Does English sound like other Germanic languages?

Leasnam   Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:41 pm GMT
<<But why so many people think Dutch is German when they hear it on Youtube? >>

2 reasons:

1). Many people have never heard spoken Dutch before
2). Dutch and German share some sounds, like the gutteral & aspirated 'h' sound (Dutch "g" & "ch", German "ch") which--at least for English speakers not familiar with Scots (i.e. Americans)--causes it to sound like German to us. But this is due in part to lack of knowledge on our part.
viruso   Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:50 pm GMT
Dutch reminds me of American English.
12345   Fri Feb 27, 2009 4:24 pm GMT
«(Dutch "g" & "ch", German "ch") which--at least for English speakers not familiar with Scots (i.e. Americans)--causes it to sound like German to us. But this is due in part to lack of knowledge on our part. »

Hmm to me the 'g' and 'ch' sound different in Dutch than the German version..

Here the ch and g are completely in the back of the throat. Like we have to vomit.

In German you don't have to vomit to say it. It sounds more like the 'g' they use in Flanders.
Das Mädchen.. For me it's like a soft 'g'.

I think German is healthier for your throat. :)
Leasnam   Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:23 pm GMT
<<Hmm to me the 'g' and 'ch' sound different in Dutch than the German version..
>>

True, but to Americans, or those unfamiliar, they are perceived to be the same sound

the German "ch" in 'acht' is further back than the "ch" in 'ich' and comes close to the Dutch "g"/"ch"
mooob   Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:14 am GMT
Well, English USED to sound a lot like other Germanic languages like Frisian, Dutch etc.. but I guess it split off the moment the Great Vowel Shift took place back in the 14-16th centuries. I think the loss of the guttural "gh" in Modern English is probably the main thing which sets it apart from other Germanic languages by ear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift

But strangely, there are a few BE dialects which are strangely "Frisianic" or "Dutchesque" sounding, and there are occasions where I've heard Dutch spoken from a distance by (possibly) tourists, and mistook it for being a peculiar accent of English..

I would have to vote Liverpudlian, with its slightly guttural k's & g's, to sound most like other Low-Germanic or Northern-Germanic languages.. (from a distance!). In fact most accents from the West Midlands, Yorkshire and North England sound closer to Germanic languages' pronunciation than Southern English or North American English accents. lol
CID   Mon Mar 16, 2009 1:32 am GMT
<<Well, English USED to sound a lot like other Germanic languages like Frisian, Dutch etc.. but I guess it split off the moment the Great Vowel Shift took place back in the 14-16th centuries. I think the loss of the guttural "gh" in Modern English is probably the main thing which sets it apart from other Germanic languages by ear.
>>

In some cases, the GVS caused English to sound more like certain other Germanic languages, like German for instance, which were undergoing similar long-vowel alterations (eg. long u > au ["house, out"]; long i > ai ["time, mine"])

Scandinavian languages have lacked gutteral 'gh' [x] since around the 7th century (cf. Swd "natt" for Eng "night; Dan "le", Far. "læa", Icel. "hlæja" for Eng. "laugh", etc.). Do they not have a germanic sound to them?
ost   Mon Mar 16, 2009 3:58 am GMT
Danish, Faroese, and Icelandic do not have a Germanic sound to them. If the gutteral sounds are not present, then they are not Germanic enough. Dutch is the most Germanic language.
your name:   Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:54 am GMT
<<Danish, Faroese, and Icelandic do not have a Germanic sound to them. If the gutteral sounds are not present, then they are not Germanic enough. Dutch is the most Germanic language. >>


Idiot! They are Germanic languages and therefore have a Germanic sound BY DEFINITION.
CID   Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:56 pm GMT
<<Danish, Faroese, and Icelandic do not have a Germanic sound to them. If the gutteral sounds are not present, then they are not Germanic enough. Dutch is the most Germanic language. >>

<<Idiot! They are Germanic languages and therefore have a Germanic sound BY DEFINITION. >>

No doubt.

6 languages (including 2 Norwegians & Swedish) vs one language Dutch and Dutch wins because it's guttural and therefore most "Germanic enough" sheesh

idiot is right
Guest   Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:00 pm GMT
Me gusta el holandés porque suena muy masculino y áspero. Para mí es la quintaesencia de los idiomas germánicos. En cambio el inglés es un poco afeminado.
Paulo   Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:30 pm GMT
Germánicos medios bélicos y la agresión y todo lo desagradable que va con todas las de ese tipo de cosas. Sin embargo Inglés medio más en el camino de la paz y la mansedumbre y el uso de la razón y la calma. Germánico que significa ataque Inglés medios de defensa. Esto ha sido tan claramente demostrado con tanta frecuencia en el pasado.
Guest   Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:01 pm GMT
Y el español significa la inutilidad, la pereza y la pobreza. ¿No es que tan? Es lo que la historia me dice.
your name:   Tue Mar 17, 2009 2:58 am GMT
<<No doubt.

6 languages (including 2 Norwegians & Swedish) vs one language Dutch and Dutch wins because it's guttural and therefore most "Germanic enough" sheesh

idiot is right >>

What are you saying?

My point is that there is no quintessential Germanic sound. If Chinese were a Germanic language then we could say that Chinese is the quintessential Germanic sound. Why is guttural the most Germanic property? English is Germanic and is not guttural so I argue that the less guttural the more Germanic it is.
Travis   Tue Mar 17, 2009 7:15 am GMT
I would not say that there is any one "quintessential Germanic sound", but as I have stated before, there are obvious distinctive phonological and phonetic properties of English which it has in common with most other Germanic languages and which together separate it from practically all other Indo-European languages. Hence, English still "sounds Germanic" even if one cannot pin down any language variety as being "archtypically Germanic" phonologically and phonetically.
Ally   Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:33 pm GMT
I have to agree with Language Lover from a few pages ago: English does sound like Dutch and Norwegian. I live in a town called Holland, Michigan; we have a few Dutch folks here. Quite often their pronunciation just sounds strange, and then I realize they've substituted in a similar-sounding and -meaning Dutch word (see "melk"--drove me crazy till I realized it was Dutch). And Norwegian does have a different melody than some English...but not North-Midwest American or South-Midwest Canadian English. And if you hear someone singing in Norwegian, the similarity becomes really clear.

Regarding the Germanicism/Romanticism of English--it's true, we have a lot of Germanic roots, and a lot of our Romance comes via French, which is also Germanic--but we have some artificial Latinishness in our grammar too. Perhaps we're more G than R, but we certainly have enough to qualify as Germanic-Romantic.

@Paulo
I totally agree about the sound of German, it has always seemed aggressive to me--even the sweet lieder I did in voice class seemed awkward in German. I don't know if English sounds reasonable in general, though--we do (especially Americans) have that wide pitch range; I thought we sounded sort of excitable.