I've always wondered how the english language sounds to foreigners. To us, english sounds...normal? But when we hear languages like finish (no offense intended!) it might sound unusual or very different to us because we're not as used to hearing it as much. And i'm not just talking about finish here, i'm talking about all languages. (except for english of course)...so, what do you think english sounds like to foreigners? I want anyone's opinions, especially a foreinger's!
Like:
"Warrr hurr shurrmurr trrrah?"
As a native English speaker, I've always wondered about that, too. I would imagine it seems very drawn out and slightly lyrical in tone. Other languages tend to be very rythmic, like Spanish/Italian/Japanese, but English is almost "sung".
>>3
Because English is a stress-timed language perhaps?
Here's an interesting thread I read vaguely related to this: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=432522
I propably use english more than my native finnish, so it sounds quite normal to me. But the first impression I get when I hear someone talking it is: "Damn douche". Propably 'cause mainly foreign criminals use it here in the public.
I'm hongkonger, I think to most chinese people english at least sounds way better than those southeast asia language.
Lithuanian here. English sounds... very soft, like how someone would speak if your tongue got the shit beat out of it.
Lithuanian when spoken correctly would sound something like a Russian lumberjack yelling, what concerns the hardness of the letters. Al though understandably not as loud.
To us,
"What the fuck are you doing."
Would sound something like this:
Wuaat deh fak arrr ju diuing.
I am Scottish, and I personally find the sound of spoken Southern English hilarious. They don't pronounce any of their Rs and cannot pronounce CH, whereas here in Scotland, we pronounce them very strongly, which is why I've always found German pronounciation easy.
For most Germans English really does sound very 'sung' for we speak our own language nearly without any stress/emphasis; everything's in the same tone pitch.
English speaking people sound as if they were singing the form of waves, their voices go up and down and it's fun to listen, especially to British, Scottish and Irish natives. It's a soft (though not as soft as French) language with some firm expressions/words as well.
>>9 German here aswell. I agree with you, especially on the British part. From all forms of English, I've always liked British English the most.
American English somehow annoys me (no offense!), native speaker tend to mumble and pull the words togehter, sounds like they are drunk all the time o_O And it's hard to understand.