What English sounds to Non English Speakers

JohnE3nglish   Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:20 pm GMT
We often see humorous takes on foreign accents from the point of view of English natives however I found this online and thought it would be good to post this here.

http://amog.com/offbeat/english-sounds-nonenglish-speakers/
GuestUser   Wed Feb 10, 2010 4:34 pm GMT
That's interesting, when non-English speakers immitate English you can really hear how Germanic the language does sound. People basically seem to interprete English as a soft-sounding Germanic language, the immitations sound much like how I would probably attempt to immitate Dutch.
Dude Who Knows   Thu Feb 11, 2010 1:30 am GMT
That first one, the Italian musical number was hilarious! Even though I knew it was gibberish, it sounded so dead on that I kept finding myself trying to decipher the words. Of course, some of those sounds ARE actual words; I swear I could hear random words like "we", "shoes", "hope", "baby", "when", and of course "oll raigth" (all right)! Overall though, the inflections and manner of speaking just sounded so... well, American!
Far from Bovina   Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:52 am GMT
<<it sounded so dead on that I kept finding myself trying to decipher the words.>>

It's not really gibberish. Here it is with subtitles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz04IBZqfFE

Apparently, this is one of the pioneering rap songs.
Vinlander   Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:04 pm GMT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIV85RA6lCU

Just listen to this no one is gonna convince me that this don't sound like english. Maybe like english spoken backwords but english still the same. Because Swedish is exactly what english is, a soft Germanic language. We too the core of the language from German and applied Scandinavian grammar and phonetics to the language. The latin influence is there but you won't find it in song. Just think when was the last time you heard the lyrics completely, or perfection in a song.

There is also a big different in how germanic people use latin words. When english speakers use words like perfection, well say it per-fek-shon with stops in our breathing, where a french person with slur it all together.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ARD#p/search/0/VwtH5sSYMQY just check that out and you get a bigger idea of english sounds like to germans.
Uriel   Fri Feb 12, 2010 2:45 am GMT
<<Just think when was the last time you heard the lyrics completely, or perfection in a song. >>

You're kidding, right?

Hmm, "Miserable", by Lit--

You make me come (yeah, yeah)
You make me complete (yeah, yeah)
You make me completely miserable...

Pretty much the three stages of a relationship, huh?

And then there's "The Sweetest Perfection", by Depeche Mode:

The sweetest perfection
To call my own
The slightest correction
Couldn't finely hone

And I think there might be hundreds of other songs that mention common words like perfection and completely!
Armada   Fri Feb 12, 2010 2:51 am GMT
<<There is also a big different in how germanic people use latin words. When english speakers use words like perfection, well say it per-fek-shon with stops in our breathing, where a french person with slur it all together. >>


If that is true then congratulations, you English speakers pronounce "perfection" in a more perfect latin way than the French.
blanc   Fri Feb 12, 2010 8:27 am GMT
" That's interesting, when non-English speakers immitate English you can really hear how Germanic the language does sound "


Of course English sounds Germanic. What do you think it would sound?

It seems to surprise yourself. English IS a germanic language, so of course it sounds germanic. We (non-native english speakers) never consider English to be in any way English appart from its sister languages.
That English might seem softer than German doesn't mean that English is a "soft" germanic language. Some Germanic languages may sound harsher than others. German is just one germanic language among other, and it is not the reference of how a germanic language should sound. English is as much a reference of THE germanic language than German. I don't really understand why so many English people seem to wish to take distance from the other germanic languages and Germanic cultures, as if it was sort of shame to be germanic.

