What do foreign languages sound like to you?

[Sophia]

On 9gag I saw an interesting discussion about how people perceive foreign languages.
You can write here how these languages sound to you, even when you don't understand them
Hopefully no one will take this personally :) No offence intended

So for me
British English: aristocratic and melodic if spoken by an "old school" speaker
American English: Ok, but Texas English is just bad, sorry :)
Australian English: tAke it easy, mAte! Let's lie on the beach for a while
German: my vocabulary is about 100 words but it sounds very familiar, I almost have a feeling that I understand, even when I don't
French: too complicated.
Spanish and Italian: coolest languages for me. These are the languages of holiday, music and good food :)
Japanese: sounds like they are arguing all the time
Chinese: like Japanese, but softer
Russian: oh I love it! It's a language of extremes, same as Russians themselves. Can be hard as a rock and soft as falling snowflakes at the same time. Fantastic for expressing one's emotions.
Arabic: lots of kh sounds, rather hard sounding. Mysterious and exotic

I wonder how my language sounds to you guys. Just a random clip from a random TV show- New Year's edition, start watching after ca. 2nd minute
Be honest, I won't take it personally :)

 

[Psinter]

Japanese: sounds like they are arguing all the time

Ohohohohoho! To me Japanese sounds normalized. Now that I understand it better.

Spanish and Italian: coolest languages for me. These are the languages of holiday, music and good food :)

*telepathic high five for you*

For me:
All English - Normal, but I've always thought it's like they are dragging and grazing their tongues too much in their mouths instead of moving it up and down.
US English - Normal
UK English - Cool and fancy
Australian English - First it was the most cool English, now not so much.
Chinese - Rubbish, can't separate the sounds in my head.
Russian - Deep tones, love how they pronounce the R.
French - Nice for a while, then it tires me out.
Italian - Normal
Spanish - Normal
German - Leaves me like: Eh?

I think I've posted this video elsewhere, but I encourage people to watch it and the comment (multi-language):

(Italian and Japanese for the win!)

EDIT: I can't identify the name of your language, but it doesn't sound hard to master. I could clearly identify and separate the sounds in my mind. It has clear sounds.

 

[Hornbein]

The TV show sounds like Russian to me. I can't tell eastern European languages apart. Except for Hungarian, which uses the same sounds as Mandarin Chinese.

Lithuanians can understand Sanskrit.

Finnish is a descendant of Mongolian, but Turkish is not.

The languages of Madagascar, New Zealand, Okinawa, and Hawaii are related, but Japanese and Chinese are not.To me German is comical. Ukrainian and French are exotic and pleasant to listen to. Swedish sounds like a recording being played backwards. Indonesian sounds like it came out of the jungle, which it more or less did.

To me the most melodious languages are Arabic, Spanish, and the South African languages of Xhosa and Zulu. Japanese is great for punk rock. Tamil and Korean are good for rap.

 

[fresh_42]

I couldn't tell the difference to Czech.

 

[Evo]

Here is how they sound to me.

 

[rootone]

Portuguese sounds like Spanish spoken with a Russian accent.

 

[fresh_42]

Here is how they sound to me.

Nobody shouts like this. And (almost) all examples here have been Roman, i.e. not out of the language's core which is Germanic. Have you ever listened to a Scotsman saying: door, house, day or similar?

 

[fresh_42]

Portuguese sounds like Spanish spoken with a Russian accent.

I always thought it's like Spanish + many, many 'sh'.

 

[wolram]

English English normal, Welsh like Micky Mouse on speed, Scottish like a man who has had to much to drink.

 

[fresh_42]

Scottish like a man who has had to much to drink.

It's more than this. If I listen to John Higgins in an interview it's far more than tough for me to follow him.

 

[Sophia]

I couldn't tell the difference to Czech.

Yes, they are very similar.

 

[Bandersnatch]

Some few years ago I moved to the UK (to steal their jobs). I was armed with a language certificate and a bloated sense of my linguistic ability. Alas, once I got there, every native speaker sounded like this to me:


Also, on a different note - for some reason, Dutch reminds me of the Swedish Chef much more strongly than actual Swedish ever does.

