Beautiful Languages

[Rev]

People asked about the term "Romance Language."

Technically, the Romance languages are a sub-branch of the Italic language group, branching from Vulgar Latin (considered to be a "dead" language).



Corsican is a part of this branch, as is French, Spanish & Italian.

English and German are part of the Germanic language group.



For more on this topic, see Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages

[Jenny_HRO87]

Originally Posted by lefty12357

Now I will say something that is truly uninteresting. The region of the USA I live in has a significant number of people of German ancestry. My mother's family traces its roots back to Pommern, which was part of Prussia at the time (around 1860), and now is part of Poland. http://pomeranianews.com/pomerania_map.html

oh I don't think that this is uninteresting at all

I find it pretty fascinating to know so much about your ancestry... also I'm from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Western Pomerania), my (maternal) grandmother is from Pommern too (while my grandfather is from East Prussia... both obviously had to leave their homes because of the war) so Pommern isn't something totally uncommon to me. I think it's really interesting to know more detailed things about your ancestry and where you come from (I don't know that much about mine... my dad's parents [which I've never met] are from the "Sudentenland" which is now part of the Czech Republic [so it's not that uncommon to find Polish or Czech sounding names in Germany... but I bet that's not so rare in the US either, as I said before it's fascinating how many origins Americans can have).. do you when did your mother's ancestry left Pommern?

ok. This is really really off-topic. I better stop now xD

Originally Posted by Rev

English and German are part of the Germanic language group.



For more on this topic, see Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages

it's actually pretty cool that all these languages have the same origin... also it reminds me that when you are German it's so weird when you listen to Dutch people... because you are always able to understand a bit... it sounds like really bad German xD

[Rev]

As of the US 2000 Census, German (43M) is still the most listed individual ancestry for Americans, followed by Irish (31M) and then English (25M). Note that Scottish (9M) & Welsh (2M) are also listed individually. In that Census, the total US population is listed at 281M.

Wikipedia gives a map showing where each major ancestry is in the majority:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...County.svg.png



Edit:

Originally Posted by Jenny_HRO87

it always fascinates me how many different origins Americans can have, even if their ancestors came to America ages ago...

about dialects - I obviously don't know all, especially because I'm from Northern Germany where you also have dialects but in my opinion they aren't so heavy like others e. g. in South Germany... I don't really think that there's a "nicest" accent... I guess "Standard" German is ok, so that kind of German you talk when you don't have any heavy dialect (of course everyone has a slight dialect... for example I never really thought I would have any but then I moved to an other federal state to do my training and my classmate asked if there is any dialect where I come from and I was like "well some people say that we for example tend to stretch the vowels" and my classmate was like "that's true" and I was pretty flabbergasted because I never really noticed that myself... and now sometimes I do... and this was a long story with no meaning at all)... Low German (the version I know from here) sounds quite nice but not a lot of people don't talk it anymore, it's more or less dying out... it's just nice, I don't know... an other dialect I like is the one people in and around Berlin talk... it's not "beautiful" but it's that kind of dialect that makes you like a person without really knowing him or her. It's a kind of blunt, direct, I-say-what-I-want but likeable dialect...

The worst? Besides the Bavarian dialect it's basically the dialect people in Saxony talk... nothing against these people but this dialect is just hilarious. It sounds horrible and funny the same time. You can't take anyone serious who talks with his dialect. And you aren't even mean. It simply is like that.

I have to admit it always makes me smile a bit when I read or watch something in English and suddenly a word of German origin appears.. I know it's stupid but it always feels like a little "wave" from home... also when I learnt English in school I was glad that there were some words of French origin which I knew from French class and so it was easier to figure out their meaning in English and to remember them...

I don't really know... also I wouldn't allow myself to judge because my knowledge of UK accents is basically from British shows and actors I admire... sometimes I think Scottish accents have something friendly even if it's really hard to understand them... I don't really know. It's just... and this is nothing against you guys really... I don't know it's hard to explain why I like UK accents more than US accents... perhaps because the UK is closer or in school we learn British English... or because even if it's sometimes a lot harder to follow BBC News than CNN it just sounds a bit more classy... oh I don't know... you are better off to ignore this xD

and this was a long meaningless post. I guess I still won't delete it. I'm sorry.

Jenny, you have run out of your quota of appologies for the year. You are not permitted appologize again until January.


More seriously, I would not have asked the questions if I did not hope for detailed answers. I always like to hear the perspective of those from other countries (I already know the perspective of those around me). Thanks for answering.

The worst? Besides the Bavarian dialect it's basically the dialect people in Saxony talk... nothing against these people but this dialect is just hilarious. It sounds horrible and funny the same time. You can't take anyone serious who talks with his dialect. And you aren't even mean. It simply is like that.

Do you think there is a Czech influence on the way the Saxons talk? It's interesting that they are so close to Berlin.

[lefty12357]

@Rev, thanks for the charts. I've always found the history and lineage of languages to be very interesting.

Originally Posted by Jenny_HRO87

oh I don't think that this is uninteresting at all

I find it pretty fascinating to know so much about your ancestry... also I'm from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Western Pomerania), my (maternal) grandmother is from Pommern too (while my grandfather is from East Prussia... both obviously had to leave their homes because of the war) so Pommern isn't something totally uncommon to me. I think it's really interesting to know more detailed things about your ancestry and where you come from (I don't know that much about mine... my dad's parents [which I've never met] are from the "Sudentenland" which is now part of the Czech Republic [so it's not that uncommon to find Polish or Czech sounding names in Germany... but I bet that's not so rare in the US either, as I said before it's fascinating how many origins Americans can have).. do you when did your mother's ancestry left Pommern?

ok. This is really really off-topic. I better stop now xD




it's actually pretty cool that all these languages have the same origin... also it reminds me that when you are German it's so weird when you listen to Dutch people... because you are always able to understand a bit... it sounds like really bad German xD

My mother's side of the family came to the US in the 1860's and settled here in Minnesota.

