Your favorite language

[chicar]

Words are like musical notes and the melody of somes languages could be more harmonious than others. The question is, which part of the human symphony do you prefer ?


My favorite languages:
German, Danish, Greek, Spanish and Zulu.

[Honeythorn]

Finnish. That will be all.

[Mr. Boltneck]

Hmm...I am not so good with languages (well, I am fairly comfortable with HTML and such, but those aren't human languages) but I have to say that Spanish can sound quite nice. Not invariably: as with any language, there's a range of ways it can be spoken. Quite badly, in my case, as I am quite rusty on it, but some versions are lovely. Some Mexican dialects are easy on the ear, as is the Italianate dialect from Argentina. With a lot of the guys here in the South Bay, well, it's more or less the equivalent of redneck American English, to be honest, or impenetrable pocho slang-and-mutter, the Spanish version of chav, but it makes the proper stuff stand out from across the street.

[Mad Maudlin]

French, Lithuanian, Japanese, German, Russian.

[Atterton]

I might second Finnish for sounding good and just being so different from the rest.

[BrethrenAndBetrayer]

Japanese, Swedish, Spanish and Irish (one of the few who do).


    -Brethren

[Tito Alba]

I've always had a fascination for Nahuatl although its pretty rare to hear it spoken except for a few youtube clips.  Russian I like too.

[citizen_erased]

Japanese. I do study it for a reason.

But really though, every language has it`s own charm to me. There are some  I like more than others, but overall, every language has it`s own feel, it`s own character, it`s own charm =)

[Alexis Voltaire]

Someday I want to finish learning Russian, I attempted to learn it several years ago from a friend but didn't get very far.

I want to learn a 'geek' language too, some day, but haven't decided which one yet.

[Ulysses Reynolds]

Irish and Latin.

[helios]

I'm trying to teach myself Russian at the moment. I doubt I'd be doing that if I didn't love it...

[bicyclebuilder]

I'm from a country with many different dialects. I'm more of a dialect person. Not just my own language Dutch, but also English and French as spoken in Canada. I've been to Quebec a couple of times and found the French they speak there, hard to follow. My French is limited and learned in "propper" Parisian French. The English Canadian dialect I could pick up within a couple of days.

As for an actual language: Our daughter watches "ni hao kai-lan", a cartoon about a little Chinese girl. She teaches toddlers to speak Chinese. Just a couple of basic words, but she picks it up easily. In order to know what our daughter is saying, my wife and I have to learn the words to.  I like the language because it's completely different of what the western world is speaking.

Papiamento is a fun language. I used to have a couple of classmates coming from Curacao. I picked up a couple of words from them. Mostly foul language, but that is in many cases the start of learning a language. 

Most European languages have some connections. Dutch sounds a lot like German. English has some similarities with Frisian (spoken in Friesland, a province of the Netherlands). I can't speak all of the European languages, but I can make sense of what is spoken. Sort of.

[Captain Shipton Bellinger]

English. It has such as rich and interesting history and an ubelievable utility and power. At one end of the spectrum it can be incredibly precise, and yet at the other end has the 'wooliness' needed for word games. I never tire of learning more of and about my native tongue.

Years of studying English has also meant forays into most other NW Germanic languages, as well as some of the older Romance tongues, although I make no claims of fluency in any of them.


As an aside: I have been so engrossed in English that I have paid almost no serious attention to others. Do other tongues provide the endless opportunity for wordplay? I'm thinking of puns, spoonerisms, double-meanings and so on?

[von Corax]

Newfish has some delightfully melodic turns of phrase it does, b'ye! (Okay, so Newfish is a dialect, not a distinct language; it's still recognized by the UN whichever-group-does-that-stuff as unique and of noteworthy heritage.)

Also, I once had occasion to watch several episodes of a telly program on introductory conversational German; despite no previous exposure to the language I was able to understand about one word in three, and from there I was able to (with reasonable confidence) translate the story on the back label of a Dutch-Belgian beer bottle. (Yes, I translated a language I don't speak based on its similarity to another language I don't speak! Engrish, anyone? )

[Hez]

For sheer music I love the lilt and swing of Welsh. 
English is fun for it's variety.  It is like a child's paintbox.  Rather messy and often cheap but capable of every hue of meaning.  I've had great discussions with an ESL friend at work on the differences between synonyms. 

(As for Belgian Dutch I was staying with acquaintances there and overheard my host behind me explaining who I was to a friend.  Without thinking I turned around and answered a question the friend had asked but when they asked how I knew what had been asked I had no idea.)

