What European language has the easiest sounds?

Guest   Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:34 am GMT
Peut-etre te réfères-tu aux voyelles françaises?? Les consonnes françaises sont peu nombreuses et bien plus faciles à prononcer que les consonnes de l'italien et meme de l'espagnol. Comment se fait-il qu'un français ou un espagnol n'arrive presque jamais à distinguer correctement les consonnes simples et geminées de l'italien? Cette difficulté n'existe ni en français ni en espagnol. En tout cas, c'est vrai que la prononciation de l'italien est plutot claire.
Guest   Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:16 pm GMT
How can you say that Italian has the easiest sounds when you actually have to look at the dictionary to know how to pronouce some words? or when that language has 7 vowels instead of 5, or as some Italian speaker said, "Italian learners tend to simplify Italian sounds because they can't get them right".

BTW, To the person who said all the BS about spanish, I asked him to show me the source for his statements and he never did.
Milton   Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:14 pm GMT
Italian has open and closed vowels, 7 vowels,
Macedonian and Spanish have only 5.

Italian has double consonants two.
In the North their are often simplified.
In the Center and in the South of Italy, many times, single consonants are pronounced like double, so in a theory you can lear LE DOPPIE (double consonants) listening to Italians, but in real world, this is very difficult, because of the regional pronunciations, so, you have to learn everything by heard, and Italian is extremely difficult to spell because of these DOPPIE.
Also, differences between é and è and ó and ò (kept in Central Italy and neutral newscasters' Italian) can be such a pain if you're not accustomed to open and closed vowels (if you speak Portuguese, it's pretty easy, but if you speak Spanish, it's not).

So, Italian pronunciation being easy is a myth.
Milton   Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:16 pm GMT
Italian has open and closed vowels, 7 vowels,
Macedonian and Spanish have only 5.

Italian has double consonants too.
In the North they are oftentimes simplified.
In the Center and in the South of Italy, many times, single consonants are pronounced like double ones, so in a theory you can learn LE DOPPIE (double consonants) listening to Italians, but in the real world, this is very difficult, because of the regional pronunciations, so, you have to learn everything by hearth, and Italian is extremely difficult to spell because of these DOPPIE.
Also, differences between é and è and ó and ò (kept in Central Italy and neutral newscasters' Italian) can be such pain if you're not accustomed to open and closed vowels (if you speak Portuguese, it's pretty easy, but if you speak Spanish, it's not).

So, Italian pronunciation being easy is a myth.
Güest   Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:54 pm GMT
It's not about how many phonemes a language has.

Italian may have more phonemes than Spanish, but they are generally not hard to pronounce, whereas Spanish has several hard to pronounce phonemes which occur quite frequently.
Guest   Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:06 am GMT
Which are those phonemes in Spanish difficult to pronounce?
Do you refer to Z and J? J is not difficult, and if you pronounce it as an aspired h, it's fine too. Z is like Th in English, it's very easy too. What I find difficult in Italian is not the sounds, but the intonation. It seems like if they were talking about funny things all the time.
Güest   Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:21 am GMT
Some of the phonemes in Spanish which makes it hard to pronounce:

S, which sounds like something between S and SH
Z
C before E or I
J
G before E or I
Initial R-
RR
B
V
intervocalic -G-
G after L, R
intervocalic -D-
Guest   Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:33 am GMT
Those sounds are very easy. About S, just pronounce it like in English.
The only difficult sound in Spanish is LL.
Güest   Sun Dec 02, 2007 2:30 am GMT
Well, I guess this will always be subjective.
Thanks for reminding me of LL.




Some of the phonemes in Spanish which makes it hard to pronounce:

S, which sounds like something between S and SH
Z
C before E or I
J
G before E or I
Initial R-
RR
B
V
intervocalic -G-
G after L, R
intervocalic -D-
LL
Guest   Sun Dec 02, 2007 5:23 am GMT
that is absurd, Spanish has the simplest and easiest sounds among all european languages, the Italians seem to be the only ones having a hard time accepting it.
greg   Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:17 am GMT
« Guest » : « [...] Spanish has the simplest and easiest sounds among all european languages [...] ».

La difficulté ne vient pas tellement des unités élémentaires de la parole mais plutôt de leur combinaison au cours de la chaîne parlée.
Guest   Sun Dec 02, 2007 9:04 am GMT
The phonological "clearness" of the Italian language is extremely difficult to reproduce properly for a foreigner, in particular the difference between simple and double consonants, closed and opend vowels, difference between dz, z, tz sounds and so on. Foreigners genereally maintain their strong accent even if they are been living in Italy for many years.
Guest   Sun Dec 02, 2007 9:29 am GMT
*They have been living
Guest   Sun Dec 02, 2007 2:50 pm GMT
Italians sounds are easy to reproduce, but the typical Italian intonation is hard to immitate.
Guest   Sun Dec 02, 2007 3:00 pm GMT
"Italians sounds are easy to reproduce, but the typical Italian intonation is hard to immitate"

the answer is always the same: it all depends on your mother tongue If your mother tongue is Spanish or English it's not that easy. I'm sorry that's the truth. Polish or Croatian can reproduce Italian phonemes better