 

[StatGuy2000]

The TV show sounds like Russian to me. I can't tell eastern European languages apart. Except for Hungarian, which uses the same sounds as Mandarin Chinese.

Lithuanians can understand Sanskrit.

Finnish is a descendant of Mongolian, but Turkish is not.

The languages of Madagascar, New Zealand, Okinawa, and Hawaii are related, but Japanese and Chinese are not.To me German is comical. Ukrainian and French are exotic and pleasant to listen to. Swedish sounds like a recording being played backwards. Indonesian sounds like it came out of the jungle, which it more or less did.

To me the most melodious languages are Arabic, Spanish, and the South African languages of Xhosa and Zulu. Japanese is great for punk rock. Tamil and Korean are good for rap.

You are quite mistaken about Finnish being descended from Mongolian. According to linguists, Finnish is a member of the Finnic branch of the Uralic family of languages, whose members include Hungarian, Estonian, the Sami languages (spoken by the Sami people, the aboriginal people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and parts of Russia) as well as various languages spoken by indigenous peoples of northern Eurasia, especially near the region of the Ural mountains.

Mongolian, on the other hand, is part of the Mongolic family of languages. There used to be a theory that Mongolian, along with the Turkic and Tungusic languages, along with Japanese and Korean, were all part of a larger "Altaic" family of languages, but that view has been controversial within linguistic circles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralic_languages

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_language

You are right though, about Malagasy, Maori, and Hawaiian all being related, as they are all part of the Austronesian family of languages, along with Malay, Indonesian, Tagalog, and various other languages spoken in Southeast Asia and various Pacific Islands. You are wrong though about Okinawa -- the people there speak Okinawan, a language which is part of the Japonic family of languages along with Japanese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawan_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austronesian_languages

Side note: I find it amusing that you think Japanese is suited for punk music, because in my mind, the punk music goes best to working class Cockney English.

 

[StatGuy2000]

On 9gag I saw an interesting discussion about how people perceive foreign languages.
You can write here how these languages sound to you, even when you don't understand them
Hopefully no one will take this personally :) No offence intended

So for me
British English: aristocratic and melodic if spoken by an "old school" speaker
American English: Ok, but Texas English is just bad, sorry :)
Australian English: tAke it easy, mAte! Let's lie on the beach for a while
German: my vocabulary is about 100 words but it sounds very familiar, I almost have a feeling that I understand, even when I don't
French: too complicated.
Spanish and Italian: coolest languages for me. These are the languages of holiday, music and good food :)
Japanese: sounds like they are arguing all the time
Chinese: like Japanese, but softer
Russian: oh I love it! It's a language of extremes, same as Russians themselves. Can be hard as a rock and soft as falling snowflakes at the same time. Fantastic for expressing one's emotions.
Arabic: lots of kh sounds, rather hard sounding. Mysterious and exotic

I wonder how my language sounds to you guys. Just a random clip from a random TV show- New Year's edition, start watching after ca. 2nd minute
Be honest, I won't take it personally :)

Hi Sophia. I hope you don't take offense, but I have to confess that your language (Slovak) sounds virtually indistinguishable from spoken Polish, Ukrainian or Russian (I used to live in a neighbourhood with a large Polish and Ukrainian immigrant population).

 

[Sophia]

Hi Sophia. I hope you don't take offense, but I have to confess that your language (Slovak) sounds virtually indistinguishable from spoken Polish, Ukrainian or Russian (I used to live in a neighbourhood with a large Polish and Ukrainian immigrant population).

Of course it's OK, they are from the same family. We all came from today's Russia some 1,500 years ago :)

 

[Silicon Waffle]

Here is how they sound to me.

True, I do find the French language sounds most beautiful and lovely in Europe.
I can't fully understand what the Australian or the British say; their pronunciation is too awesome, full of either /ou/ or /o/.

 

[fresh_42]

Yes, they are very similar.

I know, I once have read the Wikipedia article on Slovakian. I wanted to know what the differences are and to better understand the separation, i.e. to which extend it was economically driven in comparison to cultural. However, to hear it is an interesting addition.

