.
yf4OzUzbaAg

Faith No More, Armerican band, singing in Serbian (same song as what the Finnish musicians were playing) and performing in Serbia :lol:
Fs3z-k90ync

[MM81]

[QUOTE=Arthur Scharrenhans;836440]In Italy the various regional accents (including intonation!) are strikingly different, and I'd be surprised if at least some of it didn't carry over when speaking foreign languages.QUOTE]
My ligurian accent sounds very close to brazilian portuguese. I've always wondered why, unsuccessfully :confused:

[Arthur Scharrenhans]

[QUOTE=Arthur Scharrenhans;836440]In Italy the various regional accents (including intonation!) are strikingly different, and I'd be surprised if at least some of it didn't carry over when speaking foreign languages.QUOTE]
My ligurian accent sounds very close to brazilian portuguese. I've always wondered why, unsuccessfully :confused:

I think it's the nasalized vowels and the palatal consonants; maybe something about the intonation, too.

[Tony]

[QUOTE=Arthur Scharrenhans;836440]In Italy the various regional accents (including intonation!) are strikingly different, and I'd be surprised if at least some of it didn't carry over when speaking foreign languages.QUOTE]
My ligurian accent sounds very close to brazilian portuguese.

And to a lesser extent also to all Iberian languages save Castillan and Basque of course.

[Yaroslav]

I never knew Catalan was dialect of Occitan. Why don't Catalans and Occitans break away from Spain and France to form a country of their own?

[Albion]

I never knew Catalan was dialect of Occitan. Why don't Catalans and Occitans break away from Spain and France to form a country of their own?

They're similar but not the same. A lot of other factors exist and it wouldn't be right to unite the South of France with Catalonia.

[member]

Examples of Lithuanian language:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toRhKm9fEZ0&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYb4CNNT5qQ&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFlL4vg97c4&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VfH9z_6Gzk&feature=related

[Comte Arnau]

I never knew Catalan was dialect of Occitan. Why don't Catalans and Occitans break away from Spain and France to form a country of their own?

Catalan could have been considered a dialect of Occitan 1,000 years ago, right before its divergence. Now Catalan and some Occitan dialects are somewhat close, but different languages and mutual intelligibility is very limited without studying. Maybe a parallel could be drawn with Icelandic and Norwegian, which were almost identical 1,000 years ago, but not now.

We could have been a powerful country between Spain and France, no doubt. But the French defeated us at Muret (it was actually our fault). As a nice uchronic book puts it: Pyrenia, the country that didn't exist.

http://productesdelaterra.cat/7959-2310-large/llibre-pirenia-el-pais-que-mai-no-va-existir.jpg

However, there were attempts for a new convergence in the Romantic period and beginning of the 20th century. And some brothership persists.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pPkyQmKY7HY/Tpw_MYzvtkI/AAAAAAAABGY/lL6DszjkG-A/s1600/200px-Flag_of_Occitania_%2528with_star%2529.svg.png

http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2010/259/e/7/catalunya_occitania__final_by_mausetta-d2yunb6.jpg

But as Albion says, things are quite different nowadays. We are two clearly different nations today, and Catalonia has grown adult and bigger.

http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2010/259/f/6/catalunya_occitania__first_try_by_mausetta-d2yun5i.jpg

http://tirantlobloc.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/nostrepais.jpg

[MM81]

[QUOTE=MM81;837441]

I think it's the nasalized vowels and the palatal consonants; maybe something about the intonation, too.

Yes, but the reasons behind this strong similarity are still unknown to me. Maybe the the middle ages/early modernity commercial ties between the Republic of Genoa and Portugal (and Spain,too) have something to do with this? :confused:

[Arthur Scharrenhans]

[QUOTE=Arthur Scharrenhans;837484]

Yes, but the reasons behind this strong similarity are still unknown to me. Maybe the the middle ages/early modernity commercial ties between the Republic of Genoa and Portugal (and Spain,too) have something to do with this? :confused:

It's not impossible, but I think that mere coincidence is possible, too; after all, Venetian sounds a bit like Spanish (at least to other Italians), but I don't think it is due to any special connection with Spain. Generally speaking, we should resort to substrate/adstrate-based explanations only where there is strong evidence compelling us to do so; parallel evolution is not at all rare in the history of languages.