PS: when English uses latinates words, it use it in the Anglo-saxon phonology. having latinate words doesn't make English sounding "less" Germanic... said that German, Dutch and Scandinavian have also some latinate words/
Albin   Fri Feb 12, 2010 11:16 am GMT
Every Germanic language owns Latinate words, more or less. Actually, German has less Latin words than Dutch, or even than the Scandinavian languages. Concerning sound, English is the softest among the Germanic languages, while Dutch and German the harshest, both with a similar quality of sound. Apart from that, when spoken clearly and slowly, Germans and Dutchmen can understand each other without any knowledge of the other language. The Scandinavian languages are somewhere in the middle, but they still sound rather more similar to Dutch and German than to English. By the way, you cannot take songs as a parameter. Any language sounds different when sung.
globetrotter   Fri Feb 12, 2010 11:46 am GMT
so funny to see how many english speakers desperately want english to sound like a germanic language. it's cool to be germanic nowadays, i agree. but it seems they even get it up if there are some bimbos approving them. some here certainly have some kind of arbitrary complex. interesting to read through this, though.
Vinalnder   Sat Feb 13, 2010 2:10 am GMT
globetrotter Fri Feb 12, 2010 11:46 am GMT
so funny to see how many english speakers desperately want english to sound like a germanic language. it's cool to be germanic nowadays, i agree. but it seems they even get it up if there are some bimbos approving them. some here certainly have some kind of arbitrary complex. interesting to read through this, though.


It is a Germanic language, it's fact not opinion. We all know that it's not a tight knit family like Slavic or Romance but it is still one Family. Whether or not it sounds like another language is a opinion. To me Japanese and Chinese sound the same no one would ever argue they are related.

Now if you wanna argue that English lost it's closeness to Proto Germanic go right ahead, and it has compared to the other members of the family. But since no one knows what the hell it sounded like in the first place it's easily debatable.
Teutonic   Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:18 am GMT
>> I don't really understand why so many English people seem to wish to take distance from the other germanic languages and Germanic cultures, as if it was sort of shame to be germanic. <<

It's simply that most people (non-linguists) don't know that English is a Germanic language. The only people that I know that know that English is Germanic are those that have studied linguistics. To others, to say that English is a Germanic language sounds as reasonable as saying that it is a "Frenchic" language, or perhaps a "Russianic" one. Most people think that the word Germanic has something to do with the modern German language, and not to all the languages in the language family. I think that you guys should start using the word "Teutonic" rather than "Germanic" when refering to that language family in a mixed audience of linguists and laymen. Then people will at least ask "What is a Teutonic language?", rather than asking/thinking "A Germanic language?? English doesn't come freom *German*. It comes from Latin, of course, because I heard someone say that all languages are based on Latin, and that must be true, because my teacher keeps saying such and such word in English comes from Latin."
Vinlander   Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:46 am GMT
Teutonic Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:18 am GMT

Thank you someone that can explain my frustration. I think
English should be called a Norse-Saxon language. My friend is swedish and she refuses to believe that swedish is germanic.

I think it makes more sense because West Germanic and North Germanic are closer in diversity on their own to Romance/Slavic families.
The two branches split about 2500 years ago, while latin and Slavic divisions are nearly half as old. I think Runic (referenced to germanic writing style) is a better name for parent of the Nordic and Saxonic families.

Plus it's a much simplier story. The nordic countries all derive from norse The english, dutch and germans all came from the region of saxony, what made english really fork was the norse invasions of england.

People are often aware that up to 50 percent of our language is latin based. However this number is misleading, since it's mostly intellectual vocabulary. In most poetry, theatre, biblical writings, music, and small talk, Old saxon dominates.
TheChef   Sat Feb 13, 2010 4:25 am GMT
I thought English was part Celtic, every time I've ever heard Irish it always sound so similar to English.
Check this out it the narrator sounds so close to english it's scary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PVuNb5QoEc
gwen   Sat Feb 13, 2010 12:13 pm GMT
It's not unlikely that Celtic influenced English in some way, since the population of England primaly has Celtic roots with some Germanic input here and there. This may not restricted to the language only (plenty of meaning shifts, phonetics), go to rural England and compare the villages with those in Ireland, both hold a truly Celtic touch.