 

[fresh_42]

Of course it's OK, they are from the same family. We all came from today's Russia some 1,500 years ago :)

And a Slavonic language, Sorbian, is a protected and official minority language in Germany.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Of course it's OK, they are from the same family. We all came from today's Russia some 1,500 years ago :)

I thought the video sounded like a bunch of Russians speaking Norwegian.

 

[Sophia]

I know, I once have read the Wikipedia article on Slovakian. I wanted to know what the differences are and to better understand the separation, i.e. to which extend it was economically driven in comparison to cultural. However, to hear it is an interesting addition.

First question- did you read about Slovak or Slovenian? because they are two quite distinct languages. (you mention "Slovakian")
I'll write about Slovak as I live in Slovakia (but in fact, my grandpa was Slovenian)
So there are not many differences between Slovak and Czech. In fact we could say they are just dialects of one original Western Slavic language. As you go from east to west, that means from Ukrainian to German border, it gets harder and a bit slower when people talk. There are some sounds that are not shared, like Slovak ľ and ô, the Czechs have ř. We also have some differences in rhytmical rules (long and short syllables). There are some minor differences in declination, as well.
I don't think there were any economical issues when these two languages separated. They were more cultural. the Czech people had their own kingdom, while Slovaks were a part of Austro-Hungarian empire until 1918. Until that time, the Czechs were culturally closer to Germany. After WW1, these two united and created Czechoslovakia which was one of the most modern and economically advanced nations of that time. But than came WWII when things changed, Hitler got the Czech part and we, what a shame! created our own fascist republic. After WWII Czechoslovakia was united again, but this time, under communist rule. This is when our common culture with Czechs was formed and our languages influenced each other most. To be honest, the Czech influenced Slovak, because there was 2x more Czechs than Slovaks.
How and why we separated in 1993? I'm really not sure why. It was basically agreed by Havel and Meciar. each of them wanted power so they decided they will create their own countries to rule in. But there was some tension even before that, basically from Slovak side who wanted more independence. Anyway, for my generation (born 1987) the reasons are still a mystery. No one talks about that, we didn't learn about it at school. It's only stated that on January 1st 1993 independent republic was created. That's all I know. I studied in Brno, Czech republic and we talked about the separation with my Czech friends and they didn't know the reasons either. We only thought it was a great pity and we would like to have a common country again.
We share a lot of cultural heritage and living in Brno felt like living in any Slovak town. I could speak Slovak freely, even write my thesis in Slovak at Czech university. When Czechs come here, they have the same privileges. We still don't consider each other to be "foreign" countries.

PS: I really deeply apologize to all history-wise readers who probably found many mistakes in this short blurb. I really suck at history plus I'm trying to simplify things for international audience. Fell totally free to correct my mistakes.

 

[Sophia]

I thought the video sounded like a bunch of Russians speaking Norwegian.

Norwegian? LOL

 

[fresh_42]

First question- did you read about Slovak or Slovenian?

I take that personally. (Slovakian was what I looked up in the dictionary since I only knew the German word.)

EDIT: Forgive me the shortage. I like to abbreviate it by 'Slovakian are Czechs and Slovenians are Austrians."
(I know it's wrong, but there is a little truth in it.)

EDIT: Think of the poor Czechs. They are usually mistaken for Chechens!

 

[zoobyshoe]

Norwegian? LOL

Yeah, it has a kind of lilt to it that Russian and Polish don't have, and that lilt most reminded me of Norwegian/Swedish/Danish.

 

[fresh_42]

Yeah, it has a kind of lilt to it that Russian and Polish don't have, and that lilt most reminded me of Norwegian/Swedish/Danish.

Interesting mixture of two large language families. Only a Roman one missing.

