What is your favorite sounding language (read more)?

[Mentilliath]

What natural language, in your opinion, has the best sound?

How does your conlang compare? Do you think it's hard to make a conlang that sounds "pleasant" phonetically?

Romanian is my favorite language in terms of sound. It's just beautiful, especially when sung. It sounds like Italian and Russian had a baby :p

I feel like my main conlang has a good sound when I speak it, but I have trouble coming up with good "harmony" in other conlangs I've attempted. And nothing even comes close to Romanian's level of "pleasantness".

Do you speak your conlang to judge its sound? Ever heard your conlang sung?

[Levike]

Croatian is definitely my favourite.

It has all the sounds that I would call normal, I mean no /ð/ or /θ/ or /ɣ/.
It has a normal amount of consonants, each well put into its place so they don't sound unnatural.
The way it sounds gives me a sense that it has a structure.
It doesn't sound monotonic, unlike Japanese.
Most importantly, it sounds like a clear language, no mumbling.

My conlang is only partly similar to Croatian, but I still like it, I read some things out loud in it.
It's like Croatian without its special letters, with a lot of /ɒ/'s and /ɛ/'s, and with a lot of long vowels.

So basically it sounds like: Hungarian+Croatian+Romanian.
Could you give a recording of your conlang? I really want to hear it.

[Mentilliath]

^ Very interesting. I didn't actually think much about why I prefer Romanian, but I think I have some idea.

It has a good balance of consonants: i.e. it contains more than the set of consonants in Latin and Ancient Greek, by having /ʃ/, /ʧ/, /ʦ/, and /ʒ/. And yet it's vowel-heavy with many CV syllables and many words ending in vowels. Additionally, it contains more than just the standard five vowels by adding in /ə/ and /ɨ/ as regularly occurring sounds. Languages like Italian, Spanish, and Japanese that are mainly limited to the 5-vowels can sound a little boring to me after a while.

Japanese may be in second place for me. While it does have a simple sound system, the syllables that it does allow are the perfect ones, in my opinion. When sung, it's beautiful. I guess I have a bit of a preoccupation with languages being sung :p

And yes, I will post a recording soon.

[Koko]

1. My favourite language is difficult to say. Italian has good melody and beautiful everything, but Czech also has this and its beauty comes from the complete contrast from Ialian in that it has complex consonant clusters and an equally sexy accent

2. My Isyan could potentially (redundant adverb, I know ) have complex clusters too, but I did not make it so. Instead I tried to imitate a syllable structure close to Italian but with a bit more clusters. It has a prosody I have invented which is dependent upon the number of syllables and sometimes divergent from rules. So while it is meant to mirror some italianness, it is still its own particularly in the lexicon.

Ferodian on the other hand, it doesn't have much influence outside of grammar (syntax and verbs). I like the phonology: consonant clusters are easy to make and in this sense, it bares resemblance to my beloved Czech. There are no palatals save /j/ and /ʎ/ (italian inspired) and /ɲ/ (also /ʝ/).

3. I would love to hear Isyan sung. Unfortunately the only person who sounds good singing that I know is my sister; she would try (maybe) but to teach someone not interested in languages IPA and how to pronounce Isyan would be painful on the both of us.

I think I do speak it to judge. If it sounds too Romance-y, I make a change to the allophony so it has a voice unique to Isyan.

[Koko]

It has a good balance of consonants: i.e. it contains more than the set of consonants in Latin and Ancient Greek, by having /ʃ/, /ʧ/, /ʦ/, and /ʒ/. And yet it's vowel-heavy with many CV syllables and many words ending in vowels. Additionally, it contains more than just the standard five vowels by adding in /ə/ and /ɨ/ as regularly occurring sounds. Languages like Italian , Spanish, and Japanese that are mainly limited to the 5-vowels can sound a little boring to me after a while.

Italian phonemically has /ɛ/ and /ɔ/.

Japanese may be in second place for me. While it does have a simple sound system, the syllables that it does allow are the perfect ones, in my opinion. When sung, it's beautiful. I guess I have a bit of a preoccupation with languages being sung :p

100% agree, with everything in this paragraph.

[Mentilliath]

Thanks for the answers, guys. And yes, I suppose Italian does have those vowels, but still, I'd like a central vowel or two

Here's a recording of me reading a genitive-heavy sentence from the Constitution. I won't post the words yet just so you can focus on the sound and not the word boundaries:

https://soundcloud.com/aurunculeia/halvian

[Koko]

Oh no, soundcloud isn't working for me today . I'd post something in Isyan for you guys, but only if I was more confident in my voice and could recite a passage smoother.

[Levike]

I'd post something in Isyan for you guys, but only if I was more confident in my voice

Don't worry, my voice doesn't sound angelic either.

https://soundcloud.com/aurunculeia/halvian

It sounds like Latin, maybe with more s's.

It doesn't remind me of Romanian at all, it's not so harsh, it's more like a pleasant flow.

[Koko]

I'd post something in Isyan for you guys, but only if I was more confident in my voice

Don't worry, my voice isn't angelic either.

To reply to the "Do it " before you edited , I don't have any recording equipment. With an old iPod touch, I need a mic to record and even then I don't think I could upload anything on here because I can't upload any pictures.