[Capt. Dirigible]

For sheer music I love the lilt and swing of Welsh.

" You need half a pint of phlegm in your throat just to pronounce the place names. Never ask for directions in Wales, Baldrick. You'll be washing spit out of your hair for a fortnight".

[bicyclebuilder]

#SNIP#
As an aside: I have been so engrossed in English that I have paid almost no serious attention to others. Do other tongues provide the endless opportunity for wordplay? I'm thinking of puns, spoonerisms, double-meanings and so on?

Yes they do, however the wordplay can not be fully translated into another language. Each has their own vocabulary, sayings, history and double meanings. That's the hardest part in translating, trying to find a similar wordplay. When translating something with Google Translate or similair, try not to do wordplay. It often don't translate the right way. (I usually apologise in advance for any unintended puns)

I find the Khoisan languages interesting. They are the languages with the klicks in them.

[Capt. Dirigible]

#SNIP#
As an aside: I have been so engrossed in English that I have paid almost no serious attention to others. Do other tongues provide the endless opportunity for wordplay? I'm thinking of puns, spoonerisms, double-meanings and so on?

Yes they do, however the wordplay can not be fully translated into another language. Each has their own vocabulary, sayings, history and double meanings. That's the hardest part in translating, trying to find a similar wordplay. When translating something with Google Translate or similair, try not to do wordplay. It often don't translate the right way. (I usually apologise in advance for any unintended puns)

I find the Khoisan languages interesting. They are the languages with the klicks in them.

I recall a Romanian tour guide telling us the nuns at a particular convent  survived on charity donations and the money tourists gave them for the hand jobs they do. Once we had all stopped laughing we discovered he meant 'Handicrafts'.

[bicyclebuilder]

#SNIP#
As an aside: I have been so engrossed in English that I have paid almost no serious attention to others. Do other tongues provide the endless opportunity for wordplay? I'm thinking of puns, spoonerisms, double-meanings and so on?

Yes they do, however the wordplay can not be fully translated into another language. Each has their own vocabulary, sayings, history and double meanings. That's the hardest part in translating, trying to find a similar wordplay. When translating something with Google Translate or similair, try not to do wordplay. It often don't translate the right way. (I usually apologise in advance for any unintended puns)

I find the Khoisan languages interesting. They are the languages with the klicks in them.

I recall a Romanian tour guide telling us the nuns at a particular convent  survived on charity donations and the money torists gave them for the hand jobs they do. Once we had all stopped laughing we discovered he meant 'Handicrafts'.

A common mistake even the Dutch could have made. A litteral translation of the Dutch word for "handicrafts" is "hand work". A good thing you all laughed, otherwise it could get out of hand! Get it! "out of hand"
Now, whereabouts was that convent?

[Capt. Dirigible]

Now, whereabouts was that convent?

Can't recall the exact location..somewhere near Constanza. I believe they were called 'The Little Sisters of the Blessed Relief'

[bicyclebuilder]

Now, whereabouts was that convent?

Can't recall the exact location..somewhere near Constanza. I believe they were called 'The Little Sisters of the Blessed Relief'

Oh, that's bad. You're going straight to hell for that. I see you there. 

Back on topic. Languages can be easily picked up by toddlers. Downside is, you have to teach it the right way. Our neighbours are teaching their kids English. That's fine by me, but the English the neighbours speak resembles  'allo 'allo Officer Crabtree English. As in:"come on son, let's gö höme"
I like the way they talk in the series, but not in real life.

[Dr. Madd]

German, Hungarian, Russian, From what I've heard of Yiddish and Mongol.

[walkthebassline]

English, because I speak it. (Well alright, I speak American. Shoot me. )

Also, gaelic in its various forms.

[Lady Evelyn Grey]

What a fun topic! I'm even running across some languages I don't think I've heard before...

For sheer liquid musicality, I am torn between Russian and Arabic.

For personal preference, French is number one. (Seven years of study has to pay off sometime!)

For grammatical structure, Ancient Greek is simply marvelous.

For the written language, I adore Chinese. Especially when you start learning how the individual strokes of the characters each contain their own meaning. It's almost like there is a definition of the word in the way it is written!

Not to threadjack, but do people have favorite songs in other languages?

[walkthebassline]

Not to threadjack, but do people have favorite songs in other languages?

Leaving the politics out of it, I'm quite fond of Bok van Blerk's song "De la Rey".