The World's most beautiful/ugly language ?

Which languages do you find ugly ?

  • English (American)

    Votes: 99 25.0%
  • English (England)

    Votes: 40 10.1%
  • German

    Votes: 131 33.1%
  • French

    Votes: 62 15.7%
  • Spanish

    Votes: 42 10.6%
  • Portugese

    Votes: 35 8.8%
  • Italian

    Votes: 27 6.8%
  • Dutch

    Votes: 77 19.4%
  • Swedish / Danish

    Votes: 54 13.6%
  • Hungarian

    Votes: 67 16.9%
  • Finnish

    Votes: 56 14.1%
  • Russian

    Votes: 67 16.9%
  • Arabic

    Votes: 98 24.7%
  • Hebrew

    Votes: 82 20.7%
  • Chinese

    Votes: 108 27.3%
  • Japanese

    Votes: 59 14.9%
  • Hindi

    Votes: 47 11.9%
  • Vietnamese

    Votes: 79 19.9%
  • Other language (please post)

    Votes: 57 14.4%
  • I'm deaf, shut up !

    Votes: 39 9.8%

  • Total voters
    396
Romanian isn't pure Latin just as English isn't pure Anglo-Saxon. I sometimes think people go to extremes just to point out that they are somehow better than their neighbors, Romanians are East Europeans and although their language is mostly romance, they are viewed as Eastern Europeans/Slavs. So why try to deny it? Be proud of what you are, even if it isn't pure anything..
 
I am German and 31 years old. I have not settled for it but it just happened to me. I have studied History, Latin and English. Unfortunately you don't learn English there. There were only stupid, boring and ugly topics that accidently were held in English, so my English isn't that great. My first foreign language was Russian. And I liked it. Sometimes more than English (in school).

I am a huge fan of Tolkien. Since the dawn of mankind and the invention of language and letters, he has written down the best thing ever engraved in letters. I agree with him in everything concerning language. For me, nice and interesting languages are:

* Elvish (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTgwvadr3J0)
* Finnish (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcrcx1abm2M)
* Hawaiian
* Greek and Latin (ancient and modern) for indo-european etymological interests
* Dutch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le6uFnLwqYU)
* Scandinavian, old and modern (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFAJV0DIpS0 - listen to it with a reverb effect - aweful!)
* Old English (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfaEGU45lKA&feature)
* British English
* Gaelic, since I am a huge fan of Scotland and Irish and Scottish folk and pipes&drums

French is said to be a nice sounding language. Many people around me maintain this. I can't understand this. I don't like it. In fact, I can't listen to it longer than a minute (TV and such). It is not smooth and fluent. First, everything sounds like "la femme l'amur tutu lala", secondly it is not a straight flow of words (as many people maintain), it's more like a double-backing rabbit. OK, German is even worse for a non-native ear...

Among German dialects I absolutely hate hillbilly Bavarian (and hillbilly Austrian, but Vienna dialect is fine) and Cologne. Dreadful. The whole world thinks whole Germany is like that. Idiotic Oktoberfest, Lederhosen, Bier and that ear cancer causing Blasmusik. Terrible. In opposite to that I like high German, the north sea dialect and cultivated Saxonian.

I wonder and always wanted to know if a non-European person notices a difference between Dutch and German. When a bilingual person reads out a German text and suddenly changes to Dutch. People of what language would notice the change?
 
Chinese sounds like chattering to me. Sorry, but I call it like I hear it.

Whoever voted German deserves to be screamed at constantly in said language.
 
Beautiful: All
Ugly: None

PS: Is this a bump of a bumped thread? That's coolgastic!
 
Osco-Umbrian languages are objectively the ugliest languages ever
 
Whoever voted German deserves to be screamed at constantly in said language.

I'm not sure if you are aware of the fact that the poll question is asking for languages you find ugly, not beautiful. Maybe I'm just reading your post wrong though. :blush:

I wonder and always wanted to know if a non-European person notices a difference between Dutch and German. When a bilingual person reads out a German text and suddenly changes to Dutch. People of what language would notice the change?
I'm not a non-European person, and I've been studying German for a while now, but even before that, there's no way in hell I would've mixed up German and Dutch!! :D German sounds so nice and respectful whereas Dutch is "not a language, but a throat disease", to me. :p (yes, it has its charm, I have to agree with gangleri that many languages can be beautiful in their own ways)

You seem to be a fan of Germanic languages (and there's of course absolutely nothing wrong with that). Here are some cool little-known Romance languages/dialects, for contrast:

Sicilian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_um1vteuDQ (closest-related national language: Italian)
Leonese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiYpL2zLO_I (closest-related national language: Spanish)
Arpitan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge5OXRAQLxs (closest-related national language: French)
Aromanian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1mEwWqfs9w (closest-related national language: Romanian)
 
They shall learn to appreciate German, is what I meant. :smug:

Also, why does written Dutch look like catlike typing?
 
They shall learn to appreciate German, is what I meant. :smug:

Also, why does written Dutch look like catlike typing?
In that case, I agree! :beer: Prost!

The double vowels are at fault. :p Actually, dialects from the area of Germany I'm living in look quite similar when written (which shouldn't be surprising at all, considering they are a couple of km away from the border with the Netherlands).
 
Beautiful languages: French, Italian, Pali, Sanskrit

Ugly languages: Chinese especially the Cantonese version :o and Vietnamese
 
I'm a native speaker and I absolutely understand nothing. Could be almost any language...

All right, but the fact that it's called "Ein deutsches Requiem - 4. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen" could be used as a hint, I'd say. ;)


Yes, I am aware of the fact that if it's not understandable, it's not exactly the merit of the language that it's beautiful, but of the music, since the language cannot possibly play any role in its beauty with it being incomprehensible and all... Just pointing out the above. :)
 
I'm a native speaker and I absolutely understand nothing. Could be almost any language...
It sounds like a very shy effort to copy the sounds of English.
 
All right, but the fact that it's called "Ein deutsches Requiem - 4. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen" could be used as a hint, I'd say. ;)


Yes, I am aware of the fact that if it's not understandable, it's not exactly the merit of the language that it's beautiful, but of the music, since the language cannot possibly play any role in its beauty with it being incomprehensible and all... Just pointing out the above. :)

Just wanted to say that it cannot be used to judge the sounding of German.
 
The Cantonese dialect of Chinese spoken in Brooklyn, NY is by far the ugliest dialect of a language in the history of man.
 
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