How does modern Hebrew sound to non-Hebrew speakers?

Hi,
I'd like to know how modern Hebrew (the official languge of the state of Israel) sound in the ears of non-Hebrew speakers. Since it's my mother tongue I can't really judge the way it sounds. However, as to me, it seems that modern Hebrew is an "accentless language" of which sounds and tones are quite simple, and that it has no uniqueness in the way it sounds, as opposed to English, French, Russian, Arabic and other languages which can be easily distinguished while spoken.

Attached are an opening from the Israeli TV news edition and part from a late night TV talk-show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFzaU4Gikkc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V2iVoWEIVg

In my opinion Hebrew sounds quite harsh, Arabic is much more melodious to my ears although it also belongs the semitic group of languages. This is just my personal impression, I speak a romance language

to my ears, hebrew sounds almost like a mixture between arabic and french, with the frequency of sounds like from the letter "kaf" standing out with particular strenght.

About <<it also belongs the semitic group of languages>>, well there is a big controversy among linguists all over the worls whether modern Hebrew does belong to the semitic group of languages. Modern Hebrew was revived in the late 19th century by eastern-europe Jews after it hadn't been spoken for more than 1000 years. That's why many scholars contend that althouth modern Hebrew's morpholgy is absolutely semitic and is heavilly influenced by biblical and misnaic Hebrew, its syntax is very similar to Indo-European languages'.

I think it's a nice sounding language especially when sung. It lends itself well to music. It sounds a little bit like Arabic, but doesn't sound as funny or exotic. There is also a bit of a European flavour to it.

Like a mixture of French, Russian and Arabic. I like it.

The comparisons to Arabic so far are interesting, since "Tzabaric Hebrew" (the accent used by israeli natives and not immigrants) eliminates many sounds existing in Arabic. A few examples are as followes: 1) Tzabaric Hebrew does not distinguish between ע (AAyin) and א (Alef) (the former is far guttural) and both sound like "Ah". In day-to-day language most Israelis do not pronounce ה (Heh) either when appears in the beginning or the middle of the word, and that one may sound like "Ah" as well. e.g.: ערים (cities) sound like Arim, and הרים (mountains) sounds like Arim as well, even though has to be pronounced Harim.
2) Tzabaric Hebrew makes no difference between the guttural ח (Het) and the non-emphsised כ (Kaff) which sounds like "ch" in german. Both are pronounced like the german "ch", and given that these letters appear a lot in Hebrew, it could explain the "harshness" of its sound. However, when Israelis pronounce ח (Het) like in Arabic (the correcrt form according to the Hebrew Academy), they are oftem mocked and are attributed Mizrachi (oriental) features.
3) Tzabaric Hebrew has adpted the harsh French or German "R", though the rolling Arabic one is the correct form. Today, very few Israelis roll rhe R.

There are many other examples of how Tzabaric Hebrew has eliminated "oriental" though correct sounds, and has adopted a more european style. Considering this, it is very interesting that for no-Hebrew speakers, it sounds quite similar to Arabic.

To Rahela, note that if you watched the TV talk show, there's a young russian immigrant (the one with the gray capuche) whose accent is not Tzabaric at all, and is heavilly influenced by rassian accent. All the others do speak Tzabaric modern Hebrew, though very colloquial.

To me it sounds like Hebreu!

Nothing more!

The only thing that sounds really harsh in these clips that throaght-clearing sound, which sticks out like a sore thumb.

"How does modern Hebrew sound?"

Very ugly. Like someone about to puke.

Lior put some thought into the post about why Hebrew sounds "harsh". The sound of "ח" is noticeable to English speakers, at least.

One thing I've learned is to listen to many, many speakers. You may not care for the voice of one native speaker, but another speaker may sound more pleasant. Also, avoid language models who have strident voices if you can do this.

I'm not saying this just for Hebrew, but for other languages too.

>How does modern Hebrew sound to non-Hebrew speakers?<

It sounds unpleasant. But I guess it could be compared with smoking. At first it's disgusting but after one gets used to it, one can actually enjoy coughing out the phlegm.

I find it's just that one throat clearing sound that sounds really awful. Apart from that, it sounds kind of nondescript. Nothing really outstanding, not ugly, but certainly not beautiful... But yeah, that retching sound is really painful.

Hebrew sounds a lot like Greek and Arabic.