In reply to the current thing: how I sound in Isyan is just like me in English but with over emphasis on allophones . That kinda makes it more than annoying and I don't to make your ears bleed.

[Mentilliath]

I hope you do post something in Isyan, Koko, because that would be cool to hear I’m not confident about my voice at all and to top it off, I have a cold at the moment.

It doesn't remind me of Romanian at all, it's not so harsh, it's more like a pleasant flow.

I think it sounds most like Ancient Greek, which was a major influence on the sound.

Oh, Halvian isn't supposed to sound like Romanian; that was what I intended with a different conlang that I recently started. Halvian is quite different from Romanian, using mainly 5 vowels, and none of those palato-alveolar sounds I referenced earlier. Halvian’s sound inventory is based on Ancient Greek and Latin. I know it's a bit harsh sounding, but the grammar is based off PIE and Old Latin, which were fairly harsh sounding :p Also it kind of fits the aggressive warlike nature of the Halvians

Anyway, here's the text without accent marks:

Ommiam hastemōda gelthēlas lagronas sot nivotesom welāsosom haugessoriomve woinēkesom varom thalawos renios seppurimaga dagasos, nithelas sot hāmas oriathi lat.

[Levike]

Actually it doesn't sound harsh at all, quite the contrary.

If you think Latin is harsh, then what do you think about German or Russian?

[Mentilliath]

Oh sorry about that. I misread your post

And well no, I suppose Latin is not that harsh, I guess just in comparison with its daughter languages, you have words like "cunctus" and "amabunt" that are a bit "coarse" and old Latin has consonant clusters that are a bit outlandish that I've incorporated into Halvian (the Halvian word for "illness, sickness" is "stlaga" /'stla:ga/ Try saying that five times fast :p And with Greek, you have words with initial stop/fricative clusters like "pteron" and "chthes" that have also influenced Halvian.

In general, I love German and Russian; sure they're a bit harsher in terms of their velars and their consonant clusters (especially Russian), but really I love the sound of those languages.

[Koko]

I hope you do post something in Isyan, Koko, because that would be cool to hear I’m not confident about my voice at all and to top it off, I have a cold at the moment.

I'll see what I can do. I could text myself an email of the recording and have it as an attachment. But I think that would cost me a bit though (not sure if audio messages are in my plan). It may get up by tomorrow or sometime this week. Depends on when I can get on a computer.

Anyway, here's the text without accent marks: […]

If it's not too much, would you mind putting the text in spoilers? I would like to test my ears If it's in spoilers I won't be tempted to look.

[Koko]

I've got the recording to myself now. Here's the text: (translation is on last page of Conlang Conworld thread)

Nervilexan Viyanyon Isyo

Sia Isyagav jei iĵe isia mos. Kehos morio, cauna. Sce piesav farnagav izbe ney sijijo, poesav fervoya fevijo, 'ne oresav oresijo. Kaün, piesav sei Isye ine torpozejan torivav istejan. Bivo josijo quiliejan. Im' sa, Viyanya, noji se leximeju elsmejan lexima. Nojav, el sa soguï, unra se lonydiuira. Yn espönyo, yn espöniveu lonydiuira. Iuira. A-palbiv, Isyanye isuë ediev inlusi farnagusi lumiuira. Noji vaidea kio, tevaca nol poesa bivar kuë.

Eo Eon Ainse ine sei licav egrons.

Heads up: I screwed up at some point (sijijo and lexima). I also ended up de-palatalising /ɲ/ (ny) into /ni/ for ease of pronunciation in lonydiuira. For some reason, I pronounced Eo and Eon with /ˈæj-/. Stupidly too, though less so than the /æj/, I forgot to pronounce the last farnagusi and bivar with [ɣ] for the r instead of trill. This is acceptable, but I prefer keeping to the Hesian accent. I'm too lazy to try and redo it, so as soon as I get on that desktop, you can surely listen to what Isyan sounds like With an almost strong British Columbian accent.

Also, thanks Mentilliath

[Koko]

(just a test for something: maybe I don't need a desktop?)Does this do anything for you? It should be the recording of the above address.

[Levike]

Can't you just record yourself with your phone and put it in your computer to later upload it?

[Koko]

Mm… I don't think my phone is capable of that. See, it's not that old year-wise, but technology being the fastest thing we're advancing in, it's old enough enough that I need to experiment with how I do this: if the link didn't work it means I'll have to save the file on a desktop and just upload the recording as an attachment. I was kinda hoping I wouldn't have to need the desktop.

(the dog in your avatar has its head turned like he's the one who's asking the question )

[Levike]

At least it's not so grumpy as Lietmotiv's cat.

[razlem]

I think Finnish is the nicest sounding, and it has definitely been an influence in Angos.

[Levike]

@Mentilliath: Just for fun I listened to your recording and tried to write down what I heard.
The result is pretty funny and maybe says something about my listening skills.

What I heard: Omniam haste mora ke felas lagrona sotnivotes sonielasosom

What I should have heard: Ommiam hastemōda gelthēlas lagronas sot nivotesom welāsosom