Ugliest language

[Rémy LeBeau]

In all honesty, I haven't really listened to that many languages over such a long period of time to be able to pass judgement on them. Out of the ones I have though, the ones that aren't particularly sweet to my ears include:

Urdu (especially when spoken with superfluous 'Islamic' vocab)
Tehrani Farsi
Egyptian Arabic
European Portuguese
Lowland Scots

[Czwartek]

I don't generally consider languages to be 'ugly'. They're all ways of communicating, and they all have their own unique qualities. I never liked Polish before I started learning it, and there are some Polish words which I still consider to be quite unattractive. But through education and practice in the language, I now like the sound of it.

The only language which comes to mind as one I wouldn't want to hear all the time is Dutch. I don't know why. The written form is also very unimpressive, possibly because it uses exactly the same alphabet as English.

German has a reputation of sounding 'harsh' and 'guttural', but I think it's more pleasant than Dutch. Danish too is considered the least attractive of the Scandinavian languages. I agree with this, but it's nowhere near as unpleasant as Dutch.

[thoughtsafar]

Ach, iedereen heeft een hekel aan Nederlands! Maar het is zo prachtig!

See, I actually like velar fricatives for some reason... But most people don't and that's why such beautiful languages as Dutch and Hebrew keep appearing in this thread.

[mōdgethanc]

Everyone thinks Hindi sounds horrible I'm sad now because Im learning a bad sounding language

I don't think it sounds bad. I like the sound of it. All those retroflex consonants sound kind of funny though.

See how it's rated as one of the better-sounding languages of Asia, just because the sample sounds good. How a language appeals depends just as greatly on the speaker as on that language's phonetic inventory.

Based on the video you posted, I'm going to have to say I don't like it. It sounds similar to Cantonese: rushed and choppy.

The guy who was speaking Mandarin was incredibly annoying though.

Talib, you make me sad, Portuguese is so gorgeous.

Don't get me wrong, I love it. I just revel in its sheer ugliness.

Ooh, I just love English. Old English is okay, I don't love it as much as some seem to, but Middle English? Early Modern English? Most dialects of modern English? Oh yeah, that's the best

I actually hate English. It has none of the features I like about the Germanic family. So I'm going to have to agree with this guy.

[limoneneis]

I usually don't like the sound of slavic languages except for this one movie I saw (I think it was Czech). Unlike most people here, I do like tonal languages including Cantonese and Vietnamese . To me Cantonese sounds more beautiful than Mandarin because of the final consonants. I just have to concentrate so much when trying to pronounce the tones, so unfortunately I don't enjoy learning tonal languages

[linguoboy]

See, I actually like velar fricatives for some reason... But most people don't and that's why such beautiful languages as Dutch and Hebrew keep appearing in this thread.

Maybe they just need to hear more Flemish. Even the Dutch agree that Belgian accents are softer than their own. I'd much rather hear a Belgian speak Dutch than speak French.

[Nero]

Swahili - can't stand this language. Other top contenders include:

Arabic
Hebrew
Spanish
French
Hawaiian
Mandarin Chinese
Russian
Vietnamese
Turkish

I'm sick of hearing which is the most beautiful/cultured/romantic language in the world. (Hint: it's Italian, French or Francotalian.). Let's hear which ones you can't stand the mere sight and sound of.

I'm going to have to go with Vietnamese (sorry, it just sounds bad), Portuguese and Mandarin. Interestingly that's a big part of why I like the latter two.

I think Portuguese, Vietnamese and Cantonese all sound pretty bad. Mandarin I like, but not Cantonese.

Interesting. I love Cantonese but can't stand Mandarin

[Michael]

To me, the ugliest language would be Turkish.. it looks and sounds ugly! I love all the East Asian languages, and both tonal and pitch languages are like music to my ears, albeit different types.

Damn, I forgot Cantonese. It's even worse than Mandarin. Both sound bad to me in their own way. Have you ever heard caipira speech?

I have definitely heard of caipira speech. That's Brazilian Portuguese as spoken in Rio de Janeiro (in caipira, heeo jee zhaneroo ), which also happens to be the Portuguese dialect I'm learning (at least pronunciation). To me, Brazilian Portuguese literally sounds like French, while European Portuguese, as the Onion says, just sounds like people speaking Spanish with too many olives in their mouths (which in itself sounds just as good )!

[linguoboy]

I have definitely heard of caipira speech. That's Brazilian Portuguese as spoken in Rio de Janeiro

No, that's carioca. Caipira is anything but; it's Brazilian Portuguese as spoken by hillbillies in the south.

[gyrus]

Granted it's impossible to know how it was REALLY pronounced, I think Latin sounds very dull and ugly. But to be honest, I find most languages pretty in their own way, and equally I find there are ugly bits in all languages. I can't really name a particular language that sounds horrible off-the-bat to me, and when I do think that about a language I usually end up changing my mind.

[ILuvEire]

I have definitely heard of caipira speech. That's Brazilian Portuguese as spoken in Rio de Janeiro

No, that's carioca. Caipira is anything but; it's Brazilian Portuguese as spoken by hillbillies in the south.

Yeah, I don't particularly like Brazilian Portuguese, but capira is even worse. I like the European hillbillies though.

I think my love of Vietnamese is mostly because of my personal experiences with the language. I have so many Vietnamese friends and I love them all so much, I've just had such wonderful positive experiences with the language. Honestly, it's really not very beautiful, but I just love the speakers so much

[Czwartek]

See, I actually like velar fricatives for some reason... But most people don't and that's why such beautiful languages as Dutch and Hebrew keep appearing in this thread.

