|
|
Whats your favorite Germanic language?
Sander:
Swedish sounds somewhat archaic, because of it's vowel richness and many Old Nordic words that have been lost or replaced with Low German loan words in Norwegian or Danish.
Of course Icelandic sounds even more archaic, but the Scandinavian languages have moved so far away from it, that Icelandic often appears more as a mysterious puzzle than an archaic version of our own languages.
LAA:
As guest/greg pointed out, German "acht" often sounds very delicious, there is often a sensual tremble in the ch sound!
"J'aime bien la prononciation outrageusement sinueuse de l'anglais classique mais la monotonie de l'anglais états-unien me plonge très vite dans l'ennui"
Meh, not the "classic English" routine. American and Irish English are probably closer to anything that's "classic English" and most comparable to that of the time of Shakespeare. Estuary (the most common form of British English) and RP are hardly classical.
Frederik
>Swedish sounds somewhat archaic, because of it's vowel richness
Do you really think so? I have always perceived the Norwegian languages to have a much richer vowel system than any Swedish dialect, except Skånska perhaps... Even Danish has more vowels than Swedish, with at least 4 pronountiations for the vowel "a".... well, please enlight me.
LAA,
The saddly famous guttural sounds aside, the German language has by far a more interesting structure than English, and the vocabulary is not necessarily smaller than English. You have quite a lot of synonyms, and many more words for verbs than English, where you often construct a verb with quite simple words plus a preposition, like put on, put down, go in, go on, etc... in German this is sometimes possible too, but it doesn't happen so often.
I am not resting importance to English, which has other qualities lacking in German. It's a matter of taste in the end of the day.
And I agree with Greg and Frederik about the pronountiation of "acht". But perhaps I perceive it like that because we have this very sound in Spanish, in the way "j" is pronounced, being this totally different to the other Romance languages "j". If you speak Spanish, you will surely find this sound familiar.
LAA,
The saddly famous guttural sounds aside, the German language has by far a more interesting structure than English, and the vocabulary is not necessarily smaller than English. You have quite a lot of synonyms, and many more words for verbs than English, where you often construct a verb with quite simple words plus a preposition, like put on, put down, go in, go on, etc... in German this is sometimes possible too, but it doesn't happen so often.
I am not resting importance to English, which has other qualities lacking in German. It's a matter of taste in the end of the day.
And I agree with Greg and Frederik about the pronountiation of "acht". But perhaps I perceive it like that because we have this very sound in Spanish, in the way "j" is pronounced, being this totally different to the other Romance languages "j". If you speak Spanish, you will surely find this sound familiar.
« Guest » : je parlais de l'anglais classique *CONTEMPORAIN* car je n'ai jamais eu le loisir d'entendre Shakespeare. En matière de classicisme, c'est de loin la prononciation « RP » qui remporte la palme — à mes oreilles du moins.
" Well, in Sergio's case, being that he is a Romance speaker, I assumed that he would prefer soft languages. "
Hmmm, I personally don't think that romance language are nececerally "soft". I would consider Italian as a soft language but certainly not Spanish. I persoanlly love the sound of Spanish (spain form), but I don't consider it at all a soft language. the strong presence of the sound "j"/"g" give an almost arabic sound, wich is not unpleasing; Spain spanish in my opinion posses a rythm that is very quick and sometimes could pass for being quite monotonial - the sounds are precise.
I tend to find L-American versions of spanish to be more musical but in the same time more "unpronouced", without clear and easily recongnisable sounds.
On the other way I found Italian musicality very different and much more soft and melodic - but in the same time less charming.
As for english, especially the england form, I found it sounding germanic as well as other germanic language, but without gutural sound.
American English is too much "unpronouced" (parlé avec une patate chaude dans la bouche as we say in french) that I don't like it - not enough clear sounds.
Anyway that is just an impression; the perception of the sounds of the languages are very subjective and could depends of the context and of the person who speak it.
Gernerally, I tend to find the European languages more hash and more clear than their American versions.
This song is very nice. I like the girl's voice.
For me, I found that it sound very close than the sound of english, except for the guttural "R" sound.
"I persoanlly love the sound of Spanish (spain form), but I don't consider it at all a soft language. the strong presence of the sound "j"/"g" "
"Jugo de Naranja" or "agua" (in my grandparent's region, the g, when followed by a "u" makes a "wuah" sound, and not a hard "g" as in english "girl") do not sound hard, but soft. When I speak of hard, I'm referring to gutteral, rough, where your throat is involved. If anything, I think Spanish is one of the softest Latin languages. A lot of words which feature a "z" in Italian are changed to a soft "S" or a "z" pronounced like a "s" in Spanish. Also, many times the "c" in Italian is pronounced like a "ch", whereas in Spanish, this is changed to a soft "c", which sounds more like an "s". An example would be: Spanish - Cocina; Italian - Cucina.
Also, a lot of words which feature a "g" in Spanish are changed to a sharper "c" in Italian like, "Amigo", "Amico", etc.
"And I agree with Greg and Frederik about the pronountiation of "acht". But perhaps I perceive it like that because we have this very sound in Spanish, in the way "j" is pronounced, being this totally different to the other Romance languages "j". If you speak Spanish, you will surely find this sound familiar. "
How does Spanish "j", which sounds like an English "h", sound like German "acht"??? My own name for example, Josue, or jamon, jugo, judio, juego, joto???? There is no similiarity.
"« Guest » : je parlais de l'anglais classique *CONTEMPORAIN* car je n'ai jamais eu le loisir d'entendre Shakespeare."
That's exactly why what is "classical" is subjective. I'm not a fan of the classics though.
LAA : la jota espagnole est beaucoup plus proche du [X] allemand (digramme <ch> comme dans <acht> [aXt]) que du [h] anglais ou allemand.
Beauty is subjective. I seem to feel the need to say this every so often. LAA, just because Sergio speaks a Romance language does not mean he cannot find beauty in other languages.
As a personal opinion, I dislike the sound of Spanish. Some may think it is "soft", but I find it harsh. More harsh that the Frisian song I just listened to. I enjoyed that alot Fredrik, thanks for posting it.
I like the sound of Italian. The sharpness is good in my estimation. I also really like Portuguese. I think French can be pretty, but sometimes dislike it. Perhaps it is another accent, but I cannot pick up enough French while they are talking to tell.
I find German to sound interesting. As with French I usually like it, but there are times when I dislike it too.
Greg,
"la jota espagnole est beaucoup plus proche du [X] allemand (digramme <ch> comme dans <acht> [aXt]) que du [h] anglais ou allemand. "
Are you saying that Spanish "j" is closer to "X" than "h"? If German "X" sounds anything like English equivalent, then there is no way this is true.
Tiff,
"As a personal opinion, I dislike the sound of Spanish. Some may think it is "soft", but I find it harsh."
In what way is Spanish harsh? To an extent, beauty is subjective, but no one can deny that the sky is blue either. How is Spanish hard?
And it is not wise to judge a language based on a song. Music is generally pretty, and pleasing to the ears, regardless of what language it is. That is why it is music. There is the opposite extreme however. If someone listened to hard core death metal, one might conclude that English is a horrible, cacophonous language, worthy of extinction.
I personally like Germanic languages, but not for the same reason I like Romance languages. I like Germanic languages because they are egalitarian, austere, rustic, unpretentious, and masculine. I like Romance languages because they are melodius, romantic, sensual, voluptous, amorous, cultivated, poetic, and artful.
There is a reason I trained my Rottweiler in German.
And there is a reason why dachshunds are much more popular in Germany than rottweilers.
|