Top 5 best-sounding world and semi-world languages

[Verbose]

Definitely agree. Kurosawa is also called the 'most Western of the Japanese directors', though. His 'Seven Samurai' and his 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' are my favourites.

"Seven Samurai" is great, but he didn't get to make his version of "Tora! Tora! Tora!"

 

[Veles]

Well, we Germanics use Latin months, so I'd call them such. There also exist some obscure Germanic months, but hardly anyone knows them (I don't even know their history despite my interest). They're also shown on some block calendars.

That's cool. Strange that they're erased from the memory of entire peoples, perhaps the Christianisation of Germanics was as repressive as Slavic.

But the names of the days of week in English is pure paganism: Sun day
Moon day, Tiw's day, Wodan's day, Thor's day, Freya day, Saturn day. And the most amazing part is how on earth did the christian clerics didn't change that during the last millenium?

 

[Danielion]

Saturn day

This one is interesting. In English, Dutch and Afrikaans the day is named after Saturn, a Roman diety. In Romance languages and German it's named 'Sabbath day', however. In North-Germanic languages it's named 'Laundry day' after some ritual washing ceremony.

 

[Veles]

In Russia Saturday is also subbota. With Sunday being voskresenie meaning Ressurection.

...Learning the Latin months is surprisingly difficult, it took me years to internalize the spring and autumn months, March-April-May and September-October-November. I never could remember which one is which and had to count them from the start

No hints here: September isn't even the seventh month

It's actually pretty amazing how we still use Latin naming. January being named after Janus, the Roman god, February - the purifying month, March after Mars, April after Aphrodite, May after Maia, June after Juno, and then the numbers went: Quintilis, Sextilis, Septimus, October, November, December. The first two were later renamed after Gaius Julius and Augustus Octavianus. Later Domician renamed September Germanicus and October Domician, but those weren't as catchy it seems.

And this Roman mess made it to the modern world

 

[CaptainF]

Spanish language as spoken by a Spaniard with Mexican slang:


Link to video.

 

[red_elk]

I like Spanish 'R' - sounds very similar to the Russian one.

Not exactly folk song, but close enough:

Link to video.

 

[stormerne]

That's cool. Strange that they're erased from the memory of entire peoples, perhaps the Christianisation of Germanics was as repressive as Slavic.

But the names of the days of week in English is pure paganism: Sun day
Moon day, Tiw's day, Wodan's day, Thor's day, Freya day, Saturn day. And the most amazing part is how on earth did the christian clerics didn't change that during the last millenium?

Friday is named after Frigg (Woden's wife), not Freya.

 

[Tahuti]

No hints here: September isn't even the seventh month

It's actually pretty amazing how we still use Latin naming. January being named after Janus, the Roman god, February - the purifying month, March after Mars, April after Aphrodite, May after Maia, June after Juno, and then the numbers went: Quintilis, Sextilis, Septimus, October, November, December. The first two were later renamed after Gaius Julius and Augustus Octavianus. Later Domician renamed September Germanicus and October Domician, but those weren't as catchy it seems.

And this Roman mess made it to the modern world

Actually, October, November and December being named after 8, 9 and 10 respectively makes quite alot of sense actually, as the traditional Roman calendar started the year in March, and not in January.

 

[Danielion]

Friday is named after Frigg (Woden's wife), not Freya.

Didn't know that. What I do know is that the name Freya has the same root as the verb 'vrijen' (to make love) and 'vrouw' (woman) in Dutch.

 

[KidJustKid]

1. French

Flaubert and Verlaine wins it for France outright.

2. English

Too much literature and beauty and development to ignore from Carol Ann Duffy to Chaucer, but very easily corruptable - there's no word for brostep in French ^_^''

Spoiler :

3. Afrikaans -

I'm biased being an expat myself, but I have so many memories attached with it, I couldn't help myself. Russian for female soloists and German for male soloists were close behind.

Latin if I could - choral epics + Aeneid and Pliny.

 

[Veles]

Friday is named after Frigg (Woden's wife), not Freya.

Wiki sez that "The connection with and possible earlier identity of Freyja with Frigg (Frija) in the Common Germanic period is a matter of scholarly dispute..." and "...the problem of whether Frigg or Freyja may have been a single goddess originally is a difficult one, made more so by the scantiness of pre-Viking Age references to Germanic goddesses, and the diverse quality of the sources."

So Frigg may have been the same goddess as Freya. I honestly thought they were the same, actually. And the same thing as Aphrodite of the Greeks, Venus of the Romans or Lada of the Slavs.

Actually, October, November and December being named after 8, 9 and 10 respectively makes quite alot of sense actually, as the traditional Roman calendar started the year in March, and not in January.

You mean made a lot of sense ~2000 years ago

 

[Red Key]

I'm surprised more haven't voted for Swahili. After all, these are civ forums and Baba Yetu, the civ4 menu song, is in Swahili.

 

[KidJustKid]

I'm surprised more haven't voted for Swahili. After all, these are civ forums and Baba Yetu, the civ4 menu song, is in Swahili.

I bet a load of ppl considered it but thought it would be too cheesya joke choice.
I chose the least popular option so far unsighted, not sure if that still makes me indie or what ^_^

 

[Danielion]

I don't know what to think about Swahili, because I know too little about it.

 

[Linkman226]

Two words: Baba Yetu

I've been listening to it for the past twenty minutes, bordering on an obsession


Link to video.

 

[Narz]

English, Italian, Russian. Chinese is the worst.

BTW, there should be a way to limit options to 3 otherwise certain idiots always ruin the polls by voting for everything.