The most beautiful Slavonic language

Joao   Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:37 am GMT
because I've never heard Serbian. I went to Croatia 3 times and I know how it sounds, but if they sound the same, I should change my list and write:
1. Croatian and Serbian :)
guet   Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:24 pm GMT
i don't speak any of those languages, but I've heard all of them in the city where I live, so I can judge them only by phonetic criteria. I'm really interested in learning them, but for somebody like me, and I'm from Sweden, I don't really know how to memorize all those endings and how to learn the rules when to use one or another case. My best friend is from Belarus and when I hear him speaking to his parents it sounds so nice and at the same time impossible to repeat. I've also heard Serbian because lots of Serbs live in Stockholm and I must say it's a very melodic language, the intonation is between Italian and Swedish so it's adorable. I also like Czech because it's harsh and masculine and difficult to spell and pronounce. Anyway, here's my list:

1. Russian
2. Serbo-Croatian
3. Czech
4. Bulgarian
5. Slovak

Polish is the last, but that's just me.
Joao   Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:49 pm GMT
Hello, there's another person here signing as Joao. It is another Joao (very common name in Portugal) or he/she's just a cheater.

I am the one who made comments about Serbian and Croatian (and the Serbo-Croatian mistake) in another thread. I did not post any list of preferred Slavic languages in this thread.

So, far I've been only once to Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia last year. I cannot distinguish those languages.
qui   Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:04 pm GMT
1) Polish
2) Czech
3) Russian
4) Slovene
5) Macedonian
easy   Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:06 pm GMT
Russian, also Polish ;)
ne znam   Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:35 pm GMT
NONE!
JGreco   Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:59 pm GMT
I would definitely say separate Croatian and Serbian. Croatian definitely has a more melodic softness to it. It even sounds more soft than Romanian, and European Portuguese (I know their Romance languages, but they do have noticeably similar pronunciation styles as many Slavonic languages that being said Romanian is softer than European Portuguese). I wonder if its Croatia's proximity to Italy that may have influenced its accent.
hvala   Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:07 pm GMT
In my opinion Croatian is much harsher than Italian but that's just me
matko   Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:33 pm GMT
@ JGreco: Italian has nothing to do with Croatian's pronunciation. They're totally different languages and standard Croatian has non of Italian features. Maybe you're mixing our dialects, therefore you might be right because Dalmation dialect, thus, chakavian has a very similar intonation with Italian, all those rising and falling vowels, "harmony" etc. Something like Argentinian Spanish and Italian.
Compared to Serbian, yes, you're right, it's way more melodic, but one must know better those languages or has to be exposed to them to "feel" or hear the difference. Most of the people don't distinguish them, but for us it's a total new world.
Croatian has more diphthongs, the softest palatalization of all Slavonic languages (you can hear miles away the difference between Russian, Polish, Serbian (etc.) SH/CH/ZH consonants from Croatian ones.)

@hvala: of course it's hursher because it has more consonant clusters. That's obvious.
Spanish   Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:11 pm GMT
Polish is probably the most interesting Slavonic language!
guest   Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:17 pm GMT
they're all interesting and very similar, but at the same time, very different. If you don't like cases, but you like lots of tenses study Bulgarian or Macedonian, if you like difficult cases and pronunciation, study Polish.
adonas   Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:31 pm GMT
to me, Lithuanian is the most beautiful slavic languages
Thor   Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:39 pm GMT
@K.T.
==I think recognizing different languages is merely a matter of adequate exposure to the languages. In the US, we don't get a lot of exposure to multiple languages unless we live in a big city or work with immigrant populations.

There are thousands of languages in the world. I wonder how many Antimooners can identify as few as twenty of them by sound.==

Jesus, K.T., it's not about being clued-up on various languages, it's about this general Americans' assholery - yanks tend to butt in with their opinions even when they know nothing about the subject discussed. If you can't tell the difference between Slavic language, then why bother posting here at all?

===I don't think TaylorS is a rotten apple- not with that kind of vocabulary related to languages. It's just a matter of time and effort before TaylorS gets clued in to the obvious musical differences between certain Slavic languages.===

Vocabulary's got nothing to do with being a good person or as you put it - "rotten apple". I've known lots of assholes who are quite eloquent. Anyway, when TaylorS learns a bit about Slavic languages, his or her comments will be really appreciated here. But now when s/he knows nothing about the subject, his opinion is really demonstrative of general Americans' assholery.

===but just as you don't like flippant comments, I don't like a broadbrush over Americans in general based on one comment.===

I've met GOBS of Americans. My opinion on them is not based on one comment.
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I've clean forgotten!!! I really love how Church Slavonic sounds. I know it's only a liturgical language, but still it's really beautiful.
user7   Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:46 pm GMT
thor, don't be so strict about it. lots of people don't know anything about Slavic languages, still they write nonsens and nobody cares.
pole   Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:22 pm GMT
As a native speaker of Polish I can say that all of them really irritate my ears. Polish does too, but probably on a lower level since I've been surrounded by it since birth.