Do any languages sound "ugly" to you? Why?

I speak German, but it does sound harsh to me.

Thai also sounds kind of harsh to me. And it looks really funky too.

Arabic sounds awesome when sung. I love the sound of Hindi, English, and French as well.

I can’t think of any languages that sound ugly.

German sounds very harsh to me.

Arabic sounds “messy”, if that makes sense.

Mandarin does not sound pleasant to me. Cantonese doesn’t sound pleasant either, but I’m used to it and it doesn’t irritate me as much as Mandarin or any other Chinese dialect.

Klingon comes across as somewhat harsh and violent :-p

Italian sounds very loud and… rough, to me.
Chinese (Mandarin) sounds very annoying and nasally whilst Hindi/Urdu and Arabic sound quite beautiful when spoken right.
And of course, English sounds wonderful as well :D

As others have said, there is something sort of guttural about German that I find a little off putting. It’s the same thing with Cantonese. I think this is mostly due to the fact that they just sound like noises to me, no matter how hard I try to maintain an open mind about it/attempt to pick out bits that sound familiar. I absolutely love how Spanish sounds, and all the “Romance Languages” in general. But mostly Spanish. I love rolling the double rs!

…I forgot about Cantonese. I’m not too fond of how it sounds :-/

German sounds very harsh. Spanish, French and Italian sound very liquid and romantic to me.

Khmer sounds very angry.
Japanese sounds very pretty.

German sounds harsh to me. I am rather embarrassed to say that I have a difficult time dissociating the sound of the language with the Nazis. I need to meet more (or any) Germans. I hear that sound and think, so is this the sound of the holocaust? Before people beat up on me, I know this is absurd, and potentially offensive. Just admitting a feeling I get from a sound.

@Vunessuh

I had never heard Khmer until yesterday when I listened to some Khmer music and liked it very much. It’s an Austro-Asiatic language, just like Vietnamese, and there are certainly some similarities…

By the way, this is all incredibly interesting to me and I may end up using this information in future classes and papers. I love hearing how other people perceive languages, especially when there are generalities. It seems common to think German sounds “harsh”. But does this have more to do with the actual sound of German or more to do with our stereotypical view of yelling Nazis and angry Germans? Not clear. :\

I might get hit for this, but I actually like how German sounds :P

Not to derail this thread too much, but just a quick question to the linguist in the house: Why is it that all non-English languages sound louder than English to me? Is this just me, or is there some theory on this? Maybe it is that I can’t understand the words that are being spoken, so they sound like noises to me or something? Probably just me.

French sounds so sexy and luscious. While I am typing there is a “learn French” programme on the TV. Not that I am trying to learn French, more too lazy to change the channel. It does sound lovely though.

I like Italian too.

I agree German can be quite harsh.

@queenie

I like how it sounds as well, though I seem to like how all languages sound albeit for different reasons. I too had a stereotypical view of the “yelling German”, not just from Nazi stereotypes, but also from somewhat “harsh” and wild operas like those of Wagner. This changed after I listened to the Threepenny Opera and heard women with beautiful voices singing soft passionate songs in German and it completely changed my perception of the language.

I’m sure who is speaking can have an effect on perception of the sound of a language as well.

@tom_g

It could be that it sounds like noises to you; noises with meaning so you focus more on the sound whereas you focus more on the meaning with English. I’d love to hear English from the perspective of someone who doesn’t speak it. It’s hard to think of English in terms of “beauty” or “ugliness” since to me it sounds completely neutral since it’s all I speak. I’m sure this is different for multilingual people. That said, I do like the sound of Middle English, the “I syng of mayden that is makeles” kind of thing, but to me current English’s sound doesn’t do much for me. :\

Hebrew and German sound harsh to me.

Estonian and Icelandic are very beautiful languages to me.

I think German sounds unpleasant, and maybe harsh, but not ugly. I’m also not a huge fan of the way that Spanish sounds to be honest, though it depends on how it’s being spoken. I think Hebrew sounds fairly harsh to me as well, it’s spoken on occasion during Passover and Hanukkah.

