Ugliest language

This is our main forum. Here, anything related to languages and linguistics can be discussed.

Moderator:Forum Administrators

User avatar
mōdgethanc
Posts:10890
Joined:2010-03-20, 5:27
Gender:male
Location:Toronto
Country:CACanada (Canada)
Ugliest language

Postby mōdgethanc » 2010-07-26, 22:57

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.
[ˈmoːdjeðɑŋk]

User avatar
Formiko
Posts:13388
Joined:2008-01-25, 10:21
Real Name:Dosvdali
Gender:male
Location:Ashghabat
Country:TMTurkmenistan (Türkmenistan)

Re: Ugliest language

Postby Formiko » 2010-07-27, 1:25

Talib wrote: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.
Cherokee Indian STILL improving German.
Getting reacquainted with Swahili Msaada!
In no particular order
[flag]eo[/flag][flag]de[/flag][flag]es[/flag][flag]yo[/flag][flag]chr[/flag][flag]ru[/flag]

User avatar
Shad
Posts:1759
Joined:2006-08-31, 8:52
Gender:male
Country:ARArgentina (Argentina)

Re: Ugliest language

Postby Shad » 2010-07-27, 1:34

For me, no Asian language sounds nice. The only exception would be Japanese. It doesn't sound ugly, just very annoying.

Formiko, are you talking about European Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese? The latest can't sound ugly! Hehe. Well, European Portuguese sounds like Russian and I love Slavic languages, so I like it too.

User avatar
mōdgethanc
Posts:10890
Joined:2010-03-20, 5:27
Gender:male
Location:Toronto
Country:CACanada (Canada)

Re: Ugliest language

Postby mōdgethanc » 2010-07-27, 2:00

Damn, I forgot Cantonese. It's even worse than Mandarin.
Formiko, are you talking about European Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese? The latest can't sound ugly! Hehe.
Both sound bad to me in their own way. Have you ever heard caipira speech?
[ˈmoːdjeðɑŋk]

User avatar
ILuvEire
Posts:10398
Joined:2007-12-08, 17:41
Gender:male
Location:Austin
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Ugliest language

Postby ILuvEire » 2010-07-27, 2:09

I find Norwegian, Hindi/Urdu, Indonesian/Malay, Cushitic languages, Basque, Dutch, Polish and Breton tough on my ears. I also really detest languages with enormous phoneme inventories, like the Khoi-san family, Salishan family etc., they just drive me crazy.

Also, I just want to say that I seem to love the languages that people seem to dislike. Case in point: Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese...the list goes on.
[flag]de[/flag] [flag]da[/flag] [flag]fr-qc[/flag] [flag]haw[/flag] [flag]he[/flag] [flag]es[/flag]
Current focus: [flag]ga[/flag] [flag]ar[/flag]
Facebook | tumblr | Twitter
“We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them.” —John Waters

User avatar
Shad
Posts:1759
Joined:2006-08-31, 8:52
Gender:male
Country:ARArgentina (Argentina)

Re: Ugliest language

Postby Shad » 2010-07-27, 2:22

Talib wrote:Both sound bad to me in their own way. Have you ever heard caipira speech?


Yes, I have. Many languages can sound both nice and ugly, Ithink. Spanish and Portuguese, for example. A big deal depends on the person who speaks.

Norwegian is my favourite language, ILuvEire. I really like the sound of most Germanic languages. Maybe not all them sound "pretty" but they do sound very attractive to me. Even Danish.

Stawrberry
Posts:906
Joined:2008-06-09, 16:00

Re: Ugliest language

Postby Stawrberry » 2010-07-27, 3:08

Arabic.
Turkish.
Spanish.
Catalan.
French.
Hindi/Urdu.
Korean.
Swedish.
Tonal languages.

Curse them, we hates them >:{

thoughtsafar
Posts:118
Joined:2010-03-28, 17:08
Gender:male
Location:Akron
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: Ugliest language

Postby thoughtsafar » 2010-07-27, 3:13

I tend to find beauty in a lot of languages that most do not; the only language I've really thought was downright unpleasant sounding in general is Hungarian. It always sounds very halting, like it's being played on a CD that keeps skipping; it's nothing special to look at either. I've also found myself largely unimpressed with Norwegian despite the fact that I think Swedish is extremely beautiful and like Germanic languages in general.

Also, it's hard for me to have an objective viewpoint as it's my native language, but I think English is going down a bad road in both sight and sound. I really like the sound (as best as we can figure) of Old English as well as the ways it's most commonly written, but it's pretty much been downhill from there.

