Which language(s) is the ugliest and worst sounding?

Question

Which language(s) is the ugliest and worst sounding? A friend and I were having this discussion and I would like to know what the general concensus out there is. And please, those who aren't English speakers, answer too, to vary the results.

Please, people, calm down. This is no racist argument. I was just curious. I am currently studying linguistics and am fluent in English and Spanish and speak broken Italian. I am also studying Mandarin in the fall and have working knowledge of German and Portuguese. I am not some uneducated moron rambling about "ugly" languages, I am merely interested to see what sounds harsh, or (dare I say it) "ugly," to someone else's ear. It is no crime to see another language sounds harsh to someone else, everyone language is priceless and devserves credit in its own way; I see every language as an incredibly important aspect of a culture and people. Please do not confuse this thread with a racist rambling.

Answer 1

European Languages: Some might say Dutch is ugly, but it really has a beautiful cadence. Some have said here that German is ugly; although I prefer the Austrian variant, I do somewhat agree with them.
East Asian Languages (Chinese,Vietnamese,etc): For me, an English speaker, most Asian languages sound rushed and choppy (probably, because of the almost total monosyllabic nature of most East Asian languages). However, I did study Mandarin Chinese for a year as a graduate student and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Answer 2

German is a nice language of command (and that's probably why people hate it). Italian is one for music. French is for love and art. Russian may be for opera and such. English is for commerce. Latin is for the few. Spanish is beautiful, but spoken by relatively backward people, to say the truth. There is not much scientific stuff in it, unlike Japanese or German.

I am studying German and Latin right now, and recommend them for anyone who wants to embark on learning a new language. German is the easiest of the two.

Answer 3

First ask yourself how many foreign languages you speak. Don't talk about something you know nothing about.
The worst sounding language is a language of ignorance, hatred and xenophobia.
I'm not Arab, but how can I not appreciate Arabic language, as the language of the one of the oldest cultures in the world?
And Russian, the language of Chechov and Dostojevsky, the language of Tolstoy?!
And Nikola Tesla spoke Serbian - that was his mother tongue.
And Goethe wrote his masterpieces in German.
And do listen to Hungarian or Romanian songs...
Maybe you'll all learn something.

Answer 4

Taiwanese (from Taiwan) is an interesting language in the fact that it doesn't have a written form - it is exclusively an oral language.

Sometimes it sounds like someone is trying to hack down a tree or remove phlegm - this is due to high amount of monosyllables that almost need to be grunted to be pronounced - having said that it's quite a fun language to learn and Taiwanese people are incredible hospitable people.

Answer 5

I almost didn't answer this question because it sounds so racist, but I used to live in an apartment in Houston and there were a lot of Loatians in the building. They would stay in the courtyard until 3:00AM talking to each other. They sounded like they were screeching. It grated on my nerves so much that I called the cops to make them shut up. Maybe I wouldn't have found it so ugly if it weren't in the middle of the night just outside my window.

Answer 6

Oh I quite like French. I think most of the languages spoken in India sound kind of awful.

Answer 7

There is no such a thing like ugly language. When you begin to understand it, everything is okay.
I do not like the "r" sound in French language, for example, but that doesn't make it ugly.

Answer 8

all languages have their own taste. it all depends who's speaking it i guess. but i have to say some languages sound better than other. i hate spanish, but i love latin. so similar but at the same time so different. french is a plus too. i dont like the chinese, they sound like they are speaking from their nose and yelling most of the time, which makes it unattractive. it all depends who you hear it from really.

Answer 9

Arabic isn't a "romantic" sounding language when spoken.

Neither is German. I'm sorry, but David Hasselhoff romantic songs are anything but :)

Answer 10

No language is ugly!
Well.. I have to admit that Klingon sounds really harsh to me. But thinking about natural languages, none of them is ugly.