...Xing wrote:Did it say "a as in father" in the phonology section?Micamo wrote: This may have more to do with the writer's awful, unprofessional writing than the language itself
Off to burn the world, be right back.
...Xing wrote:Did it say "a as in father" in the phonology section?Micamo wrote: This may have more to do with the writer's awful, unprofessional writing than the language itself
Why yick? Complex onsets rock the world!mbrsart wrote:Georgian. All those complex onsets. Yick!
Personally, I don't like how Vietnamese and Khmer sound because of the implosives. They're funny sounds that are fun when conlanging, but in practice they just sound annoying to a lot of people. The reason why I don't like the sound of Thai and Burmese is harder to pinpoint, but it has something to do with the creaky/stiff voice and stuff.
Neither do I.
I love Japanese and will never understand how anyone could dislike it. English is meh, it can sound disgusting or beautiful depending on who speaks it and what dialect they speak and/or what kind of an accent they have. I don't think Slavic languages sound weird, but Russian definitely sounds ugly in most cases; it can sound nice, too, but that's rare.
I see how the Japanese part is a little extreme, but my comment on English and Slavic languages?
That might be the exact reason. I think a lot of people feel that way about their native languages; I remember considering Finnish really basic and simple and being a bit envious of people who spoke all those cool real languages when I was a kid. Then, of course, I found out that Tolkien had considered Finnish extremely beautiful and decided that had to be the correct opinion.LinguistCat wrote: ↑24 Jan 2018 23:54I don't like English despite it being my native lang, but I can't put a finger on why beyond it just being boring to me.
Well, I wasn't forced to learn it, but yeah, people mindlessly parroting the meme that it's the most beautiful language in the world certainly did no favors to my opinion of it. And again, I had learned from Tolkien that French is ugly, so...I hate French, in part for how it sounds, in part because people always claimed it was "beautiful" and I didn't get it and part because I was forced to learn it when I had other languages I wanted to learn instead. I might dislike it less if I lived in a universe where I wasn't forced to study it and its supposed loveliness hadn't been pushed on me, but I don't think it would ever have been a favorite of mine in any case.
[ʕ̞ʕ̞ʕ̞ ʕ̞ʕ̞ ʕ̞ʕ̞ʕ̞]
Are you able to identify what about it sounds guttural to you? “Guttural” languages usually seem to be languages that have velar, uvular, or pharyngeal consonants not found in English, such as /x/ or /ʕ/, but Japanese has no such phonemes.
/k/ is the most common consonant in Japanese, and /g/ and /h/ are fairly common as well. This is very unlike European languages where coronals are by far the most common consonants (exemplified by Basque where ~75% of the consonants in speech are some type of coronal).* Labial consonants (my personal favorites) are also rare in Japanese by comparison to Chinese, Korean, and the languages typical of Europe. To me this gives the language an "empty" sound.GrandPiano wrote: ↑28 Jan 2018 20:23Are you able to identify what about it sounds guttural to you? “Guttural” languages usually seem to be languages that have velar, uvular, or pharyngeal consonants not found in English, such as /x/ or /ʕ/, but Japanese has no such phonemes.
Even as someone who hasn't watched anime in years apart from the occasional clip from something on Youtube, I pretty much agree with this. For me it's not a negative thing, though, and doesn't hinder my ability to take the language seriously in most contexts if the context or content is serious enough; it's just that there are often some random ass anime girls being kawaii~ uguu~ somewhere in the back of my mind when I hear it. Exorcising said anime girls takes great effort and has to be done repeatedly in order to be successful, and even then they start creeping back in at the first opportunity.
Whenever you feel like English is boring, remind yourself that to express simple concepts like "may" can be much more difficult in other languages. I mean, shit, I don't know if there even is a specific term that covers everything that "may" may mean. I don't know of any language with a simple perfect equivalent of "may"; often the different subtleties are split up into various terms that leave the nice ambiguity of "may" unobtainable, and at least my quick attempt at finding out whether any language other than English has an exact equivalent failed.LinguistCat wrote: ↑24 Jan 2018 23:54I don't like English despite it being my native lang, but I can't put a finger on why beyond it just being boring to me.
For me, it depends on a lot of things. If the /r/ is pronounced [ʁ~ʁ̞] rather than [ʁ~ʀ], that's a huge step up in terms of how good it sounds. There's something about the vowels too, but I have no idea what exactly. Of course, the same truth applies to it as well as every other language: when spoken by someone with a pleasant voice, it's much more pleasant-sounding than when spoken by someone with an annoying voice. If a beautiful French woman with a soft voice recites poetry, that's Instant Erotic Level 9001. If, on the other hand, an old dude from Quebec with a creaky nasal voice talks about taking out the garbage... well, you know.LinguistCat wrote: ↑24 Jan 2018 23:54I hate French, in part for how it sounds, in part because people always claimed it was "beautiful" and I didn't get it and part because I was forced to learn it when I had other languages I wanted to learn instead. I might dislike it less if I lived in a universe where I wasn't forced to study it and its supposed loveliness hadn't been pushed on me, but I don't think it would ever have been a favorite of mine in any case.
Finnish is really basic and simple, though, at least in terms of phonology and regularity. Even Estonian has like twice as many phonemic consonants... but at least it doesn't have vowel harmony, so we win there. I do like Finnish, though, and it's only the insane amount of Swedish loanwords that really annoys me.
I'm not sure if I agree in general, but it definitely can sound ugly. That's the most mainstream example, of course, and it does have a lot to do with Cheek being a rapper first and foremost, but still. It's just that Finnish songs as a general rule have lyrics that intentionally avoid "ugly" words. You wouldn't expect words like kärpäslätkä (flyswatter), rahka (quark (the edible thing)), keuhkoputkentulehdus (bronchitis), räkä (snot), etc. to be used in lyrics as much as words like huulet (lips), mieli (mind), Jumala (God), aava (vast (kinda archaic in speech)), etc.
While it's definitely not as common as in Japanese, according to this site /k/ is the fifth most common consonant in Finnish, only behind /t/, /n/, /s/ and l/. I'm surprised it's not more common, honestly. It's also frequently geminated; there are words like kakka (poop (childish)), kukka (flower), karkki (candy), kokki (chef/cook), makkara (sausage), rakkaus (love), etc. And yeah, most of those are Indo-European loanwords.Pabappa wrote: ↑30 Jan 2018 05:08/k/ is the most common consonant in Japanese, and /g/ and /h/ are fairly common as well. This is very unlike European languages where coronals are by far the most common consonants (exemplified by Basque where ~75% of the consonants in speech are some type of coronal).* Labial consonants (my personal favorites) are also rare in Japanese by comparison to Chinese, Korean, and the languages typical of Europe. To me this gives the language an "empty" sound.