Oh and French is way overrated. :whistle:
Comfortable: English, German, Dutch
Working on: Italian, Mandarin
On hiatus: Swedish, Spanish, French, Russian
Ancient languages: Latin, Ancient Greek, Old English
Waiting not-so-patiently to start: Welsh, Romanian, Slovene, Zulu

User avatar
lumiel
Posts:2283
Joined:2009-07-12, 8:12
Real Name:Miika
Gender:male
Location:Helsinki/Helsingfors
Country:FIFinland (Suomi)

Re: Ugliest language

Postby lumiel » 2010-07-27, 3:48

Danish (!), Dutch (!), Swedish, Russian, Norwegian, Polish, Hebrew, Tagalog, Malay, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Turkish, Gujarati, Hindi...

I could go on and on... Here are some of the languages I find very unattractive.
[flag]fi[/flag] [flag]sme[/flag] [flag]et[/flag] [flag]fr[/flag] [flag]fr-qc[/flag]
Kas siis selle maa keel
laulutuules ei või
taevani tõustes üles
igavikku omale otsida?

User avatar
Narbleh
Posts:3937
Joined:2007-07-30, 6:37
Real Name:Erik
Gender:male
Location:Portland
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Ugliest language

Postby Narbleh » 2010-07-27, 3:53

I can find something I like about how most languages sound except: Hebrew, Chinese, Arabic, Dutch, Italian.
[flag=]en-us[/flag][flag=]fr[/flag][flag=]eo[/flag][flag=]nl[/flag]Image

User avatar
mōdgethanc
Posts:10890
Joined:2010-03-20, 5:27
Gender:male
Location:Toronto
Country:CACanada (Canada)

Re: Ugliest language

Postby mōdgethanc » 2010-07-27, 4:08

Also, I just want to say that I seem to love the languages that people seem to dislike. Case in point: Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese...the list goes on.
Maybe you just like tonal languages? I don't mind Chinese in small doses, but after a while it starts to get really grating. But Vietnamese (and other Southeast Asian languages) is just awful. Plus it's an eyesore.
Yes, I have. Many languages can sound both nice and ugly, Ithink. Spanish and Portuguese, for example. A big deal depends on the person who speaks.
I'm going to have to call shenanigans on this one. While Spanish can occasionally sound mincing and lispy, Portuguese almost always sounds bad to me. I think it's mainly that gross r.
Arabic.
Turkish.
Spanish.
Catalan.
French.
Hindi/Urdu.
Korean.
Swedish.
Tonal languages.
What do you like then? Over half of the world's languages are tonal.
[ˈmoːdjeðɑŋk]

User avatar
Meera
Posts:8782
Joined:2008-05-27, 22:01
Real Name:Meera
Gender:female
Location:Philadelphia
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: Ugliest language

Postby Meera » 2010-07-27, 4:36

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


Okay Languages I cant stand are: Dutch, German, Spainish, French, Italian, Latin, Russian, Chinese, Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish, Sweedish, Jappanese, Korean, Portuguesse, thai, Veitnamese and hebrew.
अहिंसा/เจ
Learning: (hi) (ja) (ko) (fr)

User avatar
ILuvEire
Posts:10398
Joined:2007-12-08, 17:41
Gender:male
Location:Austin
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Ugliest language

Postby ILuvEire » 2010-07-27, 6:12

thoughtsafar wrote:I tend to find beauty in a lot of languages that most do not; the only language I've really thought was downright unpleasant sounding in general is Hungarian. It always sounds very halting, like it's being played on a CD that keeps skipping; it's nothing special to look at either. I've also found myself largely unimpressed with Norwegian despite the fact that I think Swedish is extremely beautiful and like Germanic languages in general.

Also, it's hard for me to have an objective viewpoint as it's my native language, but I think English is going down a bad road in both sight and sound. I really like the sound (as best as we can figure) of Old English as well as the ways it's most commonly written, but it's pretty much been downhill from there.

Oh and French is way overrated. :whistle:

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 :mrgreen:

Talib wrote:
Yes, I have. Many languages can sound both nice and ugly, Ithink. Spanish and Portuguese, for example. A big deal depends on the person who speaks.
I'm going to have to call shenanigans on this one. While Spanish can occasionally sound mincing and lispy, Portuguese almost always sounds bad to me. I think it's mainly that gross r.