[Dandelion]

Dutch and German are more dissimilar than you might think. Dutch is between English and German to put it simply, maybe slightly closer to the German side. I disagree with our two languages lumped together.

[Sultan Suleiman]

Bosnian :)

[Aces High]

Rhodesian English is gentle and pleasing to the ears......South African i also like but is a bit more gutteral.

gFR-gqqLqg4

[Methmatician]

Ukrainian, definitely.

[Foxy]

Italian is a language, Sardinian is an other language, Sicilian is a dialect that some people consider an indipendent language.
They sound different!

Standard Italian (Official Italian without dialect/regional accents)

P2zcBUHOOoI

Sardinian ( they speak in Sardinian where it appears images with subtitles, the rest is Italian with Sardinian accent)

XyK2OnoQBy0

Sicilian

AfQURzflK7o

As you can see the Sardinian and the Sicilian have subtitles. The other Italians don't understand them!

[Peyrol]

I never knew Catalan was dialect of Occitan. Why don't Catalans and Occitans break away from Spain and France to form a country of their own?

Catalan, Arpitan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Proven%C3%A7al_language) and Piedmonteis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmontese) are all very closed to Occitan and probabily years and years ago they were a only language ("Cataloccitanese"), but now they're slightly different, not in the vocabulary or grammar, but in the intonation, pronunciation, etc...Catalan could pass as italian dialect, btw (same for castillian).

[Foxy]

Spanish for Italian speaking people is easier than some Italian dialects!

Spanish
BGKxnhOysDw



Vs Italian vs all the dialects
WbzU7bA-3jo

Some dialects seem languages for people waiting to be exorcized! :eek:

[Peyrol]

^

This bergamask of of the "pianura", very easy compared to val-serianese or val-cavallinese ones. :D

[Foxy]

^

This bergamask of of the "pianura", very easy compared to val-serianese or val-cavallinese ones. :D

In the Brignano's parody I have heard 2-3 dialects that sound even more alien. I think they were Bolognese, Calabrese and an other non identified one just before Calabrese.
What dialect is at 2:52, when he says "e mi e ti e mi e ti non dise niente el.... nbsnbshgdhbshbgsy?"

[Meerkat.86]

Sardinian ( they speak in Sardinian where it appears images with subtitles, the rest is Italian with Sardinian accent)

XyK2OnoQBy0




Italian is a language, Sardinian is an other language, Sicilian is a dialect that some people consider an indipendent language.
They sound different!


Sardinian ( they speak in Sardinian where it appears images with subtitles, the rest is Italian with Sardinian accent)



As you can see the Sardinian and the Sicilian have subtitles. The other Italians don't understand them!

Sardinian is subdivided in 2 main groups: Logudorese and Campidanese, that boy in the video is speaking Campidanese that's the Sardinian spoken in the extreme south of the island.
This old man instead speaks Barbarian-Logudorese
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xY7aKpippA
anyone can notice the differences.


Anyway you forget Venetian that's considered an official minority language as Sardinian.

And about Sicilian, it's considered a southern dialect, connected with Calabrese and Salentino, and so with any other Italian dialect as Ligurian, Abruzzese, Romanesco, Corsican etc.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruppo_siciliano

I doubt that you can't understand it easily. It's not dissimilar to dialects spoken in Central Italy. Syntax, grammar and in part vocabulary are almost the same.

[Meerkat.86]

edit

[Foxy]

And about Sicilian, it's considered a southern dialect, connected with Calabrese and Salentino, and so with any other Italian dialect as Ligurian, Abruzzese, Romanesco, Corsican etc.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruppo_siciliano

I doubt that you can't understand it easily. It's not dissimilar to dialects spoken in Central Italy. Syntax, grammar and in part vocabulary are almost the same.


I understand better Roman and Latial in general, Neapolitan and Apulian spoken in Foggia (Salentine sounds alien to me).

I understand quite well the Sicilian of the video, but I don't think it is pure Sicilian.

[Peyrol]

Apulian Greek (doric dialect of Salento region, southern Italy) is very good sounding.

