How does Spanish sound to your ears?

Ruth   Saturday, February 12, 2005, 17:53 GMT
How does Spanish sound to your ears?
garans   Saturday, February 12, 2005, 18:37 GMT
Spanish is a mild language, though it has some harsh soungs.
Maybe a bit too emotional.
Julian   Saturday, February 12, 2005, 19:19 GMT
It depends on the speaker. I've heard Spanish spoken in nice-sounding, melodic tones, but I've also heard it spoken in an annoyingly loud, rapid-fire delivery, like a machine gun firing. I've also heard Argentines speak it as if it were an Italian dialect, which sounded pretty cool.
Thomas   Saturday, February 12, 2005, 21:49 GMT
It sounds very sexy
Brennus   Saturday, February 12, 2005, 22:08 GMT

This is a somewhat difficult question to answer because there are different Spanishes. For example, Peruvian Spanish sounds soft-spoken; Mexican and Salvadorian Spanish tend to sound nasal; Cuban Spanish sounds loud and kind of heavy, you could say a little more macho; Castillian and Argentine Spanish with their lisps sound kind of pretentious.
The cadences vary to... women generally speak it faster than men; people in the Carribean speak it faster than people further south. The rapid speech gives the impression that Hispanics are a very emotional, tempermental people and to some extent they are. Americans and Canadians, on the other hand, still have a lot of the British in them.
Brennus   Saturday, February 12, 2005, 22:11 GMT
errata - the cadences vary to (should be) too. Carribean = Caribbean.
Damian   Saturday, February 12, 2005, 22:16 GMT
Deliciously excitable and expressive.... and travelling at a rate of a hundred and fifty miles per second.
Ed   Sunday, February 13, 2005, 02:57 GMT
Damian, you're back?! LOL
Kirk   Sunday, February 13, 2005, 03:25 GMT
I love the way Spanish sounds...last year I studied abroad in Buenos Aires and fell in love with the Argentine accent. Its highly distinctive use of [S] or [Z] (depending on the speaker) for orthographical "ll"/"y", and intonation obviously influenced by Italian make it a really unique variety of Spanish.
Ed   Sunday, February 13, 2005, 03:45 GMT
Well, Kirk, actually Uruguayan accent is the same, or almost the same.
Kirk   Sunday, February 13, 2005, 11:32 GMT
you're right :) I should've said "Rioplatense" Spanish, because in fact Argentina has several different dialect areas. I spent some time in Uruguay too and their variety is similar to Spanish found in Buenos Aires, altho there are a few differences.
Sanja   Monday, February 14, 2005, 17:50 GMT
Spanish sounds great to me. It's one of my favourite languages.
Tiffany   Monday, February 14, 2005, 18:12 GMT
I grew up with Cuban Spanish and I do not like the way it sounds. However, I went to an international school and there were many Venezualans, Argentians and Spaniards. All of them spoke Spanish beautifully.
mad   Friday, February 18, 2005, 09:50 GMT
i wish i could understand what the ppl on univision and telemundo are saying.
Easterner   Friday, February 18, 2005, 14:55 GMT
I have mostly heard Castilian Spanish spoken, and I must admit that it sounds a little weird to me with its lisping sounds. Otherwise I like the way Spanish sounds, but still think that French and Italian are more melodious. On the other hand, there is no difference between Romance languages when they are sung, they all sound beautiful. As for speed ... well, Spanish and Italian are definitely easier to understand than French, even if spoken quickly.