Foreign perceptions of English

David [NOLA]   Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:22 pm GMT
This question is for non-native English speakers.

I've heard some foreigners say that they think English sounds German, French, etc. to their ears. How do you perceive English?
Guest   Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:38 pm GMT
English sounds very characteristic. You can't say that it sounds similar to anything else. Recently I noticed that it sounds relatively similar to Icelandic, but considering major languages (German, French, Russian, Spanish, etc) it sounds completely different and peculiar.
Skippy   Thu Mar 27, 2008 6:56 pm GMT
My German friend told me English just sounds like a string of vowels.
Guest   Thu Mar 27, 2008 7:05 pm GMT
What? English is very consonantic. At least to my Romance ears.
guest   Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:45 pm GMT
<<What? English is very consonantic. At least to my Romance ears. >>

but English consonants can easily be perceived as vowels, or vowel-like: dark L's, nasals, glottal stops, dropped dentals, etc., when spoken by lax speakers, esp when compared to languages that ennunciate them sharply, like German.

take the word 'vowel' for instance, it has 3 consonants, but it can sound like it only has one--'v' (vaU5)
Travis   Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:05 pm GMT
>>take the word 'vowel' for instance, it has 3 consonants, but it can sound like it only has one--'v' (vaU5)<<

At least here, it indeed has only one consonant, as it is [ˈvaːo̯ʊː] here.
Xie   Thu Mar 27, 2008 11:45 pm GMT
No, English is so messed up that it doesn't sound like most languages, possibly except Dutch. Native accents of English are very different from each other, too.

I think British English sounds sharper, but it doesn't really have the characteristic German sounds of sch, s, z (sibilants), ts, ich-laut, ach-laut, r and every -en at the end of an infinitive. American English in general is much more slurred but I can get the sense in most cases. I'd say AmE would be more remote from its Germanic relatives.

I'd also agree that English is consonant heavy. My native language doesn't ever have consonantal clusters. I think Anglophone speak their language in a lower pitch than I do in (actually only) Mandarin. I recorded my voice briefly, and I proved it. Since English is in no way similar to my native language, I've always perceived (even) this language to be rather exotic. Strictly speaking, my native language sounds very boring because everything is fixed in its place in terms of intonation, but Mandarin, while "high-pitched" and "nasal", has more interesting intonation. But anyway, my principle is everything is different in English, i.e. the reverse should be more or less the truth in English, so I wouldn't speak with a German accent in which I'd always stress the last word as if I were putting an infinitive there.
Guest   Thu Mar 27, 2008 11:53 pm GMT
Depending on the accent, English can sound nasal (Great Lakes), flat (Canada, California), colorful (North of England, Ireland, Pittsburgh), gay (RP) or redneckish (Australia, cockney, Southern US)
Cahota   Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:27 pm GMT
Guest ^^ it sounds like to me you are nothing but an ignorant moron who should not even be posting.

Your post further proves my point.
Skippy   Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:50 pm GMT
Pittsburgh accent colorful?
Guest   Mon Mar 31, 2008 2:26 am GMT
I'd have to agree that Irish and Scottish accents sound colorful to me. Of course, Pittsburgh is too close by to sound for me to judge.

<<Guest ^^ it sounds like to me you are nothing but an ignorant moron who should not even be posting. >>

Everyone on the planet is ignorant of all but a handful of subjects -- I think it was Mark Twain who said it far better than me, but that quotation seems to have slipped my mind at the moment.
Guest   Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:11 am GMT
It sounds aggressive. Whenever I speak English I feel like shooting off and swearing people. No kidding, just honest opinion!
Damian in Edinburgh   Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:24 am GMT
***Depending on the accent, English can sound nasal (Great Lakes), flat (Canada, California), colorful (North of England, Ireland, Pittsburgh), gay (RP) or redneckish (Australia, cockney, Southern US)***

Interesting interpretations there, but I must take issue with some of them, in particular. For instance, RP - apparently perceived as "gay". Hmmmm....tell that to those huge hunks in many of the mega macho Rugby Union teams, such as the Oxford and Cambridge university teams, or the Harlequins, or many of the others who grace the turf at Twickenham. Many of those guys speak pure cut glass RP at its finest. If you were to suggest to their mud splattered, designer stubbled faces that they were "gay" simply because they spoke RP they'd most probably mistake you for the oval shaped ball and hurl you skywards in the direction of the posts, if not clear out of the ground altogether.

Mind you - some of those scrums do look a wee bit physically over intimate, when you come to think of it. And as for those steaming hot communal baths after the game.......and the famous Rugby song usually belted out by all the guys in the baths do contain the words "Why was he born so beautiful, why was he born at all?" :-)

"Redneckish"? As I understand it, an American "redneck" is a male from areas of the United States who seems to assume an exaggerated macho masculine image, while at the same time displaying a great deal of bigotry, tunnel vision, lack of tolerance for lifestyles other than their own, close mindedness and a kind of religious fervour verging on the fanatical. I'm not too sure that the Aussies can be described fully as such......and certainly not the Cockneys. Rough diamonds they may well be, but not rednecks as in the American sense, I wouldn't have thought.
Levee   Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:59 am GMT
I don't think rendneck has such a narrow meaning. Random House defines it this way:

1. an uneducated white farm laborer, esp. from the South.
2. a bigot or reactionary, esp. from the rural working class.

And the post in question didn't say that Australians or Cockneys are rednecks - only that their accent sound redneckish.
Cahota   Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:41 pm GMT
<<Guest ^^ it sounds like to me you are nothing but an ignorant moron who should not even be posting. >>

<< Everyone on the planet is ignorant of all but a handful of subjects -- I think it was Mark Twain who said it far better than me, but that quotation seems to have slipped my mind at the moment. >>

Thank you for your bit of wisdom, I'm sure we all will benefit from it. LOL... But, I was not talking about a handful of different subjects. I was talking about this subject. Anyone who would post something like that is an ignorant moron. Guests post was not only insulting, it was offensive.. (gay, redneckish).