Tg5PQz-pLV8

[Comte Arnau]

Sardinian is beautiful to me, with original features. And the fact that it reportedly has about 4,000 words coming from Catalan makes it relatively familiar. :D

[Meerkat.86]

Sardinian is beautiful to me, with original features. And the fact that it reportedly has about 4,000 words coming from Catalan makes it relatively familiar. :D

that's true, thousands words come from Catalan, Aragonese and Castilian.
And Sardinia is facing a strong revitalization of its Aragonese/Catalan culture.
In the town where I was born it has even been changed the coat of arms (the Savoy red/blue has been replaced by the Aragonese red/yellow), some streets have readquired ancient catalan toponyms and the ruins of the Aragonese castle destroied by Piedmontese have been literally unearthed and restored.

[Comte Arnau]

that's true, thousands words come from Catalan, Aragonese and Castilian.
And Sardinia is facing a strong revitalization of its Aragonese/Catalan culture.
In the town where I was born it has even been changed the coat of arms (the Savoy red/blue has been replaced by the Aragonese red/yellow), some streets have readquired ancient catalan toponyms and the ruins of the Aragonese castle destroied by Piedmontese have been literally unearthed and restored.

Really? Wow, always felt a strong link to the island, but now it'll be stronger than ever. :)

But well, Sardinia is Sardinian. Beautiful landscape, beautiful language(s), beautiful people. One of the best islands on the Mediterranean, no doubt about it.

[Siegfried]

Finnish-Estonian-Hungarian-Turkish?

Turkish is a Turkic language. The other are finno-ugric.

I personally like Welsh as a language.

[Ants]

Finnish-Estonian-Hungarian-Turkish?

Even Hungarian sounds very-very different from the Finnic languages, not to mention Turkish. How unproffesional of the OP.

[Siegfried]

Even Hungarian sounds very-very different from the Finnic languages, not to mention Turkish. How unproffesional of the OP.

That's true. Hungarian to Finnish/Estonian is like Russian to German. Turkish to Finnish/Estonian is like Arabic to German.

[Comte Arnau]

According to Emperor Charles V...

http://media.kunst-fuer-alle.de/img/41/m/41_00006394~charles-v---portrait---1548.jpg


you should speak in Spanish to God

http://www.dominicanablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/El-Greco-St-Dominic-at-Prayer.jpg

in French, to men

http://blog.lefigaro.fr/bd/Les-Trois-Mousquetaires.jpg

in Italian, to women

http://webnews.textalk.com/upload/article/bild/2/450663/normal_monalisa_soniajpg_s.jpg

and in German to your horse

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Ud7etSYA11A/TlOGe0CLsbI/AAAAAAAAw3s/Vlrjs91iUPg/titian_carlos.jpg


Sociolinguistics in the late Middle Ages. :rolleyes:

[Skrondsze]

Portuguese

[Heart of Oak]

I voted Romania only as that's where Sabiniae comes from an i hear her call me some cold lonely nights..........

[PetiteParisienne]

I voted for French. Surprise surprise.

[Riki]

I like Italian.English in Songs.
Only 4 votes to Portuguese.
You should all get you ears checked.:mad::)

[Archduke]

Serbo-Croatian.

[Siginulfo]

Russian and Ukrainian are beautiful in songs.

[Lauren]

Everybody picks his or her own language. :P

I love the sound of our Irish tongue. Very soft, smooth and mellifluous to my ears. I hope to speak it fluently one day.

[Beethoven]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4om1rQKPijI

Eastern Savonian (eastern finnish dialect)

The song is sung in very heavy Eastern Savonian dialects spoken in North Karelia. It differs in many aspects radically from Standard Finnish.

[Arne]

Everybody picks his or her own language. :P

I love the sound of our Irish tongue. Very soft, smooth and mellifluous to my ears. I hope to speak it fluently one day.

Nah, you´d need to speak German , cause your German husband will not understand Irish. :wink

[Veneda]

Russian

[Han Cholo]

Spanish and Rumanian are my favorite Romance languages. English and Dutch are the best sounding Germanic ones. Of the West slavic my favorite is Slovak. Southern = SerboCroatian. I can't really distinguish between East Slavic ones. They sound exactly the same to me. I like the sound of some Turkic languages like Kazakh. Persian and Armenian sound good as well.

[Svipdag]

Well, I didn't pick my own language. I think that English is a rather awkward-sounding language. The Norwegian of my mother's side of the family is a pretty language, but nowhere as dramatic or as musical as Italian, which I chose .


"DE GVSTIBVS NON EST DISPVTANDVM" - GAIVS VALERIVS CATVLLVS

[Arne]

Spanish and Rumanian are my favorite Romance languages. English and Dutch are the best sounding Germanic ones. Of the West slavic my favorite is Slovak. Southern = SerboCroatian. I can't really distinguish between East Slavic ones. They sound exactly the same to me. I like the sound of some Turkic languages like Kazakh. Persian and Armenian sound good as well.

But English and Dutch are not more germanic than German..
Just telling..

English
Scots
Frisian languages (including West Frisian, North Frisian, and Saterland/East Frisian)
Low Saxon
East Low German
Low Franconian (including Dutch, Afrikaans, and West Flemish)
Rhine Franconian (including Limburgish)
Middle German
Upper German (including Alemannic and Austro-Bavarian)
The Sound of Dutch is "French" referring to the 'sound' of Dutch and French in general, not specifically to one aspect like the aspiration of fortis consonants.

[rashka]

Examples of Lithuanian language:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toRhKm9fEZ0&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYb4CNNT5qQ&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFlL4vg97c4&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VfH9z_6Gzk&feature=related

Lithuanian language has a Russian ring to it.

[Heart of Oak]

English has a lot going for it, most other people's speak it, it's the business languidge of the world.....ect......

But I like the Irish.....

[Contra Mundum]

I'm sure French will be the popular choice, but I love hearing Russians and Germans speak in their native language.

[Heart of Oak]

I heard someone speaking Latin today an thought it was cool....

[Arne]

But English and Dutch are not more germanic than German..
Just telling..

The Sound of Dutch is "French" referring to the 'sound' of Dutch and French in general, not specifically to one aspect like the aspiration of fortis consonants.

The lack of aspiration is probably the biggest thing that separates Dutch from English and German sound-wise - German really has much more English-like fortis plosives than those in Dutch, which do sound more French-like...

[Ouistreham]

The lack of aspiration is probably the biggest thing that separates Dutch from English and German sound-wise - German really has much more English-like fortis plosives than those in Dutch, which do sound more French-like...

This is right. Fortis plosive consonants (k, p, t) are strongly aspirated in English, and are very strongly in German.

But Dutch, which is the most central Germanic language and stands to many respects as a kind of an intermediate between English and German, lacks this über-Germanic feature.

This is very weird. The poorly aspirated Dutch plosives sound indeed like in French, but I cannot imagine any French influence spreading up to Noord-Holland that way.

Maybe was it a matter of areal diffusion, but why?

The only satisfactory explanation I can think of is the fact that Dutch tends to insert a semi-mute 'e' behind plosives, in many positions, stressed or unstressed, which had made strong aspiration unnecessary to ensure a convenient intelligibility of those consonants, and ultimately all fortis plosives were handled the same way:

Compare:
De pers (nl.) - Die Presse (de)
Duidelik - Deutlich
Kerkelijk - Kirchlich
Kerstmis - Christmas (en)
etc.

[Arthur Scharrenhans]

Yes, I think Dutch (and Afrikaans, I suppose?) is the only Germanic language lacking aspiration of voiceless stops. IIRC South German dialects lack it too, but they have completed the Second Germanic Sound Shift, meaning that, in fact, their voiceless stops were so strongly aspirated that they turned into affricates/fricatives, while the voiced stops devoiced - Dutch, on the other hand, never had the Zweite Lautverschiebung, so the aspiration was simply lost, without other changes to the system of stops.
I've always thought it was French influence, but I don't really know. Or could it be some pre-Germanic substrate (the Nordwestblock or whatever)?

Does any variety of Low German (close as they are to Dutch) show this lack of aspiration?