 

[HossamCFD]

English (English, RP): Normal.
English (English, Cockney): I'm not classist but I really struggle to take it seriously.
English (English, Up north): Brilliant accent, especially when expressing a strong sentiment, though I normally can't tell if you're drunk.
English (American): Quite alright, unless you get too excited and then it becomes a bit funny.
English (Scottish): Can you say anything without sounding like you're complaining?
French: I think it was proven that French is objectively the most attractive language.
German: Sounds like you're always explaining something.
Russian: Seems like a perfect language for conveying all sorts of emotions.
Italian: Sounds like you're always trying to convince someone with something you feel very strongly about. Also, hand gestures shouldn't really be a part of the language.

 

[Rx7man]

Really funny this comes up now.. I was just going through my "top rated" playlist, and counted 6 languages in it.. only 2 of which I speak (english and french), and 1 I can kinda understand (German).
I was once watching an episode of Magnum PI, with Swedish overdub and english subtitles.. I couldn't handle it!

If you want a REALLY good laugh, Listen to the bluegrass classic "Wabash Cannonball" by Bican Honza & Krupani.. it's all sung in Czech, except for "Wabash Cannonball", which really catches you offguard.
I love Russian, it's a language I would like to learn, but it's probably never going to happen.. (I listen to Sveta)... I don't know if I've ever heard Ukranian.
I love east indian languages, I don't know them well enough to tell them apart, but I enjoy the soundtracks from Bollywood movies.. The scenery in them is usually pretty good too. (Khabi Kushi Khabbi Gham soundtrack is one of my favorites)... I could consider learning Hindi
Italian, which is technically my mother tongue I only can understand a little because I know french... I listen to Fabrizio De Andre
Spanish, never been attracted to learning it.
German, if you want to sound fierce... Listen to Rammstein!
The far eastern languages just don't do anything for me
African native languages seem to be made of only consonants, they're pretty interesting (Watch the movies "The gods must be crazy" or "Animals are beautiful people")
French I speak, at least semi fluently (a month of being forced to speak it and I'd remember the words I have to search for).. it sounds normal to me

I have friends who speak Dutch, and I can make out words with similar roots to German.. I find them similar though Dutch doesn't sounds as 'abrasive'

So that leaves English... I'm tired of every movie that tries to be exotic by casting actors with Australian or British accents. I have a hard time considering Austrailian, Scottish, and Texan "English".. they're more like dialects :P
I love Robin Williams little skit on "drinking with a Scotsman"... that about sums it up

 

[Jonathan Scott]

I'm English but went to live in Gothenburg, Sweden, for a few years. The Swedish language is definitely suited to telling heroic tales and berating children (which does sound remarkably like the Swedish chef in the Muppets). Knowing some Swedish, I could understand a lot of Norwegian, which sounds to me like Swedish with a Scottish accent. I had some difficulty understanding people from Skåne (also called Scania), the southern tip of Sweden, who sound more Danish, and I couldn't understand actual Danish very much; it sounds to me like speaking Swedish with bad toothache.

 

[Sophia]

Indian languages are cool, too. Bollywood movies make me smile :)
I'll have to youtube some clips with Danish, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian languages because I really can't tell a difference between them.

 

[fresh_42]

I studied in Brno, Czech republic and we talked about the separation with my Czech friends and they didn't know the reasons either. We only thought it was a great pity and we would like to have a common country again.

The next beauty about Europe today. (Hopefully our politicians won't ruin it!) It doesn't matter less and less which country printed the passport. I thank de Gaulle and Adenauer each day for their achievement. Far better than before! The first time I've been to Moscow I remember jumping joyfully in the snow on the airport next to the airliner and said: "I love that. Being in Moscow and having no gun with me!" Our many cultures are a great gift and surely no reason to fight.

When the ČSSR broke apart I remember one main reason wasn't Havel's and Meciar's ambition to gain power alone. The Slovakian were simply fed by the Czech domination. And the Czech thought they would simply finance Slovakia which had a more agricultural bias and the Czech a more industrial. Maybe there have been historical reasons, too, which I'm not aware of. Both countries are beautiful and most of all: the origin of European beer culture.

Edit: Funny incident. I've had a Slovakian car in front of me on my way home from the dentist. And as a biathlon fan you'd better know the difference between Slovakia and Slovenia.

