Lingusitics Which language sounds the nicest?

[Jimmy Snyder]

I don't know about Beijing Mandarin, all the 'er's added to everything. What sounds nice really just depends on what your ears are accustomed to at the time.

True. I like the sound of those emphatic 'er's as much as I like the emphatic pitch inflection. I should have pointed out that there are individuals that have particularly appealing voices. I once spoke on the telephone in English with a customer support person whose voice made me want to crawl through the wire to meet her.

 

[Link-]

My first language is Spanish and I don't think Spanish is the nicest language. My second language is English (even if I'm not a really good talker or writer), I don't think English is also a pretty language, I think is kind of frivolous. A really nice language is Italian and German, those are language that I would like to learn.

 

[Duck1987]

My first language is Spanish and I don't think Spanish is the nicest language. My second language is English (even if I'm not a really good talker or writer), I don't think English is also a pretty language, I think is kind of frivolous. A really nice language is Italian and German, those are language that I would like to learn.

You really think German is a nice language? It sounds like dog barking, and I think that if Hell exists, then the Satan would be speaking German, as for Italian and French - yes they are nice sounding languages

 

[Tony11235]

I used to like Spanish and Mandarin sounded like a song to me, but after living in New York for a while and listening to Chinese people who literally scream when on a subway with their Mandarin, it is the most annoying thing in the world. They sit apart from each other and start yelling! "Si si ma si si ma!"

As for spanish. Now I can only take a minute of it, after that I just want the person to stfu, because I just can't stand it!

Are you sure what you were hearing was Mandarin and not Cantonese? Cantonese sounds hilarious and like someone's on a roller-coaster (sorry if that offends any Cantonese speakers here) when compared to Mandarin. I have a friend who speaks both and he evens admits cantonese is the more fun-sounding language. It's funny you mention the on-the-bus situation. Just the other day I was talking to a Taiwanese girl and she said while on the bus, the loudest speakers are usually Chinese, lol.

 

[wildman]

It depends what areas they are from, I find people from urban areas tend to be easier to understand, there's no problem between an argentinean and a mexican or someone from spain (well depending what part of spain, I struggle a bit to catch up when I watch some spanish movies).

I find mexicans hard to understand. They mix a lot of Indigenous languages in with their Spanish or at least my wife's friends do, but they tend to be from the country side rather than the cities. Colombians have very beautiful Spanish to my ears.

 

[Link-]

I find mexicans hard to understand. They mix a lot of Indigenous languages in with their Spanish or at least my wife's friends do, but they tend to be from the country side rather than the cities. Colombians have very beautiful Spanish to my ears.

Colombian spanish... A lot of lab. instructor on College are Colombians after a few labs with them you won't hear them as a beatiful spanish.
How about Spain spanish? That's a really good spanish.

 

[rubecuber]

actually, english is not the hardest language to learn, a group of scientists from Harvard or some big university conducted tests and used a 1-5 scale. 5=chinese, 4=french 3=english. I am from europe, and i got to say that french is the nicest sounding language. even though it's not as sing-songy as Italian, it is veeeeeeeery rich and sounds amaaaaaaaaaaaazing! Definitely french, then itial then russian, then german(i know that sounds funny, but it's gorgeous to hear a native speak it)!

 

[moe darklight]

what was number one?

one of my co-workers speaks swedish. the past two days I've been switched to his group; he's been trying to teach me some swedish during breaks... sometimes it's freakishly similar to middle english ... though I don't understand how their verbs work, it's even weirder than english ... also they have this thing where you change the end of a word when it is the object or subject of a sentence

vasca would be bag (or backpack? any sweeds here?), but you say vascan if it's a "the bag" ... also I obviously don't know swedish spelling so I have no clue if that's how it's spelled, but that's what it sounds like.

another cool thing is that they've kept the "hither" and "thither" that the english world pretty much expunged from common use... like, you would say "duo guor till hit/thit". (you walk to here/there). but if you already are here or there, you are "har/thar".

it's a pretty harsh sounding language to my ears— and hard on my mouth too... though I don't really know how to say much other than stuff about me wanting to eat or drink or picking up boxes or going to a house, or leaves on a lawn... or holding bags... and also urinating, of course.

urinating is always important.

 

[JasonRox]

I can speak words properly in English, French, Spanish, Mandarin and very little Cantonese. I'd say French and Mandarin are my favourites.

 

[Heidijr]

Aesthetically Sindarin or Quenya (elvish from LotR) sound the best - here's Tolkien reading some Sindarin

Gorgeous, but then so are the languages they're based on -- quite a bit of Welsh with some Gaelic thrown in for good measure. There are some Nordic influences as well, but the pronunciation was quite Welsh.

I love Welsh -- that is a language made for singing! It's so liquid and musical...even with the words that have three or four consonants run together or three or more vowels!

I read somewhere that Italian is the language of song, French the language of love, and German the language of war. *L* I don't remember where I read it...but it seems appropriate. Although Anglo-Saxon and high German have some amazing sonorous qualities all their own.

 

[zankaon]

Navaho

Navaho, when i hear it slowly, has the cadence and aesthetics of ocean swells or a slow flowing river.
- ya' at' eeh.

 

[nadavgeva]

Fortran 95 is definitely my choice. for the worst of course!

 

[nadavgeva]

but seriously I think Portuguese. it's just hard to spell it.

 

[ThienAn]

What are you guys talking about? It is obviously a very vague question. I were born in Vietnam. I speak Vietnamese fluently. Ten out of ten times I won't misspell any world. Plus, French to me is like my English now because Vietnamese people communicate in French, also. But drawn from my experience between Vietnamese (Asia), French (Europe), and English (America or Cannada or any country), I would say English (particularly American English) sounds easiest (pronounciation, cadence, spelling, vocal, etc) but not the nicest. I sometimes speak French to my girlfriend and she would be fascinated by it, but in Vietnamese she says it sounds "unfamiliar", "funny", "twisted", "toungy". And those are the terms we know about Asian language, especially Chinese, Japanese, Nepalese, Bhutan, Istanbul, Philipines, Indonesia, but in West Asia the languages sound differently.

 

[Link-]

but seriously I think Portuguese. it's just hard to spell it.

Portuguese sound a little bit like spanish. If you know spanish really well and hear a portuguese conversation, you can understand part of the conversation.
What I would say is sound nicest is the portuguese accent.

 

[jim mcnamara]

FWIW - this kind of thread works on a bad assumption, IMO, that all humans can perceive the sounds of all languages. There are phonemes in languages that you lose the ability to hear or to reproduce if you do not literally hear those phonemes as a baby.

 

[gravenewworld]

Latin