[Ouistreham]

Yes, I think Dutch (and Afrikaans, I suppose?) is the only Germanic language lacking aspiration of voiceless stops.
Afrikaans of course (it's just a Dutch dialect after all), but also Frisian, which is a lot more intriguing since it's even more closely related to Old English.




could it be some pre-Germanic substrate (the Nordwestblock or whatever)?

I'm not crazy about explanations relying on substrates, but in this case the Nordwestblock hypothesis comes to mind.


South German dialects lack it too, but they have completed the Second Germanic Sound Shift, meaning that, in fact, their voiceless stops were so strongly aspirated that they turned into affricates/fricatives

Yes, "t-" to "[t]z-" or "p-" to "pf-".
But the "k" remained unaffected in Mittelhochdeutsch and Oberdeutsch, albeit with much weaker aspiration than in Standard German.


Does any variety of Low German (close as they are to Dutch) show this lack of aspiration?

No. But in the Eastern part of the Netherlands, the closer you come to the German border, the more obvious is the aspiration of voiceless plosives in popular speech.

[Pecheneg]

Its true that Hungarian-Finnish-Turkish-Estonian related (Ural-Altai languages), but not sounding same.
Just like the Spanish and Russian (indo-european languages), related but not same.
i love the Kazakh and other Kypchak dialects among the Turkic languages. as for indo-european languages, my favourite is Portuguese (Brazilian dialect).

[Siegfried]

Its true that Hungarian-Finnish-Turkish-Estonian related (Ural-Altai languages), but not sounding same.
Just like the Spanish and Russian (indo-european languages), related but not same.
i love the Kazakh and other Kypchak dialects among the Turkic languages. as for indo-european languages, my favourite is Portuguese (Brazilian dialect).

No, Hungarian-Finnish-Estonian are related (Finno-Ugric)--though Hungarians cannot understand the other two and vice versa-- and Turkish is a Turkic language.

[ricko0812]

appalachian english-which is a variant of old english, a fact not known by alot of people.

[Arthur Scharrenhans]

appalachian english-which is a variant of old english, a fact not known by alot of people.

No, it isn't, unless English-speaking people colonized the Appalachians before 1066 AD - something that wasn't in my history books.

[Albion]

No, it isn't, unless English-speaking people colonized the Appalachians before 1066 AD - something that wasn't in my history books.

He meant it preserves archaic vocabulary not typically used in modern English. Middle English is fascinating to read, for a stage when it was going through a lot of French influence it sounds more Germanic than modern English I'd say.
It still had "Ich / Ik" and "thou" for example, I'd like to see things such as these revived in modern English - it'd make it a lot more interesting.

[Harmonia]

Hungarian and Finnish. They have an unique and interesting sound to it :D very melodic languages. Besides that, Polish, north Germanic languages and Greek sounds beautiful to my ear. I wonder how would Lithuanian sound to me if I was a foreigner :D

[Albion]

There's an early Middle English work to be found in "Ormulum" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ormulum). It was written in the 12th century and shows how far the language had progressed beyond Old English in a small space of time.
The Wikipedia translation is shit to be honest, most of it is readable and the Wiki translation doesn't match the words at all.

The grammar doesn't make much sense in modern English but the language wasn't standardised then.

A few examples:

Icc was þær þær i crisstnedd was
Orrmin bi name nemmnedd

My translation:

I was there, there I was christened was Ormin by name named.

Wikipedia translation:

Where I was christened, I was
named Ormin by name

Clearly it has been altered to fit grammar rules yet this is no use if we are to compare it to modern English! We need literal translations.




Another example:

Þiss boc iss nemmnedd Orrmulum
forrþi þatt Orrm itt wrohhte

My translation:

This book is named Omulum for thy / thine that Orrm wrote.

The word highlighted in bold I can't think of a modern equivalent, it looks like "for thi" so I've gone with "for thy". The grammar makes it unclear but it sounds logical enough.

Wikipedia translation:

This book is named Ormulum
because Orm created it


It's fascinating to see how the language has changed but yet still be able to make some sense out of it. Old English may as well be a foreign language, it is very different from modern English but Middle English is just archaic modern English.

