What language sounds like Arabic and Italian in equal parts? My first impression was that it was Arabic because I heard [ʕ], but otherwise it sounded a lot like Italian in its "flow" or whatever; I'm pretty sure there were [d͡z] and [ɲ], too. It might have had [θ] and/or other sounds that Arabic has as well, since somehow the pseudo-Arabic vibe stuck.
The speakers were three (incredibly beautiful
) women who, based on appearance alone, I'd have guessed to be Kazakh or maybe Kyrgyz or Uzbek, but whatever they spoke was like 80% certainly not a Turkic language; there weren't any front rounded vowels AFAICT and it just generally didn't sound Turkic enough.
Even with the [ʕ], it ticked off the "cute language" box in my head, though, when usually languages I find cute are Japanese, Korean, Turkish, etc. and tbh Finnish; my dad actually thought they were Japanese, and it did have
something in common with that as well... probably just the vowels and "basic" consonants in addition to [d͡z], but still worth noting. It might also be worth noting that I usually don't find Italian cute, so the cuteness wasn't derived from its similarity to Italian.
Probably not relevant beyond possibly some implications, but they were obviously tourists and were taking selfies with a selfie stick, basically hugging each other under a coat (because it was raining a little), laughing a lot; I don't know if that kind of chill touristy behaviour rules out them having been some kind of Caucasians, but I also didn't hear any ejectives or weird sounds that most of the region's languages have, and the vowels seemed to be [a e i o u] or something close to that. I guess them having been some Caucasians would be statistically more plausible than many other possibilities because it'd mean they were technically from Russia, but I don't know?
Do any languages with both [d͡z] and [ʕ] even exist...? I mean, according to Wikipedia, Najdi Arabic has both, but I really doubt it was that because A) it didn't sound like it had emphatic consonants, B) it sounded way too much like Italian somehow, C) I just don't think Arabic can sound so cute, and last and probably actually least D) they didn't look like Arabs.
D would definitely not be a valid point if it was Najdi Arabic, since apparently it's the dialect spoken in Riyadh and there are immigrants from all around the world in that city, but assuming that's what Saudi government officials and whatnot speak, it was 100% certainly not that.
I'd think it was probably Maltese if it wasn't for the clear presence of [ʕ], the fact that I couldn't pick up a single word, and the unlikelihood of there even
being three Maltese women of any Asian origin, let alone them presumably being friends and coming to Finland as tourists.
I swear, if it was Brazilian Portuguese...EDIT: It did have front vowels, obviously, just not front
rounded vowels. Kinda wondering how I even managed to forget the key word, "rounded", lol.