I’m partial to French (I somewhat speak it) and I think that it’s an extremely beautiful language, though I’ve talked to many people that disagree. I actually love the English language itself as well. It’s what I’m planning on majoring in in college most likely, I just enjoy everything about it, from the way it sounds to the grammar of it.

English sounded a bit weird to me when I first started speaking it. It was just awkward to me, not necessarily ugly.

I can’t think of any language that has ever struck me as “ugly.” I love language, period. Some of my favorites include Ukrainian and Russian (for obvious reasons), but many people find those languages (and subsequent accents) to sound harsh or ugly. Never really made sense to me.

I also think that Hebrew is a beautiful language, German, Italian, French. I could go on.

German sounds harsh. I have personal experience with a VERY German maiden name. When you speak German, it sounds like you’re spitting on everyone.

Portugese usually sounds very wonderful to me. They could be talking about picking up Brussels sprouts from the market, but it sounds like “I looooooove you.”

Shanghainese (one of the languages spoken in China) sounds pretty awful to me. It sounds like a guttural Sure Sure Sure to me.

It’s funny because some of the jellies have said they don’t like the sound of the German language, but I associate the sound of it with fair maidens and lads wearing leaderhosen speaking sweetly of cheese making. The Nazi’s probably ruined it for everyone though. But don’t you all just love the sound of the word Glockenspiel?

Japanese, especially when spoken by females, sounds very sweet and gentle to me.

French (which is where my people came from) sounds very hoity toity to me. I don’t speak French, by the way. And it also sounds a little bit naughty like Vulva Vous Hawn Hawn!

Tagalog sounds like a bunch of people screaming Glugga lugga lugga! to me.

Most of the Scandinavian languages sound funny, but not bad or ugly. I just hear Erna Flerna Lerna.

Some of the U.S. accents, speaking American English, either sound boring and plain (like how I talk) or how the midwesterners speak, or they sound sweet and funny and cute like in the South (which can also sound really twangy and awful) but the worst ones seem to be from New Yawk or Joisey. Which is ultimately ironic considering that my beloved Queen, Ms. Drescher, probably has one of the worst accents in the country. But I have come to appreciate the sweet sound of her awesome voice. Hee Hee.

Of course the best sounding accents and language, for me, are just about any British English accent from Cockney, to Cornwall, to Liverpudlian, to Scottish and the Queen’s English. It all sounds like music to me.

I apologize if I have offended anybody here. My own voice would not thrill any of you. : )

@Kardamom

Love your descriptions. To me, Japanese often sounds “cute” when spoken by women or young children. Terms like “doki-doki” meaning heartbeat and “ukiuki” meaning “happy” are just cute, I’m sorry…

Haha! I love Japanese!

Honestly, there is no language other than Japanese that would work with this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFNUjLNFeSg (warning: very annoying song…lol)

@DominicX chuckle
This song is the main reason why I like Japanese so much. I saw it quite a few years ago and fell in love with it. I’m going to enroll in a Japanese course next year in college when I finish school.

@queenie Just make sure that you keep your fabulous British accent intact!!!

By the way, how would you describe your accent? Is there an actress who has a similar accent?

I’m Puerto Rican, and for some reason, I don’t like Spanish. I guess it could just be that I go from French class and hear this beautiful language that rolls off the tongue and then go home and speak Spanish which just sounds clunky to me. I would love to speak British English; they just sound so much friendlier when they speak. I have to agree with all of you though; German just sounds like an angry language to me. So does Russian.
This answer is long.

@Kardamom Aww, I will :) I’m not sure of an actress, maybe Kate Winslet? I don’t watch a lot of movies I’m afraid :-/

In agreement with others, not a fan of German. I just don’t like the way it sounds.

Favorites: Dutch, Irish, Scottish and one which I can speak, French.

Truly, my favorite is Scoo-ish. They can make a one syllable word sound like two. Worm = Wer-um. :)

The language of the Ghetto sounds a bit ugly to me as well!

Arabic and Portuguese do not sound pretty to me, I hate to use the word ugly. I don’t find Vietnamese to be offensive at all. I think Yiddish sounds very funny. German is a harsh language, as others have mentioned, but I would not describe it as ugly. I would think English sounds rather choppy?