[Albion]

Another example of Middle English is found in Ayenbite of Inwyt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayenbite_of_Inwyt). It was written in the mid-14th century.
It's written in Kentish dialect.

Example 1:

þis boc is dan Michelis of Northgate / ywrite an englis of his oȝene hand. þet hatte: Ayenbyte of inwyt.

Translation:

This book is then Michelis of Northgate, written in English of his own hand. That (Unidentified) Ayenbyte on Inwyt.


Two interesting things to note:

"Dan" could have been from French "dans" (in) but it makes more sense as west Germanic "dan" (than / then) which occurs in Dutch, Afrikaans and Middle English it appears.

The word "hatte" I haven't been able to identify. Any ideas?




Example 2:

Ymende. þet þis boc is uolueld ine þe eve of þe holy apostles Symon an Iudas / of ane broþer of þe cloystre of sanynt Austin of Canterburi / ine þe yeare of oure lhordes beringe 1340.

Translation:

(Unidentified) That this book fulfilled in the eve of the holy apostles Simon and Judas (Jude) of an brother of the cloister of saint Austin of Canterbury in the year of our lord bearing 1340.

[ricko0812]

No, it isn't, unless English-speaking people colonized the Appalachians before 1066 AD - something that wasn't in my history books.

When i said old english i was referring to the dialect of english they spoke when they started to colonize the appalachia area. Because of their isolation from the main stream areas there are still pockets of people that still speak that dialect of englisH that is hundreds of years old.

[Peyrol]

Another example of Middle English is found in Ayenbite of Inwyt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayenbite_of_Inwyt). It was written in the mid-14th century.
It's written in Kentish dialect.

Example 1:

þis boc is dan Michelis of Northgate / ywrite an englis of his oȝene hand. þet hatte: Ayenbyte of inwyt.

Translation:

This book is then Michelis of Northgate, written in English of his own hand. That (Unidentified) Ayenbyte on Inwyt.


Two interesting things to note:

"Dan" could have been from French "dans" (in) but it makes more sense as west Germanic "dan" (than / then) which occurs in Dutch, Afrikaans and Middle English it appears.

The word "hatte" I haven't been able to identify. Any ideas?




Example 2:

Ymende. þet þis boc is uolueld ine þe eve of þe holy apostles Symon an Iudas / of ane broþer of þe cloystre of sanynt Austin of Canterburi / ine þe yeare of oure lhordes beringe 1340.

Translation:

(Unidentified) That this book fulfilled in the eve of the holy apostles Simon and Judas (Jude) of an brother of the cloister of saint Austin of Canterbury in the year of our lord bearing 1340.

Also the William Blake's english sound antiquate

TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?



..is the word "thy" used in modern Britain english?

[StonyArabia]

Adyghe and Karbadino-Balkar from Southern Russia, including Russian itself.

[Pecheneg]

Adyghe and Karbadino-Balkar from Southern Russia, including Russian itself.
are there differences between Adyghe and Kabardei languages? btw, Balkars are Turkic-speakers.

[noricum]

Best sounding languages to me is:

Hungarian:thumb001:
SHm8nxkbAvo

[Rouxinol]

Romance: French, Portuguese, Italian
Germanic: Dutch, English
Slavic: can't think of any I particularly like the sound

[Geminus]

My current favourites:
Romance languages: Spanish, French
Germanic languages: German, English
Slavic languages: Russian

[Yaroslav]

Funny fact: Most Ukrainians consider Polish to be a peasant Ukrainian dialect :D

It was the opposite 100 years ago ;)

[Arthur Scharrenhans]

Best sounding languages to me is:

Hungarian:thumb001:
SHm8nxkbAvo

I love the sound of Hungarian, it's almost non-human (in a good way), metallic, demonic, alien, not 'cute' but very beautiful. Unfortunately, I don't understand a single word of it...

[Heart of Oak]

Latin for making my hair on the back of my neck stand up, French for making me feel sick and Romanian for making me feel in the loving mood.

German for making me feel nostalgic, sure of myself an I find it calming.....


South African for fun, Aussie for laughs and Scotish when I want to be in a back to my roots sort of mood.....

Irish/Celtic for feeling mystical an magical.......

