I hear people say that French or Estonian or Cantonese are beautiful languages, and lots of people say that German is poor sounding, is there any science to say what people find beautiful in a language?
2007-08-14 06:13:05 · 8 answers · asked by Marcy C 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
o thank you my girlfriedn is Canton girl
2007-08-14 06:45:01 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Okay, here's the thing. There is no science to determine this. I should know, I am in the field that studies Languages, linguistics. We learn not to judge language. However, this isn't the first time this issue has come up.
Some people believe that Romance Languages are called thusly because they are Romantic. This is a huge myth. They are called Romance languages because of the ROMANs who came and conquered those areas and brought Latin, which then evolved into Vulgar Latin and thusly into the different subgroups we see today.
Now the Phonetics of a language usually help an individual to make up their mind about the beauty of a Language. For example, it's common in Italian, Portuguese,and Spanish to have a lot of vowels to have a common syllable of CV or CVC (C=Consonant and V=Vowel). Most of the time these languages don't have want we call consonant clusters. In face in Spanish when you have S + another consonant you ave to put an E in front of it (Esposo(a) = Spouse, Estima = Esteem). Now German, as well as English, is known to have a lot of consontant clusters, and combinations like CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC, and sometimes even a combination of CCCVC, etc. The other thing is German uses more sounds that are what we call Devoiced, which sound a little harder in nature. These include the sounds /t,k,h,f,s,ts,pf,p, x,/ (the last sound is not like the English letter x, which is /ks/, but rather like the ch in German or Scottish Loch/. Now another thing is that people don't like the /x/ which is the harsh sound in Hebrew, German, etc, but most people don't realize it was in Latin as well as in modern Spanish. Try to get a Spanish person to say, He had had a horrible headache at his house. If he has the /x/ it's sound very funny for him to say that line (either that or he'll drop all the
Basically there are things that can help influence someone's mind, but it's all a matter of perspective.
2007-08-14 09:29:41 · answer #2 · answered by Timothy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You always love the language which your mother sang to you as an infant. And then as you go on in life, you love languages in which people say beautiful things to one another. It is utterly subjective. When I hear Bach's St Matthew Passion sung in German, I think that it sounds a thoroughly beautiful language.
2007-08-14 06:21:44 · answer #3 · answered by Doethineb 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Beauty is in the ear of the be-hear-er.... :S lol
In my opinion French sounds nice, but whether a language is "beautiful" or not is all a matter of personal opinion.
2007-08-14 06:40:14 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Beauty is in the ear of the hearer.
Personally I think the languages with softer, less abrupt sounds are more beautiful.
2007-08-14 06:34:25 · answer #5 · answered by The Corinthian 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think they're described as the Romantic Languages, but I'm not quite sure.
2007-08-14 06:20:51 · answer #6 · answered by thesweetestgift 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
German when you speak it is all short,choppy, and mean sounding
Which most people dont find romantic.
But French has a more soft sound to it.
2007-08-14 07:48:12 · answer #7 · answered by †Emily† 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
idk but most people say that the most romantic/beautiful languages are Spanish, Italian, and French
2007-08-14 06:26:34 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