[Jenny_HRO87]

Originally Posted by Rev

Jenny, you have run out of your quota of appologies for the year. You are not permitted appologize again until January.

oh I know it's hard to deal with me... I apologise for everything. xD

Originally Posted by Rev

Do you think there is a Czech influence on the way the Saxons talk? It's interesting that they are so close to Berlin.

oh this thought never even occurred to me but I don't really think so. Maybe it had a slight influence. No idea. But Saxony isn't so "close" to Berlin. There's still Brandenburg around Berlin first.

But there's actually a (minority) language in Germany that is a lot closer to Czech than to German because it's a Slavic language (but I have never met anyone who talks this language because it's located in South Brandenburg/East Saxony which is too far away from my city ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbian_languages

[Marka]

Originally Posted by Jenny_HRO87

But there's actually a (minority) language in Germany that is a lot closer to Czech than to German because it's a Slavic language (but I have never met anyone who talks this language because it's located in South Brandenburg/East Saxony which is too far away from my city ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbian_languages

Sorbian and Slovenian are one of the few languages in the world that have dual next to singular and plural. Being a Slovene myself, I consider it natural to use dual when I speak with someone in my own language, but I have noticed that more and more people of my generation (and younger generations) in my country are starting to use plural instead of dual, using the latter only when they want to stress that only two persons will do something (for example, when they talk about having a date or having sex ). Anyway, I see dual as something intimate and personal and I don't care if younger generations think that its outdated.

Sometimes, when I talk to somebody in Croatian or Serbian (which are similar to Slovenian), I sometimes intuitively try to use Slovenian dual, which of course makes no sense to the person I am talking to

-------------------------------------------------------
About which language I perceive as the most beautiful - none, really. Every language can be beautiful, flowing and poetic, if you listen to the right person who tries to make it sound flowing and poetic.

Therefore, French as a language is to me as beautiful as Croatian, Russian, Italian, Swiss German, ... if only I like the content of what is being spoken and if I like the person who speaks it. I would classify Esperanto as my favorite language - it is fairly logical, easy to learn and it sounds familiar to me.

[lapinschous]

Originally Posted by awkward Turtle

I think a beautiful language is all just up to personal preference. I actually think German can be quite beautiful with the right voice and intonations.

Must agree! I remember when I was 8 I had my first german class and they gave us audio cassettes and the voice of the girl sounded so pure and smooth when she was saying "I liebe dich" for the pronuntiation practice that I kept replaying the same sentence for days! ^^



As to french langugage, it may be difficult to say being myself a frenchman , but i think that french is pleasant to hear but it REEALLY depends on the person, and the accent. I honeslty don't like the southern accents, Marseille, Montpellier or Corsican accents lack smoothness and the intonations can sometimes sound rude or unelegant... that's why Alizée got rid of the ajaccian accent. But I don't like the slangish suburban accent of Paris, it just sounds too nonchalant and the people who have it generally do not articulate much ... (Jérémy Chatelain is a good example) .


My favorite french accent is... well I can't choose between the North Western accent of Bretagne (Nolwenn Leroy) and the true french (oxfordian) accent from Lyon (Coralie Clément)

[Marka]

Originally Posted by lapinschous

I honeslty don't like the southern accents, Marseille, Montpellier or Corsican accents lack smoothness and the intonations can sometimes sound rude or unelegant... that's why Alizée got rid of the ajaccian accent.

If Alizée ever got rid of the Corsican accent just because the way it sounds, then damn her. Its where she comes from, its parth of her childhood, and I am sure that she still speaks it when she is at home. One part of my family speaks a dialect with Hungarian influences, other part the dialect with Turkish influences, both can sound rude and funny at the same time, I know them both and in my real life I speak in my own way, while adapting to the way people around me speak.
But I would never say that one dialect sounds bad or that it is worthless, as they are all unique and beautiful in their own way, and every new one you learn, the more you gain in terms of your personality.

Anyway, I don't really hear the difference, but I love the way she spoke back in 2000-2003.

[ptjmwa]

I think Spanish, Italian, and French are beautiful languages because they just "Flow". I do agree that German, Russian, and English sound kind of ugly. But, to me Russian is probably the worst. Well, asian languages also sound ugly to me..

[Merci Alizée]

Originally Posted by Matevz91

Sorbian and Slovenian are one of the few languages in the world that have dual next to singular and plural. Being a Slovene myself, I consider it natural to use dual when I speak with someone in my own language, but I have noticed that more and more people of my generation (and younger generations) in my country are starting to use plural instead of dual, using the latter only when they want to stress that only two persons will do something (for example, when they talk about having a date or having sex ). Anyway, I see dual as something intimate and personal and I don't care if younger generations think that its outdated.

Sometimes, when I talk to somebody in Croatian or Serbian (which are similar to Slovenian), I sometimes intuitively try to use Slovenian dual, which of course makes no sense to the person I am talking to

I didn't know that dual exist in languages which are still used today. Only time we learn about dual is when we have to study Sanskrit where we have Shabd-rup (Form of words) which is just a table of how a word would be in different cases and number. We had to memorize those tables to learn how to form sentences.