[qylymla]

Chose one from the list

Romance: Romanian

[neclar]

Chose one from the list

Oriental Romance = Romanian <3

[Ygsi]

From this entire list, I choose Czech. I've even visited Czechia. I have heard Czechs speaking even in movies or other videos. And one thing I can say (and I guess this may well be a stereotype about Czechs) is that they speak in rhyme. Maybe not all Czechs do that, but a lot of them. It's so pleasant to the ear to hear people speaking a language that way. On the other hand, I can't really detect this sort of thing in Slovak. But in Czech you often hear it.

[Ygsi]

From this entire list, I choose Czech. I've even visited Czechia. I have heard Czechs speaking even in movies or other videos. And one thing I can say (and I guess this may well be a stereotype about Czechs) is that they speak in rhyme. Maybe not all Czechs do that, but a lot of them. It's so pleasant to the ear to hear people speaking a language that way. On the other hand, I can't really detect this sort of thing in Slovak. But in Czech you often hear it.

[Rumata]

Objectively, Italian is very pleasant to listen to. They did a good job shaping it this way. Imo our East Slavic languages sound very well too.

Many other Slavic, Romance and Germanic lanuages sound good to me too.

[Diego Garcia]

Spanish

[black hole]

Russian.

[Zhulta]

I find french a very aesthetic language especially when spoken by women, i love listening to french pop songs.

[Arūnas]

Finnish-Estonian-Komi etc, minus Turkish and Hungarian
but I voted ROMANIAN, I am Vlach after all

[Roy]

Favourite European languages: Estonian, Albanian, Rusyn
Favourite non-European language: Evenki

[Satem]

Outside of my native language I like sound of Albanian, Hungarian, Slavic languages in general, Latvian, English, Italian, Portuguese and Estonian but I can't really pick just one best sounding

[TheMaestro]

Italian

[Sandis]

My favorites are Lithuanian, Estonian, Finnish because these languages sound closer to my language. But i also like Slovak, Romanian, French, Breton and other (outside the Baltics)

[Ylla]

From that list I prefer English and Greek

[Sebastianus Rex]

I find french a very aesthetic language especially when spoken by women, i love listening to french pop songs.

Try french rap instead...NOT. xD

[Zhulta]

Yah ican imagine the bastardization of the language... Rap generally doesnt appeal to me at all, if anything i like old school rap/hiphop like Snoop Dog when i am chilling but thats about it.


Modern "gangster" rap and shit.. i just loathe it. xD

[lustermoo]

Try french rap instead...NOT. xD

Brilliant genre.

[Sebastianus Rex]

Brilliant genre.

It's pathetic...only Neapolitans and Russians produce decent Rap in Europe.

[Rædwald]

Why would you put English (including Scots) when English isn't their native language. It's like basing the appeal of English on an Indian person speaking it.

[Sandis]

Ukrainian and Belarusian (not BelorusSian) should be separated from Russian because these languages sound more like Western Slavic languages than Russian.
Western Slavic are also lexically closer.

[Roy]

Ukrainian and Belarusian (not BelorusSian) should be separated from Russian because these languages sound more like Western Slavic languages than Russian.
Western Slavic are also lexically closer.

Belarusian ad Ukrainian sound more like Russian to me, albeit Belarusian has a surprisingly high amount of mutual intelligibility with Polish.

[Roy]

It's pathetic...only Neapolitans and Russians produce decent Rap in Europe.

There is some good Polish rap / hip-hop too. I recommend you Quebonafide, L.U.C, O.S.T.R and Jeden Osiem L.

[Sebastianus Rex]

There is some good Polish rap / hip-hop too. I recommend you Quebonafide, L.U.C, O.S.T.R and Jeden Osiem L.

Thanks for the tip bro...should sound good, Slavic languages work well with rap, and add extra musicality to it.

[Alenka]

Overall, the best sounding language to me might be Russian.
If I had to pick from the Romance ones, I'd perhaps say French.
As for the Germanic ones, I find the least ugly to be Icelandic.

[Ylla]

I forgot to include Italian that's up there as one of the most beautiful sounding languages.

[Ayetooey]

From the list Swedish and French are my favourites.