OMG! @queenie I loooooove Kate Winslet’s accent/voice. Especially in Sense and Sensibility : ) Don’t ever lose that.

Not a language, but an accent I don’t like is Scottish.
Sounds incredibly hostile & “ugly” to me….”away wi ya, ya wee sassenach bars…tard!!”

I don’t know about ugly but the French language makes me cringe for some reason.

German sounds harsh but I like it. Welsh is quite harsh as well.

Languages like Spanish and Italian are a pleasure to listen to. I also think Hebrew sounds beautiful.

@ucme Scottish accents are great! I like Irish accents as well, my uncle is from Ireland and I think his accent is fantastic. It’s often hard to tell what he’s actually trying to say though!

I love British accents too, of course. Who doesn’t? :P

@mangeons Well, we’re talking opinions here & by gum…...I stick to mine! :¬P

@ucme You’re from England, right? Can you describe (as @queenie did earlier) what kind of a British accent you have. Is there any actor that you can think of that has a similar accent? So far I haven’t found a British accent that I didn’t like. : )

@Kardamom Yes i’m an Englander & my accent is well…..I sound exactly like this fella…... only i’m far better looking, naturally ;¬}

@ucme I’ll have to look up a clip on youtube. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of him. You must be one handsome gent if you are better looking than this guy ; – )

@Kardamom Yeah, I had a feeling you wouldn’t have known him. Like you say, look the guy up, he’s from my neck of the woods ;¬}

@ucme I love Robson Green :D
Seen his wilderness programs?

Robson Green is very sexy. I love him too and @ucme, I love his accent too. I remember hearing him saying people bagged him because he doesn’t have such a strong Geordie accent now? Is that true?

@queenie I’m not a fan no, the wife used to watch him in Soldier Soldier a few years back.
@Bellatrix His accent sounds the same as always, it’s not geordie though. Northumbrian twang, like mine there’s a small, but definable difference.

@ucme Now you’ve really got me all curious to hear this voice!

Did you ever see the PBS documentary (with accompanyig book) from about 10 years ago called The Story of English? It was a fasinating look at how English speakers in the U.K and the U.S. and Australia, especially, came to speak the way they do now. And it showed lots and lots of different accents. It was wonderful!

@Kardamom No, that passed me by i’m afraid. It is a fascinating topic though.

That does sound fascinating @Kardamom. In Australia, which is a huge country, the accent is fairly stable across all cities and states. There are variances but mostly in the speed of speech and perhaps in the use of certain words for the same things. Swimming clothes are togs in Queensland. A suitcase is a port and street directories are UBDs in Queensland, Referdex’s in New South Wales and your Melways in Victoria. Whereas in the U.K., you can travel down the road and the accent changes. I would like to see that documentary and find the book. Thanks for the tip.

@Bellatrix It was very interesting. The most unusual thing that I learned is that most spoken variations of English have changed many times, and sometimes drastically over the last 200 years. But there are a few isolated places, a few areas in Appalachia and other rural mountain communities in the U.S., a few in the deep south bayou areas of the U.S. and a few places in England (because of their remoteness and isolation) have remained almost intact for those years. Almost everyone else’s accents have changed, including the Royal Family. They presented archive footage of Queen Elizabeth as a 20 something, and then contrasted it with the way she speaks now. It’s considerably different. You will also note that the “standard” English spoken by newscasters over the last 50 years has changed dramatically. And if you watch old movies from the U.S. and U.K. over the last 50 years, you will notice a dramatic difference in the accents. It’s very fasinating and I would highly recommend watching the documentary. The accompanying book is good too, but the TV version is better because you can actually hear what people sound like.

German and Russian sound very harsh to me. It sounds like they’re spitting out words to you and garggling and trying to hack up something from their throat.

As of languages that sound pretty, French, Italian, and Spanish. French sounds so beautiful and romantic. And, when I hear Italian it sounds like romantic music to my ears. And, I speak Spanish, so it’s obviously going to sound gorgeous.