some languages more beautiful than others?
many people say that the Latin languages are the most beautiful languages in the world
The Latin languages are beautiful (especially Classical Latin and Italian)
One good thing with English language is that it´s not too hard to listen to, not to "melodic" or not too nasal
I find many languages very hard to listen to (Arabic and French have so hard R´s!)
But the fact is that all languages are nice to listen to! I don´t go around and say that some languages are better than other languages (but if I had to answer, I would maybe say English because of the enormous variations!)
There are many sounds in English I love; the English R (unique!) and the th-sound (it also appears in Old Norse and Icelandic and some other languages)
But when you learn more about etymology and the roots of the languages, you will notice that all languages can sound beautiful!
No languages are more beautifull than others.
Purely and sollomly PERSONAL OPINIONS.
Hopeful : « Ce qui est bien avec l'anglais c'est que cette langue n'est pas trop dure à l'oreille, pas trop "mélodique" ni trop nasale ».
Tu devrais aller faire un tour en Amérique du Nord anglophone : l'accent est assez nasillard et beaucoup de voyelles orales sont nasalisées.
oui, tout celà est bien subjectif; On a tous des langues que l'on préfère à d'autres. Par ailleurs, je pense que dans nos préférences linguistiques il y a aussi d'autres critères qui entrent en jeu plus ou moins consciement - Il est en effet difficile de séparer totalement une langue du pays ou de la culture d'ou elle provient.
Il est aussi assez dificile de juger la beauté phonétique de sa propre langue maternelle.
En ce qui concere la question d'origine sur la perception de l'Anglais. Personellement je trouve cette langue assez neutre, ni belle, ni désagréable à écouter. J'ai un peu plus de mal avec certains accents Americains.
I understood a little of the French
I don´t like American accent (some of them can sound awful)
But I like the English language (did I say American accent?)
I also like French, Norwegian and Latin
British English, Irish English and Scottish English are beautiful
Some languages definitely sound more beautiful than others but I know from past experience that people don't always agree what is ugly and beautiful in a language. Once, I knew a girl in college from Nicaragua whose father was German and she said "He spoke German, it's an ugly language." At the same time I had an English teacher at this same college who said to us one day "Some people thing that German is an ugly language but not me. I think that gutteral sounds are beautiful."
I've always been partial to the Romance languages myself for some reason even though most of my ancestors spoke Celtic and Germanic languages, including English.
Definitely Romance languages are the most euphonic languages . The euphony (pleasantness or agreeableness of sounds) is a science. There are many scientific facts confirming the natural inclination of infants and adults towards the vowel friendly words.
Or simply, Romance languages are vowel friendly, have a nice and balanced intonation and are very melodic.
Professor Paul Ariste (1905-90) from the University of Tartu (Dorpat) in Estonia, a famous polyglot, was of the opinion that for everybody his/her mother tongue is the most beautiful language.
I agree that there are more or less neutral criteria to define the beauty of language. I also find Italian beautiful. The Polynesian languages are the most vowel rich in the world (perhaps Hawaiian is the record: island names Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Niihau, Molokai) - I think the names look nice (or are there already too many vowels?).
They say that a German tourist in Finland thought Finnish is an especially beautiful language when he heard on radio: "Hallanvaaraa alavilla mailla (Danger of frost on low-lying lands). That sentence didn´t probably sound as beautiful in the ears of the local farmers...
Yep, it's all personal opinion.
I happen to think that Mandarin Chinese and Japanese are the two most beautiful languages ever, but many people would say that the former sounds nasal and singsongy and the latter sounds robotic and awkward.
As for European languages, I'm one of those heretics screaming in support of the beauty of Russian, Polish, and German... I'd be trampled to bits by all those Romance language lovers, lol!
:": Definitely Romance languages are the most euphonic languages . :":
PERSONAL!
I also think Russian is a very beautiful language
And Finnish!
Heehee : je suis un inconditionnel des langues romanes mais j'adore l'allemand et le polonais aussi.
what do you mean by gutteral sounds in german?
Nasal? North Americans don't sound nasal!
Not to fan any flames here, but if any language can lay claim to sounding nasal, it's French....