Beauty in language

Skippy   Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:59 pm GMT
I know this will probably get deleted, but I'm curious anyway: what features of a language to you find attractive when we discuss "most beautiful language?" Tolkien mentioned that the RP of "cellar door" represented linguistic beauty... Also many people say French or Italian... But why?

What specific LINGUISTIC features sound charming to you? The "cardinal" vowels? More fricatives than plosives? More rounded front vowels or less?

Thanks.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:03 pm GMT
the dotless i in Turkic and the suffix -InIz.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:32 pm GMT
In terms of visual asthetics, Spanish looks very beautiful on paper. There are a lot of nice word combos. On the other hand, it doesn't sound very nice.

Slavic languages written in Latin script look hideous, but sound quite nice.
Guest   Sun Aug 24, 2008 2:16 am GMT
Spanish does sound nice, it's just that everytime you hear it, is either in ugly cumbia music or spoken with a funny accent so Americans can make fun of it, if you ever watch real TV shows either from Spain or Mexico or whatever, you'll see how beautiful it sounds.

No voy a decir que el español es el idioma mas hermoso del mundo, pero es bastante cercano de serlo, XD
Guest   Sun Aug 24, 2008 2:35 am GMT
Spanish would look even better if people spelled stuff in the Spanish way:
It should be:

whiskey = güisqui
software = esoftuar
hacking = jaquin
hippy - jipi
parking - parquin
ok - oquéi
hobby - jobi
freaky - friqui
assface - asféis
PARISIEN   Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:57 pm GMT
I think that languages with a large inventory of distinctive sounds have inherently more beauty than others but that's just MHO.

"Cellar door" might be nice, but "die Tür zugemacht" sounds much nicer to my ears.

Russian is a wonderful music, it offers plenty of wonderful consonant combinations but is lacking in the vowel department. Swedish is probably one of the best approximations of linguistic beauty, with a near perfect balance between plosives and fricatives and one of the richest vowel inventories.

(I know this is highly subjective but I cannot escape the sensation that languages devoid of front rounded vowels sound unnatural.)

English RP is seriously beautiful, standard French are also great, it's a shame their speakers are all too often comprimising their potential. I hate it when people (in America but not only there) pronounce "to sit" like "to set" — it's like playing a grand piano to make it sound like a ukulele.

Semitic languages and Japanese sound annoying to me. Much too few vowels, very poor consonant associations. To some extent the same can be said of Spanish and Italian (on the other hand their rather basic phonetics make them great solo instruments for singing).
guest   Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:20 pm GMT
beauty in language is often attributed to association:

RP "cellar door" *sounds* "romance-like"/"romantic"

Spanish orthography "looks" pleasing because one is *reminded* of Latin and there is an associative connection made (Spanish :> Latin :> Roman :> Grand Roman Republic :> "history class" & "the way it's supposed to be" :> ~warm fuzzies~)

If an alien from outer space, from another world landed, the alien would not feel any particular way in regards to "cellar door" or Spanish orthography, because the alien would be untainted by predisposed associations. The alien would be pure.
Guest   Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:39 pm GMT
its mostly Italians and French people who say French and Italian are most beautiful
Guest   Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:37 pm GMT
"Swedish is probably one of the best approximations of linguistic beauty, with a near perfect balance between plosives and fricatives and one of the richest vowel inventories. "

but sadly lacks the voiced 'z' sound that makes German, English or French buzzing like bees in the breeze.
K. T.   Sat Aug 30, 2008 12:57 am GMT
The more I study languages, the less likely I am to say that I prefer one over the other. The main thing is to find good models for the language you choose. If you choose a recording which features people with unpleasant voices, you may feel less inclined to continue studying.

Charles Berlitz basically suggested that people find a language and a culture you find interesting and learn THAT language, then PRACTICE the new language as often as you can.
Luca   Sat Aug 30, 2008 3:26 pm GMT
I agree with K.T., normally you prefer a language over others because you love the culture that comes with it, the stereotypes bounded with people speaking it and also the country/countries where it is spoken.
I make my decision following those reasons and only afterwards I discover the beauty of the language I'm studying, for example I find Swedish and Danish beautiful languages because of their sounds and because they can summerize in short words a lot of concepts. I also love Finnish, although I can't speak it, but I find it fascinating because it's so inaccesible and looks like a secret.
Robb   Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:19 am GMT
<<Russian is a wonderful music, it offers plenty of wonderful consonant combinations but is lacking in the vowel department. Swedish is probably one of the best approximations of linguistic beauty, with a near perfect balance between plosives and fricatives and one of the richest vowel inventories.>>

Here's perfect proof of beauty being completely subjective. I perceive no beauty in Swedish. To me, it sounds quite ridiculous/outrageous and awkward and it reminds me of a tonal language like Chinese. It's a wonderful thing how everybody is entitled to his/her own views.
K. T.   Mon Sep 01, 2008 3:10 am GMT
"I make my decision following those reasons and only afterwards I discover the beauty of the language I'm studying, for example I find Swedish and Danish beautiful languages because of their sounds and because they can summerize in short words a lot of concepts. I also love Finnish, although I can't speak it, but I find it fascinating because it's so inaccesible and looks like a secret."-Luca

Interesting. I'm always interested in knowing why people choose their languages. I usually learn a language because someone asks me to learn their language or because I need to learn the language.

Are you Luca, the polyglot from youtube? If so, congrats on your mastery of so many accents. Some people don't value a "good ear".
I do.
Luca   Mon Sep 01, 2008 7:07 am GMT
No I'm not that Luca, although I am Italian and speak some languages too.
Guest   Mon Sep 01, 2008 7:21 am GMT
To K.T.

You know several languages. Can you tell us the usefulness of them in your country? Is really useful to speak other languages in USA? Thanks.