What Does Dutch Sound Like To You?

[♥ Lily ♥]

I think the Dutch language sounds beautiful... like a blend between German and English .... and a West Germanic language that sounds like Frisian and Old Anglo Saxon. The Dutch spellings are a lot of fun and interesting too.

It sometimes sounds like they're speaking in English, and at other times it sounds like they're speaking in old Anglo Saxon.

35:17

[The Lawspeaker]

Somehow rather familiar. Don't know why. Many of the speakers seem to come from either the West of the country or the Twente area in the far East (but they still speak standard Dutch) so you don't really get a good all-round example here.

[Maintenance]

Like gaelic but more throat sound.

[♥ Lily ♥]

Somehow rather familiar. Don't know why. Many of the speakers seem to come from either the West of the country or the Twente area in the far East (but they still speak standard Dutch) so you don't really get a good all-round example here.

Geert Wilders is from Venlo in Limburg in the south which borders Belgium and Germany, and he talks very smoothly and softly. Do you know of any northern or eastern Dutch accent examples? It would be interesting to hear the variations of Dutch accents in the Netherlands.

[The Lawspeaker]

[Nurzat]

it sounds bad/ugly in an interesting way

[The Lawspeaker]

Geert Wilders is from Venlo in Limburg in the south which borders Belgium and Germany, and he talks very smoothly and softly. Do you know of any northern or eastern Dutch accent examples? It would be interesting to hear the variations of Dutch accents in the Netherlands.

Working on it. But there is also a real difference between areas in the South. I remember there being a Asterix comic book that was translated in the various Limburic dialects with the Gauls speaking one dialect, the Romans another, some other villages yet another. And I could only read a couple. Some group spoke Kerkradens (Kirchroas) and I couldn't read a single word as it was completely on the other side of Limburg (with only 50 kms between us). Brabants also has nothing in common with Limburgs and dialects differ strongly from place to place, from generation to generation and social group to social group.

[♥ Lily ♥]

it sounds bad/ugly in an interesting way

I think it sounds beautiful and very sexy. It's also a very interesting language to learn too, as the spellings are fun so people can't get bored with learning Dutch. It's an exciting language, and noble too since it's a Germanic language, like Anglo Saxon and Norse. I'd love to also hear the old Dutch too which was spoken by the noble Dutch colonists when the Dutch ruled the world.

[Crimean]

Like the rumble of rusty water pipes.
There is a more popular description - when a drunken English sailor tries to speak German.
In fact, for my ear, the Dutch sounds like a strange hybrid of English and German, but nothing is understandable.

Somehow rather familiar. Don't know why. Many of the speakers seem to come from either the West of the country or the Twente area in the far East (but they still speak standard Dutch) so you don't really get a good all-round example here.

Are Dutch and Frisian mutually intelligible?
How does Russian sound to the Dutch ear? Do you distinguish different Slavic languages by ear?

[Rico33]

It sounds like me. Because I speak Dutch. Flemish to be precise.