 

[Hornbein]

You are quite mistaken about Finnish being descended from Mongolian. According to linguists, Finnish is a member of the Finnic branch of the Uralic family of languages, whose members include Hungarian, Estonian, the Sami languages (spoken by the Sami people, the aboriginal people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and parts of Russia) as well as various languages spoken by indigenous peoples of northern Eurasia, especially near the region of the Ural mountains.

Mongolian, on the other hand, is part of the Mongolic family of languages. There used to be a theory that Mongolian, along with the Turkic and Tungusic languages, along with Japanese and Korean, were all part of a larger "Altaic" family of languages, but that view has been controversial within linguistic circles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralic_languages

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_language

You are right though, about Malagasy, Maori, and Hawaiian all being related, as they are all part of the Austronesian family of languages, along with Malay, Indonesian, Tagalog, and various other languages spoken in Southeast Asia and various Pacific Islands. You are wrong though about Okinawa -- the people there speak Okinawan, a language which is part of the Japonic family of languages along with Japanese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawan_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austronesian_languages

Side note: I find it amusing that you think Japanese is suited for punk music, because in my mind, the punk music goes best to working class Cockney English.

Most interesting! I had lumped all of the steppes nomads together. So there were the Magyars, the Huns, and the Mongols, all of whom "invaded" westward, not to mention the Khazars, Cossacks, and Tartars. Today it is unknown into which language group the speech of the Huns fell. Hungary is named after the Huns, but Hungarians call their country Magyarstan.

Oops about Okinawan. But native Taiwanese is Austronesian. I pushed the boundary a little too far.

Mainstream music in Japan is quite different from any other country, as far as I know. They go for energetic, fast music that borders on frantic. This appears in TV theme songs, advertisements, etc. It sounds like punk rock to me, so as far as I'm concerned its the national music of Japan. I used to listen to a lot of it. It is a lot more precise, intricate, and complicated than western punk. It's often mixed with ska and almost always has girl singers. Here's my fave piece . I never tire of it. It even has a shamisen. Oh what the heck, here's more.

which has one of the most complicated grooves I've ever heard. That bass part is beyond belief. How can anyone do that? Good things come in threes. Here's a thrash/ska version of A Whole New World.

 

[Hornbein]

How about the fastest language in the world? I'd go for Tamil, followed by Italian and maybe Hindi. Spanish can be quite rapid too, though I don't know where.

 

[Sophia]

The next beauty about Europe today. (Hopefully our politicians won't ruin it!) It doesn't matter less and less which country printed the passport. I thank de Gaulle and Adenauer each day for their achievement. Far better than before! The first time I've been to Moscow I remember jumping joyfully in the snow on the airport next to the airliner and said: "I love that. Being in Moscow and having no gun with me!" Our many cultures are a great gift and surely no reason to fight.

When the ČSSR broke apart I remember one main reason wasn't Havel's and Meciar's ambition to gain power alone. The Slovakian were simply fed by the Czech domination. And the Czech thought they would simply finance Slovakia which had a more agricultural bias and the Czech a more industrial. Maybe there have been historical reasons, too, which I'm not aware of. Both countries are beautiful and most of all: the origin of European beer culture. [emoji2]

Edit: Funny incident. I've had a Slovakian car in front of me on my way home from the dentist. And as a biathlon fan you'd better know the difference between Slovakia and Slovenia.

Fresh, it seems you have traveled a lot and read and think about various issues. I'm really surprised by your knowledge because most people couldn't even show these countries on map.

 

[Samy_A]

Indian languages are cool, too. Bollywood movies make me smile :)
I'll have to youtube some clips with Danish, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian languages because I really can't tell a difference between them.

For me it's almost the same. I have trouble with Danish, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian, because they have just enough in common with Dutch that I understand a word here or there. But not enough in common to allow me to make sense of it.

 

[Rx7man]

Sounds like most people's confusion between Swiss and Swedish... *sigh* (I'm swiss)

 

[fresh_42]

Sounds like most people's confusion between Swiss and Swedish... *sigh* (I'm swiss)

Gruezi. Are you a fan of the famous Swiss group ABBA, too?
Canada plus Swiss? You're cherry picking, don't you?