Andreas wrote:
> ><< I'll throw in some other beautiful languages from my point of view: I
> > >like Icelandic very much as it is spoken >>
> >
> >You know, I find this very interesting. There have been several mentions
> >of
> >how beautiful Icelandic, Finnish, Hungarian, and so forth are, and at
least
> >one person said that Romance languages were the ugliest he'd ever heard.
> >That could not be more opposite to myself and most Westerners, I think
(the
> >ones I know). Everybody wants to learn either Spanish, French or
Italian,
> >claiming it to be the most beautiful language on the planet (for me, it's
> >French, and I know someone was dogging French earlier).
>
> Where I come from, French is usually considered beautiful but difficult.
> Personally, I find if abhorrent - chiefly due to those detestable nasal
> vowels. No offense is meant to French-speakers, of course. It's not your
> fault you're French! ;-)
I don't particularly love French, although I do like nasal vowels (I like
very much, ie, Portuguese, or Ligurian, which is full of nasal vowels).
> >People who take
> >German are made fun of, let alone anyone who so much has heard of any
other
> >language from any country surrounding Germany, or near it (France/Belgium
> >excluded, of course).
>
> In Swedish school, you can take either French or German as your second
> foreign language (English being the first, whether you like it or not).
Most
> people take German, as it's considered to be the easy choice. I, of
course,
> took German ...
Here people cosider French to be the easy choice... and I have chosen
German!
> >My second Arabic teacher (born in New York City; no
> >Arab blood in him whatsoever) once said, "I was at a Linguistics
conference
> >once, and the whole thing was in Dutch. Dutch is the ugliest, most awful
> >sounding language on the planet. Everybody thinks their own language is
> >beautiful, even the Dutch, but they're wrong; it's awful."
>
> I can't understand what people find so bad with Dutch - it's like a mix of
> English and German (both langs I like) with alot of nice extra [x]s and
[X]s
> added in for good measure! Learn to pronounce "'s-Gravenhage" correctly
and
> your halfway to nirvana ... ;-)
: )
I wonder what do Irina and Boudewijn think about this... I don't know how
Dutch sounds, of het moet schoon zijn, ik denk (???).
Luca