I don't mind velar fricatives. Both Polish and Norwegian use the unvoiced velar fricative, and I'm designing a conlang which uses both the voiced and unvoiced.

[mōdgethanc]

Maybe they just need to hear more Flemish. Even the Dutch agree that Belgian accents are softer than their own. I'd much rather hear a Belgian speak Dutch than speak French.

And I'd rather hear them speak neither, but then I really can't stand every Dutch accent but the standard - which naturally nobody speaks.

To me, the ugliest language would be Turkish.. it looks and sounds ugly!

I have to agree here. Whoever invented the Latinization of it was on crack.

Yeah, I don't particularly like Brazilian Portuguese, but capira is even worse. I like the European hillbillies though.

What do you like about EP? It just sounds like a string of constant /uʒwuʒpuɫubɾuʃ/ and vowels that are barely there. I've heard Slavic languages I liked better.

[sa wulfs]

Oh, I almost missed this chance to spread my message of hatred towards the French language.

French is ugly.

[mōdgethanc]

It seems a lot of people hate French. I like the sound of it a lot (I think it's all the front rounded vowels). I just don't like the orthography. It's too complicated and full of exceptions and little quirks.

[ILuvEire]

I'm going to have to go with Vietnamese (sorry, it just sounds bad)

You'll never be able to like it if all you watch is Paris By Night and crappy Vietnamese comedy. See how it's rated as one of the better-sounding languages of Asia, just because the sample sounds good. How a language appeals depends just as greatly on the speaker as on that language's phonetic inventory.

According to that, I liked Tamil, Mongolian, Mandarin, Shanghaiese, Taiwanese, Hakka, Cantonese, Thai, Lao, and of course, Vietnamese. Mongolian and Hakka surprised me, I've never really heard them before, but they were both gorgeous! I really really didn't like Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Tagalog, or Malay/Indonesian, Korean and Tagalog were alright, and Teochew surprised me, I like it in theory, but listening to samples, it's terrible!

To me, the ugliest language would be Turkish.. it looks and sounds ugly!

I have to agree here. Whoever invented the Latinization of it was on crack.

I actually think Turkish sounds very pretty, and looks very pretty, but they don't go together. The Latinization drives me freaking insane, it doesn't make any sense! <c> for /dʒ/?! You've gotta be fucking kidding!

Yeah, I don't particularly like Brazilian Portuguese, but capira is even worse. I like the European hillbillies though.

What do you like about EP? It just sounds like a string of constant /uʒwuʒpuɫubɾuʃ/ and vowels that are barely there. I've heard Slavic languages I liked better.

I actually adore the vowel reduction, it's so sexy. I remember, in a Deolinda video, someone shouts /ˈmuzɨkɐ ˈmuzɨkɐ/!, and I was totally sold. I also really dislike the alveolarization of stops like /d t/ in BP, verdade /veɾˈdadʒi/ hurts my ears. The other big thing I like, is that they go along with the lenition of voiced stops intervocalically, like Spanish. /vɛɾˈð̞að̞ɨ/, muuuch better.

It seems a lot of people hate French. I like the sound of it a lot (I think it's all the front rounded vowels). I just don't like the orthography. It's too complicated and full of exceptions and little quirks.

I really don't like French. It has individual things that I love, like nasal vowels, front rounded vowels, uvular rhotic etc., but I just don't like them all together in one language (plus I think it looks ugly). Actually, I prefer Portuguese or Polish (as much as it pains me to say it - Polish, yuck!) nasals to the French kinds. In Portuguese, when you have a word like <homem> it's really pronounced more like [ɔw̃mɛj̃] rather than /ɔ̃mɛ̃/, like you would think. It's the vowel followed by a nasal approximate, it's nice

Another language I have a love/hate relationship with is Spanish. I ADORE specific dialects (Andalusian, Mexican, Cuban) but HATE other dialects (Standard Peninsular or Rioplatanese for example) and I really don't particularly like its orthography. Eventually, I want to have a good understanding of all Portuguese and Spanish (and Galician) dialects, and be able to put on an accent based on who I'm talking to. As far as I'm concerned, they're all dialects of one big language (like Norwegian/Swedish/Danish)

[Riptide]

According to that, I liked Tamil, Mongolian, Mandarin, Shanghaiese, Taiwanese, Hakka, Cantonese, Thai, Lao, and of course, Vietnamese. Mongolian and Hakka surprised me, I've never really heard them before, but they were both gorgeous! I really really didn't like Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Tagalog, or Malay/Indonesian, Korean and Tagalog were alright, and Teochew surprised me, I like it in theory, but listening to samples, it's terrible!

Haha, you said that you both really didn't like Tagalog and you think it's alright. Which one is it?

[ILuvEire]

According to that, I liked Tamil, Mongolian, Mandarin, Shanghaiese, Taiwanese, Hakka, Cantonese, Thai, Lao, and of course, Vietnamese. Mongolian and Hakka surprised me, I've never really heard them before, but they were both gorgeous! I really really didn't like Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Tagalog, or Malay/Indonesian, Korean and Tagalog were alright, and Teochew surprised me, I like it in theory, but listening to samples, it's terrible!

Haha, you said that you both really didn't like Tagalog and you think it's alright. Which one is it?

Whoops, I meant that it was alright, I changed my mind and thought I edited the post correctly

[Michael]

I have definitely heard of caipira speech. That's Brazilian Portuguese as spoken in Rio de Janeiro

No, that's carioca. Caipira is anything but; it's Brazilian Portuguese as spoken by hillbillies in the south.

Thanks for correcting me. I knew there were two c's in that dialect's name.

[Formiko]

Mongolian has always sounded good to me. But they forgot one. They forgot Tibetan which is my favorite.