What does Dutch sound like to you?

[Iloko]

Sounds like a jumbled mix of Frisian language + German

[gıulıoımpa]

A drunk englishman with a potato in his throat

[Bloody]

Like a typical Germanic language, unlike english which is a pseudo germano-romance breed

[Ouistreham]

Like a typical Germanic language, unlike english which is a pseudo germano-romance breed

Pro: Dutch is the most central Germanic language, very similar to German or Old English (with still some commonalities with modern English), and even some words that are found only in Scandinavia (for instance straks).
Contra: Dutch lacks a defining feature of Germanic languages, i.e. the strong aspiration of hard consonants p, t, and k.
Possibly a case of areal convergence with French, or the fact that Dutch morphologies make aspiration superfluous: compare Ger. Pferd to NL paard, or deutlich and tödlich to duidelijk and doodelijk.

[Dandelion]

I generally prefer fusional languages over analytical ones generally. However, my appreciation comes in waves. Sometimes I do like my own language, other times I'm like 'meh, but it's my language nonetheless'.

[Schüreck]

The last one...
z492io617au01.jpg

[Vigilance]

The ugliest most peculiar Dutch dialect is the dialect of Leiden (Leids). A Hollandic dialect which supposedly has origins in Walloon immigrants (Protestant malcontents and refugees in the 17th century) who got Dutchified.



They have the same R as Americans do. It's just sounds weird.

Interestingly there exists a hypothesis that US Americans speak the way they do due to Dutch influences. I'm sceptical lol.

I was in a tourist town that had all sorts of Western ethnicity tourists, my conclusion was that Swedish accent is the closest to American accent.

[Vigilance]

Americans have nasal accents like the French and they also have rhotic accents like the Irish and the West Country English farmers.

They don't talk from both the throat area and mouth area as much as British people do to get the deeper sounds, and they have nasal accents instead.

The rhotic R sound in the US, Caribbean Islanders, and in Canada reminds me of the Irish and West Country farmer's R. Some people in the US have even confused people from Devon in SW England as being from Virginia.

I think the American rhotic accent is due to the Irish influence in the US as they're one of the largest groups of people to settle in the US.

And the evidence keeps piling up for me, that Americans are descended from the Irish.

[Catkin]

When I was with a group of Dutch people in the Netherlands I sometimes found I had to concentrate to tell if they were speaking English to me with an accent, or just speaking Dutch to each other. When they spoke Dutch I felt like they could be speaking English, with a slight accent, but I just didn’t understand the words. Must have enough of a similar sound. Watching those videos, I think perhaps more so the softer southern accent.

[Dandelion]

When I was with a group of Dutch people in the Netherlands I sometimes found I had to concentrate to tell if they were speaking English to me with an accent, or just speaking Dutch to each other. When they spoke Dutch I felt like they could be speaking English, with a slight accent, but I just didn’t understand the words. Must have enough of a similar sound. Watching those videos, I think perhaps more so the softer southern accent.

Also happened that I was in a group conversation over Skype with an old school friend and some of his British internet friend (also IRL friends now). He said something to me in Dutch occasionally. It also made me one or twice on on in Dutch thinking I was talking to them in English. lol It's because my brain doesn't need to think much for speaking English neither once I'm used to speaking it making me confuse it for Dutch in a moment of absence.