Nice sounding natlangs

[finlay]

As far as throatiness goes, no language has got anything on Dutch. /xe:n xraxt/

Part of the reason I like Dutch is that it was really satisfying when I pronounced it correctly.

The other thing is that its /x/ is quite uvular, and straddles the line between fricative and trill, which makes it phlegmier.

[Mr. Z]

Australian English (least hated of these three; I hate American English more but I have to appreciate it for its weirdness and Australian English just had plain strange pronunciations)

What, exactly, is the difference between weirdness and strange(ness)?

There isn't; I'm just used to using synonyms wherever I can when I'm talking about the same thing. The thing is, AmE's weirdness can be cool, but Australian English's weirdness is just... weird. Well, it can be cool too, but just not... I don't know. It just is XD


By the way,

WHY DO YOU ALL HATE HEBREW (and, sometimes, arabic)?!?!?!?!

[Astraios]

By the way,

WHY DO YOU ALL HATE HEBREW (and, sometimes, arabic)?!?!?!?!

Clearly they're just all anti-Semitic(-languages).

[Emperor Charles V]

This is an interesting question. Here are my answers.

Here are the three best in my opinion:
1. Spanish--One of the best sounding languages ever which I knew since I was very little. I don't get why everyone puts it on their bottom three. In my opinion it is a beautiful language, the language of love.
2. Russian--I'm learning it now on Rosetta Stone. Their accents are awesome too.
3. Turkish (I like it's vowel harmony and the way it sounds in general. That's why I based my conlang Yampa off of it)

The three worst:
1. Korean--way to many vowels, too sing-song for me. It annoys me to death when all the Korean girls speak it in my school (I'm sorry if that comes across as racist but that is the truth)
2. Arabic--Just the opposite of Korean, a very guttural language with a lot of hard consonants.
3. German--Everyone sounds so angry when they speak it. Even "I love you" sounds like "I want to kill you."

Again, I'm not being racist. I'm just purely talking about language here, not peoples cultures, races, ethnicities or religions.

[Yng]

That's good then.

[linguoboy]

The three worst:
1. Korean--way to many vowels, too sing-song for me. It annoys me to death when all the Korean girls speak it in my school (I'm sorry if that comes across as racist but that is the truth)

Korean has a lower vowel-to-consonant ratio than Turkish.

3. German--Everyone sounds so angry when they speak it. Even "I love you" sounds like "I want to kill you."

How much spoken German have you actually heard? Most Americans' exposure is hearing Nazis bark orders in war films. Imagine if your entire exposure to English consisted of the drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket. Sure, some German-speakers sound like that. And some sound like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-sYP8qmE3o

[Rui]

3. German--Everyone sounds so angry when they speak it. Even "I love you" sounds like "I want to kill you."

God I've gotten so tired of people repeating this same platitude over and over again. The only people who say this are people who don't actually know what German sounds like.

[Yng]

3. German--Everyone sounds so angry when they speak it. Even "I love you" sounds like "I want to kill you."

God I've gotten so tired of people repeating this same platitude over and over again. The only people who say this are people who don't actually know what German sounds like.

It's OK though because he's not being racist against other people's cultures.

[Trailsend]

How much spoken German have you actually heard? Most Americans' exposure is hearing Nazis bark orders in war films. Imagine if your entire exposure to English consisted of the drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket. Sure, some German-speakers sound like that. And some sound like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-sYP8qmE3o

At a family gathering over Christmas, my aunt started harping on how horribly ugly the Chinese language sounded. So I cued up some Vienna Teng and we cleared up that little misunderstanding right then and there.

[Emperor Charles V]

It is true that languages sound different based on what context they are used in. It is true that most of my German exposure comes from the movie Downfall but I heard it spoken other times. My grandma knows German and she spoke it to me several times. I don't like German probably because I'm used to more softer languages such as Spanish and Italian.

[Rui]

I don't like German probably because I'm used to more softer languages such as Spanish and Italian.

