yes, it does.
Does English sound like other Germanic languages?
I speak Danish (my mother tongue), Norwegian and some Swedish. I do understand German fairly well, and I also have some knowledge of the Dutch language. When I listen to English, I don't feel that it sounds similar to one of these languages, and it doesn't sound similar to Romance languages either. English is too much a melting language which makes it so different in many ways.
I wonder whether the English pronunciation is tough for the speakers of Germanic languages. Is it more difficult than German?
Sorry if this pushy, but could some one who's not a native English speaker take a look at this and tell if it sounds like English?
Pretake, disbreak, and amake an autostate of antisorts. Unspeak the dewritten presound of expaper. Bookified people antisell piecelings of undeery stories to automice. Automice forewalk through orangeness, unloud and unsignfull. Subplants are ecofactions for undeer and uncats to alead yellowization from disbroken leatherish predeer. They retalked anear to bemake or adraw unisound.
Pretake, disbreak, and amake an autostate of antisorts. Unspeak the dewritten presound of expaper. Bookified people antisell piecelings of undeery stories to automice. Automice forewalk through orangeness, unloud and unsignfull. Subplants are ecofactions for undeer and uncats to alead yellowization from disbroken leatherish predeer. They retalked anear to bemake or adraw unisound.
"I speak Danish (my mother tongue), Norwegian and some Swedish. I do understand German fairly well, and I also have some knowledge of the Dutch language. When I listen to English, I don't feel that it sounds similar to one of these languages, and it doesn't sound similar to Romance languages either. English is too much a melting language which makes it so different in many ways."
Are there ever times when it sounds like one thing or the other?
Are there ever times when it sounds like one thing or the other?
Sorry, curious, for changing the subject. To anyone out there, go ahead and answer curious's question first if you want.
"I wonder whether the English pronunciation is tough for the speakers of Germanic languages. Is it more difficult than German?"
Actually, I think I can answer that question. I'm a native English speaker, but I also know some German. Frankly, I can't imagine English pronunciation is easier than German. German is quite logical in pronunciation, but English is very inconsistent. I would think it would be hard for a native German speaker to learn English, but if there's anyone who's done this, maybe you could back me up and lend more credence to this?
Actually, I think I can answer that question. I'm a native English speaker, but I also know some German. Frankly, I can't imagine English pronunciation is easier than German. German is quite logical in pronunciation, but English is very inconsistent. I would think it would be hard for a native German speaker to learn English, but if there's anyone who's done this, maybe you could back me up and lend more credence to this?
If you used the International Phonetic Alphabet to learn both English, and German, English's idiosyncratic spelling system wouldn't make much of a difference. In some ways German is more difficult because it has the rare front rounded (umlaut) vowels.
"I wonder whether the English pronunciation is tough for the speakers of Germanic languages. Is it more difficult than German?"
I can't answer this question directly, but I can shed some light on it from an opposing point of view.
Just for fun, I have shadowed French, Spanish, and German for short periods of time. I have noticed that shadowing German is significantly easier than shadowing French, and especially Spanish. I don't know exactly why, but I posit the notion that perhaps the sounds are produced in a similar area of the mouth. With this in mind, I think that perhaps English might be a relatively easy language for a German to articulate.
Spanish, a labial language in which the words are pronounced in the front of the mouth, was exceedingly difficult for me to execute, despite the fact that it's supposed to be the easiest language to learn for an American.
I can't answer this question directly, but I can shed some light on it from an opposing point of view.
Just for fun, I have shadowed French, Spanish, and German for short periods of time. I have noticed that shadowing German is significantly easier than shadowing French, and especially Spanish. I don't know exactly why, but I posit the notion that perhaps the sounds are produced in a similar area of the mouth. With this in mind, I think that perhaps English might be a relatively easy language for a German to articulate.
Spanish, a labial language in which the words are pronounced in the front of the mouth, was exceedingly difficult for me to execute, despite the fact that it's supposed to be the easiest language to learn for an American.
"If you used the International Phonetic Alphabet to learn both English, and German, English's idiosyncratic spelling system wouldn't make much of a difference. In some ways German is more difficult because it has the rare front rounded (umlaut) vowels."
I'm sorry. I'm not exactly sure what the International Phonetic Alphabet is. I do believe that German pronunciation is quite logical though. It seems like I could never learn English now because it is to inconsistent.
"Just for fun, I have shadowed French, Spanish, and German for short periods of time. I have noticed that shadowing German is significantly easier than shadowing French, and especially Spanish. I don't know exactly why, but I posit the notion that perhaps the sounds are produced in a similar area of the mouth. With this in mind, I think that perhaps English might be a relatively easy language for a German to articulate."
Yeah, that could be. It's just again, the inconsistency of English spelling is the thing.
I'm sorry. I'm not exactly sure what the International Phonetic Alphabet is. I do believe that German pronunciation is quite logical though. It seems like I could never learn English now because it is to inconsistent.
"Just for fun, I have shadowed French, Spanish, and German for short periods of time. I have noticed that shadowing German is significantly easier than shadowing French, and especially Spanish. I don't know exactly why, but I posit the notion that perhaps the sounds are produced in a similar area of the mouth. With this in mind, I think that perhaps English might be a relatively easy language for a German to articulate."
Yeah, that could be. It's just again, the inconsistency of English spelling is the thing.
There's nothing illogical about the *pronunciation* of English. It's just the writing system which no longer corresponds very well to how English is spoken today. If you learned English and German both through the International Phonetic Alphabet (or indeed any other phonetic script) English would seem no more or less difficult than German (barring of course your ability to hear and produce the correct sounds).
Uuuh, yeah. Okay. Sorry. I don't really have anything more. I still say English is more illogical.
Could we move on to something else? because this looks like deadlock.
Could we move on to something else? because this looks like deadlock.
" 'I speak Danish (my mother tongue), Norwegian and some Swedish. I do understand German fairly well, and I also have some knowledge of the Dutch language. When I listen to English, I don't feel that it sounds similar to one of these languages, and it doesn't sound similar to Romance languages either. English is too much a melting language which makes it so different in many ways.'
Are there ever times when it sounds like one thing or the other?"
Here's a question I asked before that I would be interested to find out about, but we can keep talking about how complicated English is. As I said, it just seemed like deadlock. I don't want to be rude.
Are there ever times when it sounds like one thing or the other?"
Here's a question I asked before that I would be interested to find out about, but we can keep talking about how complicated English is. As I said, it just seemed like deadlock. I don't want to be rude.
Hey, here's a helpful link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFKRCjf5sVg