A question for non-native English speakers.

[Dann]

What did English sound like to you, before you learned it?

I'm very curious about what my language sounds like to people who don't understand it.

Like English. No joke. The language is very common in the Philippines, and we have plenty of English programs on TV. I must've been watching Popeye the Sailor, Tom and Jerry, and Looney Tunes as a toddler. All in English and no subtitles. And this is before any formal education at all.

Later as a school kid, I spoke Hokkien to all my relatives on my father's side, Tagalog to all my relatives on my mother's side, and English or Mandarin to my teachers.

 

[punkbass2000]

I've also wondered this, and sometimes I try to block out meaning and just hear words. Normal speech I find impossible to block, but often a choir's song is such that I have to make an effort to understand the lyrics; I simply do not make the effort, and instead listen to the sound. It sounds beautiful, like something between Irish and Old English.

I do this as well. Normal speech in English sounds kinda weird, IMO. It doesn't flow well.

 

[Phlegmak]

Reading the descriptions of English from the nonnative speakers is fascinating. If it matters, I've found certain other languages very pretty, specifically Russian and German. I can speak Spanish poorly and I find it to be a very ugly language.

 

[Mirc]

It seemed exactly like TLC said. All words run together. However it was nice, it sounded like a flowing language. Also I remember I liked Italian and Spanish much more than English (and I still do). Most beautiful languages of the world IMO. But I can't remember more because I was 5 when I started English.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

From the same web site and the reason I said you're wrong, you should of read down further.

This suggests that there are, at the very least, a quarter of a million distinct English words, excluding inflections, and words from technical and regional vocabulary not covered by the OED, or words not yet added to the published dictionary, of which perhaps 20 per cent are no longer in current use. If distinct senses were counted, the total would probably approach three quarters of a million.

and from the non concise version or extended OED

"The OED2, the largest English-language dictionary, contains some 290,000 entries with some 616,500 word forms."

As such, writers of English have the good fortune of having hundreds of thousands of words from which to choose. When you think of it, the English language writer always has at least three words for any idea, each rooted in the Latin, the Germanic or Saxon tongues, and the Greek. Think of a word for human habitation: city, town, metropolis, and so on. And that's just the start. In the English-speaking world we also owe a heavy debt to Algonquin, and Hebrew, and Malay (ketchup anyone?) and Maori, and Zulu and Hmong among a multitude of others. I think you can spot the beginnings of a trend here.

And then there is the entire realm of ''jargon,'' scientific and otherwise, those specialized patois or vocabularies known only to those in specific fields. Computer-related jargon is multiplying at an extraordinary rate. And since English has become the lingua Franca of the Internet, English words are being created and non-English words co-opted at an ever-quickening pace.

This all being said, I now unequivocally state that as of 1:16 pm (Pacific) on the 16th day of January in the year 2006 AD (or CE, whatever your preference), there were approximately 985,955 words in the English Language, plus or minus a handful.

Technically that is correct, just using words from the dictionary french has 100,000 words, I would suspect you could probaly double that too or maybe triple it. But the fact remains English is attributed to have nearly 1 million words in its language, which is what I said originally, Man I didn't expect the Spanish Inqusition

All in your post can be applied to any languages in the world. All languages have foreign adapted words since multiple roots, multiple form words, scientific words, words with same sense, (going with your example for city: ciudad; capital; población; metrópoli; núcleo, centro or casco urbano; villa; localidad; urbe; corte; burgo; emporio; this phenemenon is called synonymity and i begin to feel stupid explaining such obvious things), slang, localisms...

So, that you said originally was exactly that English has 1,000,000 worlds while French has only 100,000. It is obviously incorrect or incomplete at best. A much more complete phrase would be: French has 100,000 words in the common dictionary while english has 1,000,000 in total.

And if clearing up nonsense and/or chauvinism is an inquisition you can call me Torquemada jr.

 

[Azash]

It sounded very similar to Swedish, my mother-tongue. They're related lingos, y'know.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

and my horse in german

That is close to what i wanted to say - but there is no animal kingdom in my thought - another kingdom .

 

[Sidhe]

All in your post can be applied to any languages in the world. All languages have foreign adapted words since multiple roots, multiple form words, scientific words, words with same sense, (going with your example for city: ciudad; capital; población; metrópoli; núcleo, centro or casco urbano; villa; localidad; urbe; corte; burgo; emporio; this phenemenon is called synonymity and i begin to feel stupid explaining such obvious things), slang, localisms...

So, that you said originally was exactly that English has 1,000,000 worlds while French has only 100,000. It is obviously incorrect or incomplete at best. A much more complete phrase would be: French has 100,000 words in the common dictionary while english has 1,000,000 in total.

And if clearing up nonsense and/or chauvinism is an inquisition you can call me Torquemada jr.

It's not chauvanism and yeah maybe I should of made it clearer, but that was n't intentional. And we have cleared it up so in summation I repent my sins and offer myself up to Gods mercy?