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View Poll Results: What are the most beautiul sounding Germac languages?
Danish 4 4.40%
Dutch 7 7.69%
English 38 41.76%
Faroese 0 0%
Frisian 1 1.10%
German 21 23.08%
Icelandic 13 14.29%
Norwegian 16 17.58%
Scots 3 3.30%
Swedish 29 31.87%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 91. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 04-26-2015, 05:52 PM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
16,581 posts, read 27,264,824 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88 View Post
I always thought that, to. But I Google-translated a sentence into Afrikaans, then translated that into Dutch, and almost every word was different. Mostly spelling differences, but I would assume significant differences in the sound of the spoken language, which is the topic of this thread. Just as English would sound very different in Jamaica than in Edinburgh. Or French in Senegal or Quebec. One might be pleasing to a foreigner's ear, and the other not.
I see your point but those dialects in English and French you mentioned are still considered English and French.

A lot of Afrikaans, is "archaic" Dutch, held over from the 17th century. Google translate doesn't always nail it.
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Old 04-26-2015, 05:55 PM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Randal Walker View Post
To me, the Romance languages sound lovely to the ear. Much more so than any Germanic language. So I am not surprised that Germanic languages sound harsh to those people.
I think both sound nice but in different ways. Romance languages are very melodic where as Germanic languages tend to be rhythmic.
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Old 04-26-2015, 07:05 PM
 
2,639 posts, read 1,979,264 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Almeida93 View Post
I read that German and Dutch are very gutteral and harsh languages, and that English is soft spoken. I think English will get alot of votes, but i am not sure, i don't know how non-english speakers hear English.

Well anyways that is it for me, i personally won't vote and will only read what other says.
I once came across a reference that surprised me-that English has a whistling sound. Due to the use of "s" for plural words.
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Old 04-26-2015, 08:42 PM
 
Location: somewhere flat
1,373 posts, read 1,643,546 times
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Afrikaans sounds ugly. Just bad. Swedish and Norwegian are melodic.
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Old 04-26-2015, 08:48 PM
 
Location: Paris, ÃŽle-de-France, France
2,652 posts, read 3,378,308 times
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Norwegian accent is my love! (Starting after 2:00 listen carefully the guy in the video is speaking "Tonem 2" listed words on the paper)

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Old 04-27-2015, 10:35 PM
 
Location: Sydney, Australia
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English sounds normal to me. It's not beautiful and it isn't ugly.

I like how Dutch and Swedish sound though.
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Old 04-28-2015, 09:09 AM
 
Location: São Paulo, Brazil
1,756 posts, read 2,510,171 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Almeida93 View Post
I read that German and Dutch are very gutteral and harsh languages, and that English is soft spoken. I think English will get alot of votes, but i am not sure, i don't know how non-english speakers hear English.

Well anyways that is it for me, i personally won't vote and will only read what other says.
Dutch really sounds guttural. German, depends on the accent. The German as spoken in Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland don't sound me harsh at all.
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Old 04-28-2015, 09:19 AM
 
Location: Macao
16,284 posts, read 42,980,152 times
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This poll surprises me.

I just went through the Scandinavian countries, last year, and the sound of Swedish didn't strike me as all that pretty. Actually I didn't like the sound of it. It reminded me of the way that the English-speakers make fun of it, and kind of exaggerate it. I could see why they make fun of it, basically.

When I went to Germany though, I was expecting it to be grate on my nerves. I hardly noticed the language having any effect on me whatsoever.

I don't have any opinion on Danish, although it sounded fine to me, and when I went into Sweden, I didn't like it. So, I guess Danish must have had a very neutral effect on me, or a good one. But, in contrast, I can easily say that Danish sounded more pleasant to me than Swedish.
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Old 04-28-2015, 11:21 AM
 
Location: Hong Kong / Vienna
4,541 posts, read 6,309,344 times
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Just out of curiosity, do people who don't speak German hear any differences between those dialects?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3-UfPCubsE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6ftQ_8MKXI


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw5GdD9f_6o


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KruPGF8E-AM
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Old 04-28-2015, 11:41 AM
 
Location: Macao
16,284 posts, read 42,980,152 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by viribusunitis View Post
Just out of curiosity, do people who don't speak German hear any differences between those dialects?
The first two sounded very similar to me.

The third had a very different feel, but I couldn't tell you in what way. I liked that one though. But I couldn't tell if that was the manner of the person, as it was so much more informal than the others, and more casual.

The fourth was formal, and that took away from me from trying to find any regional dialect.

As another aside, the girl in the first one was hot. The accent was not a 'hot' accent though. The accent of the third would probably be interesting to hear on a female that looks like #1 though.
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