What Language is most similar to Spanish

Mediko   Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:36 am GMT
I heard that there are non-romance language that is very similar to Spanish and some give an impression that Japanese is the best contender because of hard accent and rolled "r".
Guest   Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:37 am GMT
I don't know maybe it's hottentot.
Guest   Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:38 am GMT
To me it's hiri motu!
Guesto   Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:49 am GMT
The only similarity between the two is that the sounds are very phonetic when using the alphabet. Spanish is mostly and Japanese is totally phonetic in that regard. Other than that, Japanese is considered an isolate or semi-isolate language so I don't see how it is similar to any European language.
Skippy   Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:50 am GMT
Maybe Greek?
shogun   Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:52 am GMT
Japanese and Spanish sound nothing alike. In fact, I don't think any other language sounds similar to Japanese. Japanese is fairly distinct.
zatsu   Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:02 am GMT
Yeah, I definitely wouldn't say Japanese is any similar to Spanish, in what, the rolled "r"? Other languages have that rolled "r" as well, but it doesn't mean much.

Out of Romance languages, I'm not recalling any language that can be said similar to Spanish.
zatsu   Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:03 am GMT
^I mean, not counting with Romance languages...
Guest   Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:53 am GMT
Arabic
Guest   Mon Jun 02, 2008 10:49 am GMT
Maghrebi Arabic
Guest   Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:34 pm GMT
Tamershak
Guest   Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:02 pm GMT
North African
Guest   Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:12 pm GMT
Monkey language.
Guest   Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:14 pm GMT
Spanish lexical similarity: 55% with Hiri Motu , 54% with Hottentot, 53% with Yoruba, 51% with Aymara, 50% with Quechua. So it's Afro-Amerindian.
Guest   Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:16 pm GMT
1.Galician
2.Portuguese
3.Valencian
4.Catalan
5.Gascon
6.Italian
7.French

Among the non Romance languages I would say English because of shared vocabulary and similar grammar.