Talib, you make me sad, Portuguese is so gorgeous. But anyway, I know what you mean, applying it to a language I really don't like. It's like, even if it's being spoken by a gorgeous guy, he still sounds like he's regurgitating and that is not sexy. :P
[flag]de[/flag] [flag]da[/flag] [flag]fr-qc[/flag] [flag]haw[/flag] [flag]he[/flag] [flag]es[/flag]
Current focus: [flag]ga[/flag] [flag]ar[/flag]
Facebook | tumblr | Twitter
“We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them.” —John Waters

User avatar
loqu
Posts:11891
Joined:2007-08-15, 21:12
Real Name:Daniel
Gender:male
Location:Barcelona, Catalonia

Re: Ugliest language

Postby loqu » 2010-07-27, 6:39

Stawrberry wrote:Catalan.


you're definitely deaf. :P j/k.

Anyone not liking Latin does not have a heart in their chest.

Languages I find ugly: Hebrew. Polish. Czech.

Danish is ugly but in a very cute way.
Нека људи уживају у стварима.
Let people enjoy things.

User avatar
'''
Posts:1748
Joined:2008-08-29, 14:20
Real Name:Withheld
Gender:male
Location:Canberra
Country:AUAustralia (Australia)
Contact:

Re: Ugliest language

Postby ''' » 2010-07-27, 6:44

Well I can get used to any language given enough time, however, going on first impressions, languages which will probably never sound "good" to me (because nothing will really sound awful)

1/ Kannada it just sounds so shithouse. Ew.

certain dialects of arabic; french (srsly, why do people even like you?); most dialects of spanish; viet; Brazilian portuguese (true portuguese sounds sexig); flemish; certain dialects of swedish; bavarian & swiss german; heavily dialectal hungarian; Most slavic languages (special mention to russian, czech, and formerly polish which I hated even more than czech for a while); English (really, I just fundamentally hate english); Navajo and most indian languages south of North US; thai; the aboriginal languages. The list goes on, clearly aesthetics are not a big thing for me.
26/♂/hetero/Hu/★☭/PRESCRIPTIVIST
(en)(hu) - native
(de)(fr)(fa) - intermediate

alijsh
Posts:3557
Joined:2004-10-26, 7:48
Gender:male
Country:IRIran (ایران)
Contact:

Re: Ugliest language

Postby alijsh » 2010-07-27, 7:15

English, especially British English
Arabic
Chinese

Mutusen
Posts:1126
Joined:2007-10-17, 19:12
Gender:male
Country:ATAustria (Österreich)
Contact:

Re: Ugliest language

Postby Mutusen » 2010-07-27, 7:19

I find no language horribly ugly, and the beauty also depends on the speaker. But I'm not fond of Arabic, Dutch and Danish. However I don't know how many languages sound: some people mentioned native American or Indian languages, but I couldn't recognize them.

And unlike some people here, I like Swedish, Japanese and Czech.
„Koľko jazykov vieš, toľkokrát si človekom.“

User avatar
Shad
Posts:1759
Joined:2006-08-31, 8:52
Gender:male
Country:ARArgentina (Argentina)

Re: Ugliest language

Postby Shad » 2010-07-27, 7:21

''' wrote:Brazilian portuguese (true portuguese sounds sexig)

-looking for my gun-

To all those who don't like Norwegian: I know where you live.
You obviously know in your hearts that this is the coolest language.

8-)

User avatar
Tenebrarum
Posts:6633
Joined:2006-06-22, 17:02
Real Name:Duy
Gender:male

Re: Ugliest language

Postby Tenebrarum » 2010-07-27, 9:45

Talib wrote: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.

Some languages however simply get on my nerve no matter what, with the people speaking them largely to blame: redneck/chav/bogan English (speakers are stupid), Indian English (many speakers are nigh-incomprehensible), Mandarin (speakers are incredibly pushy, non-apologetic and just spit Mandarin into my face without asking where I'm from first), most socio-dialects of Vietnamese (speakers are petty and tragic) etc.
!Chalice! Communion wafer of the tabernacle

Quevenois
Posts:1260
Joined:2007-09-24, 21:27
Real Name:N. Le Stunff
Gender:male
Location:Breizh/Brittany/Bretagne

Re: Ugliest language

Postby Quevenois » 2010-07-27, 11:58

I find Norwegian, Hindi/Urdu, Indonesian/Malay, Cushitic languages, Basque, Dutch, Polish and Breton tough on my ears.


Are you sure you've heard enough of Breton? There are many different dialects and accents, and I think you can't say you hate the sound of Breton if you haven't heard all of them.


The languages that don't sound nice to my ears are Spain standard Spanish, Standard German, several dialects of English (esp. American ones), Mandarin, Danish, Standard French...
אַ שפראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמײ און פֿלאָט


Return to “General Language Forum”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests