I know which languages are linguistically close to English (Scots, Frisian, Dutch, etc.), but I've always wondered which language(s) sound(s) the closest to English from the perspective of someone for whom English is not their first language, and who remembers how English sounded to them before they learned (or began to learn) the language.
2006-08-31 14:09:15 · 8 answers · asked by d_izzygirl 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Oh, also, in your answer, can you please include what your native language is? Thanks!
2006-08-31 14:10:33 · update #1
I know which languages actually ARE similar. I am more interested in knowing about what you personally think SOUNDS similar.
2006-08-31 14:38:00 · update #2
Well, English is not my first language but I cannot think of any language that sounds similar to it. In fact, I feel that British English and American English sound very, very different. Even among accents in American English, I sometimes almost feel that they are totally different foreign languages.
My first languages are Thai, Chinese(Mandarin and Taiwanese). I also speak passable Japanese besides English.
Before I learned Japanese, I could not distinguish between Korean/Japanese. But I have never had similar experience confusing English with other languages.
2006-08-31 21:53:44 · answer #1 · answered by Kanda 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I understand exactly the meaning of your question but I would say that it is not so easy to find a person able to answer it. In order to do it, this person should be able to identify other languages without knowing it enough and the same with English. And since English is the most learned language (as second language), it is very common to be taught in the early school ages around the world. I speak for myself. Portuguese is my native language. I learned a little of French and English in school. Before learning English, I was able to identify most of the Latin languages but all the others (including English) were impossible for me to identify... After learning English, I can not see similarities with any other because English I am able to understand, not the others. On the other hand, I would say that English has no similarities with Eastern Asian and African languages. Europeans languages are closer. And for me, a Latin language speaker, I would say English is not close to any of them.
Explaining again my point with my own example. When some Americans listen to me speaking in Portuguese, they know it is not Spanish (it is easy to learn Spanish as second language here in the U.S.). Most of the time, they say it sounds like French (if they do not speak French) or some Eastern European language, like Russian.
Finally, trying to answer your question, I would say that German may sound closer to English... Or, maybe I also get influenced because I noticed some time ago that German does have several words that is very similar to English...
2006-09-01 00:44:17 · answer #2 · answered by dtailsirch 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
My first language is spanish, I learned english when I was very little because my family moved to England when I was 5 so we used to speak english all the time I was sort of forced to learn it otherwise I wouldn't be able to communicate. When I started to study french I realized they were somewhat similar. Now I'm studying italian and german, and I can say that the fact that I speak english has helped me a lot in my german classes, I think english and german are quite similar too.
2006-08-31 21:31:49 · answer #3 · answered by violet 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Any germanic languages as English derived from it and is considered a germanic language itself; like you mentioned scotland, sweden finnland ireland german etc..all are countries where germanic languages are spoken. English being my second language I initially confused the northern german dialect of Germany with English.
They would say things like:
tat hause is olt. in english: That house is old.
German and English used to be one language once and to give you some examples of some remains:
Grass grass
Hand hand
Finger finger
Elbogen elbow
Nase nose
Katze cat
Haare hair
Arm arm
Feld field
Braun brown
Weiss white (pronounced the same exept the t souns like s)
Rot red
Blau blue
Gruen green
Wir we
uns us
Ich I
Frei free
Butter butter
Brot bread
Neun nine
Zwantzig Twenty
Und and
Liste list
and the list goes on and on ...
2006-08-31 22:19:13 · answer #4 · answered by Silvia 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I believe french is closest to english.
2006-08-31 21:16:29 · answer #5 · answered by dream_to_death 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
i'm greek and i love english because i think it doesn't sound like any other language..
2006-09-01 03:46:43 · answer #6 · answered by antigone 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
english is my first language but FRENCH IS DEFINITELY NOT anywhere close to english.
GERMAN IS
2006-08-31 22:32:17 · answer #7 · answered by What!? No Way!? 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hey, cool question! I hope you get some good answers.
2006-08-31 21:15:53 · answer #8 · answered by EC-S 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