The World's most beautiful/ugly language ?

[Verbose]

I realize there is more to the great Aryan Germanic culture than destroying civilization, concentration camps, and the invasion of Poland. Such as scat films, Armin Meiwes, and Josef Fritzl.

So in your measured opinion, this is why these languages sound the way the do?

 

[lolno]

Actually since the troll cart was rolling around by that time, I decided to contribute more nonsense to it.

The Black tongue of Mordor

O fair language it is

 

[Danielion]

GASSEN DAS JUDEN!

Die Judengasse is a real streetname in some German and Austrian towns with historical Jewish communities. Funny isn't it?

 

[lolno]

lol, interesting

 

[Godwynn]

German certainly sounds ugly to non-speakers. Presumably a savage language as Germans are - in modern times - only good at putting people in death camps and undermining civilization in Europe, I would wager that it's a "sub-human" or otherwise "uncivilized" language- GASSEN DAS JUDEN! COOKEN DAS GYPSYVOLK! No matter how many times you say it, it sounds inappropriate.

It probably sounds inappropriate because you are not using it correctly.

 

[Dachs]

Die Judengasse is a real streetname in some German and Austrian towns with historical Jewish communities. Funny isn't it?

AH HA HA HA aren't false cognates GREAT?

 

[Airstrike92]

Everything is ugly but American (and German).

 

[Danielion]

AH HA HA HA aren't false cognates GREAT?

They are. Still, gas is 'Gas' in German. They just cannot help that they are calling an alley 'eine Gasse' for centuries. In Dutch it's al least called 'een steeg'.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Not that you've heard more than one or two out of 100 or 2,000+ depending on how you define "dialect".

If there's one that sounds like a European language, let me know.

 

[Dachs]

They are. Still, gas is 'Gas' in German. They just cannot help that they are calling an alley 'eine Gasse' for centuries. In Dutch it's al least called 'een steeg'.

I guess "deliberately overdoing it" doesn't translate well into Dutch.

 

[Danielion]

I guess "deliberately overdoing it" doesn't translate well into Dutch.

Anyway, I don't think it's a 'false cognate'. A 'false cognate' is when words of two different languages sound the same and have the same meaning, but don't have the same root.
'False friends' is what similar sounding words with different meanings are called like.

P.S.: I rarely translate. For the rest, I fail to see how I overdid anything. I didn't come up with entirely different languages did I?

 

[Bill_Pei]

Chinese is the most beautiful lanuage!
汉语是世界上最美丽的语言！

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

Welsh and German, (in songs at least) are the most beautiful, ive never liked french, welcome to Civfanatics, Bill Pei

 

[langwidge]

My opinion:

Prettiest languages:

Italian
Japanese
French
Lithuanian
Greek
Finnish
Hindi
British English

Ugliest languages:

Turkish
Korean
Russian
Chinese
Portuguese
German
Vietnamese
Thai
American English
Dutch

 

[NovaKart]

I think Thai and Vietnamese sound pretty ugly. I actually think Russians sounds pretty nice.

I think Turkish sounds nice except when a show or movie is dubbed into it. It always sounds like they get the same exact voices and the voice they get for children is especially irritating. It sounds like a woman imitating a whiney child's voice. The other voices sound very artificial too. I wish they would just start using subtitles for everything except children's programs.

 

[aronnax]

Chinese is the most beautiful lanuage!
汉语是世界上最美丽的语言！

I speak Chinese and I disagree.

Chinese singing is god-awful.

 

[Cashie]

Korean sounds awful. As anyone who's been subjected to a 10 minute invasion of Korean tourists can testify. I cringe when I hear it now.

Ugly: Korean

other ugly: Korean.

I dislike Korean as it sounds so harsh and rough.

Beautiful:
Korean

Seriously? The writing system is easy to learn - that's it.

English is hard to judge - since there are so many accents & dialects - I have a big soft spot for Northern English accents, but find Londoner-speak [literally] intolerable. California/Valleygirl is rotten, too.
I'm Australian and the "broad" (bogan) accent can be downright awful.

For example, the simple word for cheese in Latin was "Caseus"... which became Portuguese "Quiejo", Spanish "Queso", English "Cheese", Dutch "Kaas", German "Käse", Romanian "Caş", Irish "Cáis", Welsh "Caws" and even Malay/Indonesian "keju" (from Portuguese)

Also Korean: 치즈 (chijeu). It's probably in Japanese, too. And it is: チーズ (chiizu).

 

[W|M]

I'm very sure Chiizu comes from the Portuguese Queijo, as the Portuguese were the first Europeans to trade with Japan.

 

[Cashie]

I know that Korean 빵 (ppang) for bread comes through Portuguese probably via Japan.

From Portuguese pão, via Japanese パン pan.

Also, why all the Cantonese hate? It certainly isn't beautiful, but I think it's funny. Ng ng wahhhh
Mandarin hip hop sounds awesome as well.

 

[Tee Kay]

I know that Korean 빵 (ppang) for bread comes through Portuguese probably via Japan.

I assume it's the same case for the Thai ขนมปัง (kanompang) as well.