Re: CHAT: Blandness (was: Uusisuom's influences)

Yoon Ha Lee sikayal:

> [snip]
> You may have something there.  I was about to answer that well, English
> is *my* native tongue and I don't consider it most beautiful (though I do
> like it, and I don't feel it's quite as ugly as others feel it is)...but
> Korean, not English, was my *first* tongue.  And Japanese, which really
> does sound like Korean (not sure about v.v.?) if you're falling asleep
> and not paying attention, is one of my favourite languages (that I've
> encountered).
>
> How do others' language-aesthetic-preferences match up?
This is a very interesting theory.  My first lang is English, and I find
all of the Germanic languages very pretty except for Dutch, which is just
a little too blocky for me.  I really enjoy the sound of Portuguese,
Spanish, and Italian, but I hate French; I like Romanian and the little
bits of Hungarian, Slovak, and Polish that I've heard.  I like Japanese; I
detest Georgian and don't like Russian; I abhor Chinese and Vietnamese
with violent passion.  I hate Korean slightly less than I hate French.

Sorry if I've offended anyone's native langs.  The relevant part is that I
do like the languages related to mine, which fits with Frank's theory.
BTW, I had a similar experience listening to Russian in Romania--I was
sure I could've understood it, if I had only been able to catch it!
Likewise when I heard Frisian--I got about a 3rd of it, and felt that the
other 2/3 were just barely out of reach.

Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu

"If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are
perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in
frightful danger of seeing it for the first time."
--G.K. Chesterton

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