Lingusitics What do foreign languages sound like to you?

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The discussion explores how individuals perceive the sounds of various foreign languages, often reflecting personal feelings and associations. British English is described as aristocratic, while American English varies in appeal, with Texas English receiving negative feedback. Languages like Spanish and Italian are celebrated for their melodic qualities, whereas German is perceived as comical and French as complicated. Japanese and Chinese are noted for sounding argumentative, with Russian being appreciated for its emotional expressiveness. The conversation also touches on linguistic similarities and cultural histories, particularly among Slavic languages.
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  • #54
Hornbein said:
The song that made crowdsourced software pop idol Hatsune Miku a star.

This... ?
 
  • #55
Here's the misheard lyrics of Nightwish - Wishmaster (I think they're swedish?)
 
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  • #56
 
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  • #57
Rx7man said:
Here's the misheard lyrics of Nightwish - Wishmaster (I think they're swedish?)


As I've thought: Nightwish are Finnish! (The crazy punks among the Scandinavian people. The Swedish are more the pop musicians. Long live prejudices!)
 
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  • #58
DrClaude said:


During the past 100 years USA English has become an extremely throaty language. Mandarin is the opposite: the sounds are produced at the teeth, or seemingly in the air in front of the teeth.

To speak Indian languages or Indonesian pull your tongue in. In Indonesian use your nose a lot, but not in India.
 
  • #59
OCR said:
This... ?

You bet. Here's Levan Polka as interpreted by Adolph Hitler.

 
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  • #60
I don't know what flavor of 'chinese' this is, Cantonese, Mandarin, or other, but it's a pretty good laugh too..

 
  • #61
I think it's Madarin.
 
  • #62
Whenever I don't understand the language, I always hope that the other person will speak louder and slower...
(see about 8:25)
 
  • #63
Silicon Waffle said:
I think it's Madarin.
My best friend moved to Taiwan and learned Mandarin.. He's actually the guy who showed me that video about 10 years ago, before he started learning it... I'll have to send it to him again and see if he can translate now :)
 
  • #64
Choppy said:
Whenever I don't understand the language, I always hope that the other person will speak louder and slower...
This is so oh true.
 
  • #65
German seems angry all the time, and French sounds snob :biggrin: Nordic countries languages I find odd and interesting. Russian sounds oddly like European Portuguese, if I'm distracted I could mistake someone on a public transport speaking Russian as speaking Portuguese, since the sounds are very similar. On the other hand, Spanish is a very similar language to Portuguese, in vocabulary, but sounds totally different (sounds more similar to Brazilian Portuguese).
 
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