Most beautiful (and ugliest) language you have heard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dislike the sound of Vietnamese even more than German.

+1 and Tagalog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dislike the sound of Vietnamese even more than German.

+1

It is a tough language to listen to.

Agree with Vietnamese. It sounds like all vowels.

I grew up with a lot Vietnamese kids, and someone once said it sounded like pots and pans hitting the floor.

[Anonymous]

I think Swedish can be very pretty. Danish on the other hand…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else getting problematic vibes from this thread?

Relax.

We are talking about phonetics not people.

You can turn off your DEI radar!

[Anonymous]

I like Italian and Portuguese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:French or Mandarin as the most beautiful.
German and Dutch sound harsh to me.

French or Mandarin? Really? Do they sound similar in anyway to you?

They both sound musical to me although there are some similar sounds. I speak French and know some Mandarin. And I play a few musical instruments.

[Anonymous]

French (and Cantonese).

[Anonymous]

French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish, Russian - love it. Love Spanish too but only the one that is spoken in Spain; I dislike how spoken Spanish sounds in Mexico.

[Anonymous]

I can’t stand the sound of Vietnamese, Cantonese, or Indian.

[Anonymous]

Surprised how many people dislike Vietnamese! I think it’s really pretty; Thai too. I also love Gaelic.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]What’s your favorite, and least favorite, language you’ve heard spoken? Just by the way it sounds to you, whether or not you actually speak it or understand it.

My favorite is Lithuanian, the language of my grandmother. Apparently it’s all very old language and hasn’t changed much since the original dialect, and it sounds ancient plus a little bit drunk.

Least favorite is Dutch or Cantonese. [/quote]

I think Lithuanian is the most annoying and headache inducing language. I hate hearing it.
(Is that what you’re hoping to bring OP? People trashing other people’s languages? What is the point?)

[Anonymous]

Not ugly but some languages sound funny to me. My first language isn’t English and it’s from a large family of languages so it’s funny when I hear a language that has the same origin but developed differently and some words mean the opposite things or just sound funny - like if you met someone seriously speaking Shakespearean English for example.
A lot of Asian languages sound funny to me as well.
I think French and Italian sound exquisite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
As an international family with members who speak German, English, French, Japanese and Vietnamese...

... I think this thread is slightly questionable.

It also very much depends on regional variations, accents and native vs. non-native speakers. I think native speakers have a softer, more musical enunciation than non-natives. Southern French sounds very different than northern French, and there are tons of different accents, just like in the USA (I once heard a colleague from South Carolina, and he had such a lovely lilt to his English!). My German will sound harsh, because I'm French and can't soften it like a native speaker. My Parisian French will sound more lilting than a Vietnamese speaking in French with a Vietnamese cadence. I've heard very soft-spoken Japanese face-to-face, and then I switch on the TV, and the voices seem harsher, for clarity maybe?

All languages are beautiful and fascinating.

Was going to say, native German speakers don't sound harsh!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else getting problematic vibes from this thread?

No, and we speak 7 languages in my house. Some are lovely and some are not.

Example, I find English to be very harsh on my ears.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The ugliest language is German. Always German. All I can hear is Hitler when I’m around it.

Yeah, and English always reminds me of slavers... Spanish, of Cortez. Mandarin, Mao Zedong. Italian, Mussolini. Etc.