Job Discussion Forums

[rayman]

Is English perceived as beautiful or harsh by non-English speakers?

I would guess it'd be somewhere inbetween. I'd apreciate any thoughts though.

[Roger]

It sure is an interesting question, but I can't get any personal opinion on this from my learners.
They probably feel Westerners don't think too highly of Chinese, so I have heard a number of comments to the effect that "...but Chinese IS a beautiful language..."

[Lynn]

Can native speakers respond? I don't think English is beautiful. I don't like the way it sounds. When I was a student in Denmark, I was always told that Americans speak like they have potatoes in their mouths. I totally agree.

[denise]

I also think English isn't the most beautiful language to listen to (uh, sorry... "to which to listen.") It lacks musicality.

I remember studying Spanish in 7th grade and thinking how neat-o it was that there was such uniformity: verbs end in -ar, -er, or -ir; adjectives take the same gender as the nouns they modify; a majority of words seem to end in a vowel, n, s, l, d, or r (any others? I'm just going from memory here, with no proper grammar/guide books to back me up). Those restrictions, for lack of a better word, gave the language what to me seems to be a very rhythmic, musical quality.

Sure, in English there are certain combinations that just don't work--we wouldn't, for example, start a word with "vr" or "ml"--but there are so many possible sounds and combinations of sounds, and so many acceptable letters with which to end words, that the language almost sounds a bit random and unplanned.

I do love the English language because of its unlimitedness in the sense that you can constantly coin new words (e.g., is "unlimitedness" really a word? Wait--maybe it is...), but sometimes it just doesn't sound terribly pretty.

Lynn--I love your comment about potatoes! I don't think I've ever heard anyone talking with potatoes in his or her mouth, but now I can imagine what it must sound like.

d

[leeroy]

I love the schwa - I have no idea how many other languages use it, but it seems to give English a certain "softness" that, say, Spanish lacks. Consider

"Canada" -

From an English speaker = ka-nuh-duh
From a Spanish speaker = Ka-na-da

[ls650]

[guest of Japan]

While I admit that some English dialects and accents cause my ears to cringe, I find English to be a beautiful language. I once had the chance to meet some very upper-class people from North Carolina. The way they spoke was soft and melodious. Their style of speech coupled with the modesty and politeness they employed when using it was truly a joy to listen to.

[steampig]

All languages certainly do not possess a schwa sound. An example of a language which does is Danish, which probably accounts for why English has such a predominance of it thanks to our Viking and Saxon forbears. Can anyone enlighten me as to whether the Celtic languages have the schwa or is it a pure import? Italians are driven to distraction by the schwa and Hungarians find it such a weak sound as to be slightly contemptible.
Is English beautiful? The question is too loaded with biases as to be answerable. An interesting research experiment involving people with no knowledge of Greek listening to different Greek accents and evaluating them for their easiness on the ear found, to the consternation of Athenians, that there was no one more 'beautiful' Greek accent than another. Try telling that to Greeks! I think our cultural biases cloud our judgment on these issues.

[denise]

Are we comparing languages or accents? I wonder how the subjects in the Greek study would respond if asked to compare the beauty of Greek (in whichever accent...) to that of a completely unrelated language.

d

[Dr.J]

Obviously you have to factor in a lot of subjectiveness, some people like harsher sounds just like some people like spicy curries.

But,

Every now and then when I am in 'Japanese mode', I can start to hear English as if I didn't understand it - I only hear it as sounds. This is a very strange phenomenon and it's a little like looking at one of those 'magic eye' pictures, popular some years ago. My impression was that it sounded like an eastern european or arabic language (lots more "s" and "sh" sounds than we are aware of), only not as harsh (less like a hacking cough). Really very different from French, or German, or Spanish, and different tonality from Dutch too, though the words are similar.

[scot47]

Subjective - totally !

To me there is no uglier sound than and Englishman from Brum (Birmingham).

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" And ugliness too !

[metalgeek]

I think because of the size of the English language, it can sound anywhere from harsh, to somewhat beautiful, I'd probably put Spanish or French at the top of the list though.
Most harsh would probably be German.
Chinese (mandarin i suppose, and Cantonese) Can either be incredibly harsh (WEI.. WEI..) Generally more so when listening to dialects (I shudder at sichaunhua) or quite beautiful especially when said more softly, being a tonal languages.

[Roger]

Subjective, perhaps, but like with food, you will find a lot of same-minded people around the world.
I for one do consider the sounds of English - most Englishes (native ones) as harmonious and pleasant to the ear; some more, some less. However, nobody has mentioned the role of INTONATION. Good intonation has a major impact on our ears.
The British intonation sounds highly hysterical (to me, not necessarily to everyone; at lest the "Queen's" version). My favourite pronunciations (or 'accents'(: South African, Aussie (just my pet bias).
Just imagine French without modulations! It would be dead.

I don't agree with the poster who claimed German is "harsh" sounding; that's a very biased view. I liked Austrian and Bavarian German the most although they were the most difficult to grasp phonetically. The beauty of the German language is its crystalline clearness, with soft and harsh fricatives.
Hebrew has almost identical phonemes, and nobody would ever say it's an ugly or harsh lingo. Far from it - I loved its sounds too.

Although I don't understand Japanese, I find it a very delicate language in sound; Japanese could potentially be arguing with each other - to me, it sounds like reciting verses.
It's a different thing with Mandarin - perhaps it's too formalised a lingo. I don't know what is beautiful about it - maybe it's its use in poetry; Cantonese definitely is discordant and very vulgar (if you understand locals!).

[nomadder]

Italian and then Spanish get my votes. I sort of have a soft spot for Japanese too. Some interesting sounds like a word doubled or just feeling sounds. Things like agreement and surprise.

[dmb]

I thinkk because of vowel harmony and agglutination Turkish is a beautiful sounding language