I lol'ed at the thought of Spanish being "soft"...it's waaaay too abrasive for me. Maybe because I think /r/ is one of the ugliest sounds that's regularly found in languages.

[Vuvuzela]

At a family gathering over Christmas, my aunt started harping on how horribly ugly the Chinese language sounded. So I cued up some Vienna Teng and we cleared up that little misunderstanding right then and there.

Which Chinese language? Mandarin (Vienna Teng's language) is actually quite beautiful, but unless people in my area just speak really ugly Cantonese, I don't think I can ever find that language appealing.

[linguoboy]

I don't like German probably because I'm used to more softer languages such as Spanish and Italian.

I lol'ed at the thought of Spanish being "soft"...it's waaaay too abrasive for me.

I had the same reaction with Italian! I guess it's easy to think that if you've never been cursed out in it.

[linguoboy]

At a family gathering over Christmas, my aunt started harping on how horribly ugly the Chinese language sounded. So I cued up some Vienna Teng and we cleared up that little misunderstanding right then and there.

Which Chinese language? Mandarin (Vienna Teng's language) is actually quite beautiful, but unless people in my area just speak really ugly Cantonese, I don't think I can ever find that language appealing.

I feel almost precisely the opposite. I really only like Mandarin when it's spoken with a Cantonese accent.

[Vuvuzela]

I feel almost precisely the opposite. I really only like Mandarin when it's spoken with a Cantonese accent.

I haven't heard that much Cantonese, so I listened to a sample and compared it to a Mandarin sample.
The Cantonese sample wasn't all that bad, so I suppose my dislike for the language could have just been due to a small sample size, but I still like the Mandarin better.

[clawgrip]

Part of the difference is that Cantonese has final stops, but Mandarin doesn't, which gives Cantonese a more staccato, choppy sound than Mandarin. There are also three levels of tone in Cantonese but only two in Mandarin (basically), which means the voice goes up and down to a greater degree in Cantonese than Mandarin. Also the 'er' sound of Mandarin probably makes it sound 'soft', partly because it is another continuant, and perhaps because it is familiar to English speakers.

[Vuvuzela]

Part of the difference is that Cantonese has final stops, but Mandarin doesn't, which gives Cantonese a more staccato, choppy sound than Mandarin. There are also three levels of tone in Cantonese but only two in Mandarin (basically), which means the voice goes up and down to a greater degree in Cantonese than Mandarin. Also the 'er' sound of Mandarin probably makes it sound 'soft', partly because it is another continuant, and perhaps because it is familiar to English speakers.

That's what I dislike about Cantonese. It's too pitchy, and too staccato. I like the sort of flowing feel of Mandarin better. But that's just my opinion.

[clawgrip]

Part of the difference is that Cantonese has final stops, but Mandarin doesn't, which gives Cantonese a more staccato, choppy sound than Mandarin. There are also three levels of tone in Cantonese but only two in Mandarin (basically), which means the voice goes up and down to a greater degree in Cantonese than Mandarin. Also the 'er' sound of Mandarin probably makes it sound 'soft', partly because it is another continuant, and perhaps because it is familiar to English speakers.

That's what I dislike about Cantonese. It's too pitchy, and too staccato. I like the sort of flowing feel of Mandarin better. But that's just my opinion.

Since in English we associate large variations in pitch with strong emotions such as excitement or anger, when English speakers hear Cantonese with its highly variable pitch, they feel at some level that Cantonese speakers are always excited or angry. Even if we know it not to be true, I think we have trouble completely ignoring associations we have built up our whole life, and are still influenced by them.

Also, I suppose in general as humans we are more relaxed by smooth sounds than by choppy sounds, and when we can't understand a language, it also just becomes a sound to be evaluated in that way, so a choppier language is more likely to bother people than a smoother one. If we do understand the language, we tend to pay attention to the meanings more than the sounds, so to some extent we become less disturbed by the choppiness.

