For the best-sounding latin language

viri amaoro   Wed May 23, 2007 11:05 pm GMT
Hello everybody, it has been a long time since I posted anything here

I've noticed that you all keep throwing your opinions at each other about how this language is much better than all the others, how that language sucks, how europeans are this and americans are that etc.

I would ask you to give your sincere opinion about this language clip I found on youtube. The language is occitan (just tape "occitan") and it's amazing how I, a native portuguese speaker, could just about understand everything what the guy in the orange shirt (2nd clip) was saying.
And the accent was great, much clearer than spanish, french, italian or romanian accent.
What do you think, speakers of other latin languages? Perhaps occitan is the real "average" romance language. I really like occitan.
Grease   Wed May 23, 2007 11:10 pm GMT
You're right, it sounds like the perfect blend between French ,Italian,Spanish,Catalan,etc
Guest   Wed May 23, 2007 11:14 pm GMT
I think Occitan is for French what Catalan is for Spanish.
Guest   Wed May 23, 2007 11:40 pm GMT
Hello everybody, it has been a long time since I posted anything here


it was better you went on....
shit sandwich   Wed May 23, 2007 11:42 pm GMT
Eat me.
K. T.   Wed May 23, 2007 11:58 pm GMT
Is that Occitan? I saw a man in an orange shirt talking about bilingualism, etc. I almost cannot believe it. I can understand it without difficulty. The accent is clear, it's easy on the ears.

I'm an American barbarian who lives in the South, btw. LOL.

Thanks for sharing.

How can that be a distinct language? I'm curious.
K. T.   Thu May 24, 2007 12:21 am GMT
I just listened to Catalan (for the first time) as a comparison. I can understand it fairly well (but not as well as that supposed Occitan tape)...hmmm.

I'd say that I understood about 99% of the "Occitan" and about 90% of the Catalan, maybe a little higher.

I'll look up the lexical similarities.
K. T.   Thu May 24, 2007 12:31 am GMT
I see that there was a big discussion about Occitan last year (largely in French) on this site. There is a link to the same video I saw.
Occitan   Thu May 24, 2007 8:34 pm GMT
Too bad that Occitan is a dying language. It has more of a Latin sound than French.
viri amaoro   Thu May 24, 2007 10:11 pm GMT
Other rare languages on youtube:

welsh - type "welsh s4c 1985" (a tv clip from 1985)

sardinian - "signora sadali" (an old lady speaking, accent strangely resembles portuguese or galician)

I'm looking for videos of rumansh/romantsch in switzerland but could only find one, not so good, about some guys raping in the language.
Also the search for "esperanto" allows you to ear how the language sounds for real.
Doroteo Arango Arambula   Thu May 24, 2007 10:43 pm GMT
I think it's Castilian..!! Especially from Salamanca and Valladolid.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/spanish/frameset.html

Click on -fricatives- then click on the second and fourth column (i.e. 0 and S) and for extra points check out the majuscule X.
K. T.   Fri May 25, 2007 1:16 am GMT
Thanks for the great site (uiowa.edu)!
Franco   Fri May 25, 2007 4:35 am GMT
Wow, Welsh is so beautiful! Bring me Welsh girls!