[treskro]

For me at least, my impression of Mandarin really depends on the speaker. While I am certainly biased since my mother language is Taiwanese Mandarin, there are definitely certain accents that sound extremely annoying. Cantonese also depends on the speaker, but I've really grown to enjoy the overall feel of the language. And it's certainly much more interesting that Mandarin (who wants to learn that?), but again, that's also subjective.

[clawgrip]

I've always liked Cantonese. I just understand why some people might find it irritating.

[Jipí]

It is true that most of my German exposure comes from the movie Downfall

BWAAAAHAAAHAHAAAHAHAHAHA

There, have some German I had lying around. (Shit, do I talk fast there)

[Kezdő]

Well, I personally think that most of them can sound nice or ugly given the speaker and circumstances - but of course, some require more prettying up than others.

Best Sounding
1) Spanish: A man once said, "Español es la idioma para hablar con dios." A lot of sounds pretty edgy, and like it's got a lot of culture backing it up...if that makes any sense.
2) Farsi/Persian: Probably influenced from my travels to and family in Iran, but I feel that Farsi is the only language that ever made [x] sound beautiful.
3) Japanese: I'm not sure why, but I just find it accessible in pronunciation. The cultural features also lend it a lot of interesting-ness.

Most Ridiculous Sounding
1) French: I'm sorry, but every time I hear French I have to restrain myself from talking about eating cwassahnts under le Eiffel Towair.
2) German: I actually have heard Deutsch spoken at great length and it has a very distinctive sound, very different than "Reicht nacht blacht glurchten der schnitzeldachenbacherheimer." However, it still sounds kinda funny. Five is fumf? Come on! That's just fantastic!
3) Polish: This actually mostly stems from the orthography. Spoken, it's only mildly silly. Szczwslvk!

Worst Sounding
1) Turkish: It just sounds nasty. I don't like words like "Oghuz".
2) Arabic: Very rough. It was kind of jarring to hear my Farsi-speaking relatives launch into "raHHHman al-raHHHim" at prayers.
3) Akkadian: Okay, I'm really cheating on this one. I actually love speaking it; it's just that I feel like an evil overlord every time I do!

As for Chinese, I've got a friend who speaks Mandarin fluently. According to him I'm actually pretty good at pronouncing it, although nobody who starts learning it over the age of 2 can talk in it without an accent. I think it's just fun to wrangle your way around tones. As for Cantonese, I'm unfamiliar but from what I heard I think I prefer Mandarin. That's not to say Cantonese is bad-sounding at all, of course. Mandarin just has a better flow.

EDIT: Ninja'd by uncontrollable laughter! Chuck Number Five, are you serious? Come on, everybody on YouTube knows it by heart from Shteiner to Shtalin!

[GrinningManiac]

3) Akkadian: Okay, I'm really cheating on this one. I actually love speaking it; it's just that I feel like an evil overlord every time I do!

How does it sound? I can't find any recordings on Youtube

[finlay]

Part of the difference is that Cantonese has final stops, but Mandarin doesn't, which gives Cantonese a more staccato, choppy sound than Mandarin. There are also three levels of tone in Cantonese but only two in Mandarin (basically), which means the voice goes up and down to a greater degree in Cantonese than Mandarin. Also the 'er' sound of Mandarin probably makes it sound 'soft', partly because it is another continuant, and perhaps because it is familiar to English speakers.

Personally I find the 'er' sound incredibly irritating, and also those syllables like pinyin si or shi.

I remember watching a North Korean propaganda video about how amazing their school system was or some shit, and the teacher had an incredibly annoying voice. I think it was the 'ui' vowel, from my limited knowledge of Korean.

As for Japanese, the one thing that really annoys me is how some women squeak when they talk here (customer service women especially). It's learned behaviour and not intrinsic to the language itself, but annoying nonetheless.

[Torco]

motherfucking Central Atlas Tamazight !

I mean, just go to youtube and search "Idir". It's like Klingon and Quenya had a lovechild