# All Languages Are About Equally Beautiful? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 12, 2024, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016 "2024-01-12T19:38:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/21 "2024-01-12T20:54:09Z")
I mean, how do they speak non-English so fluently? I couldn’t do that for German (a language I’m trying to get better at these days, but I’m not that good). I couldn’t even do it for English. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/22 "2024-01-12T20:58:11Z")
I suppose there’s a lot left to personal preference. But to me, “hard” languages are harsh to the ear. By which I mean languages with a lot of hard consonants, like German. The softest language I know is Irish, and it is the most beautiful to me. There is also a difference in sonorous vs nasal sounds. I had a Norwegian boyfriend who always felt he needed to speak nasally to make his English sound correct. It was the first I had heard of English being nasal, but I had to admit he was right. A language whose vowels come straight from the chest/throat will always sound better than a nasally one. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/23 "2024-01-12T21:00:37Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > The only valid conclusion I think that can be drawn is that all languages are more or less at the same level of internal phonetic coherence. There have been studies of various mathematical phonotactical models that claim such things. No idea if it is generally accepted as true or not. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/24 "2024-01-12T21:01:03Z")
As I see it, they have included some legit English sentences, short ones, (like: “sure”, “sounds good”, “my shit”, “done the wash today”, “you fucking asshole”) to prime you to expect English and then made up words from English phonemes. The prosody is good, I concede that gladly, but with a bit of practice it seems feasible. I have seen/heard similar exercises done with French in a Spanish setting. Skillfully playing with your “previous bias and preconceptions”, as mentioned above. Fun, but only for a short while. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/25 "2024-01-12T21:03:49Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I mean, how do they speak non-English so fluently? They practiced, and learned their lines, like any other actor. I don’t think anyone could do that off the top of their head. Sid Caesar used to have a routine where he did that in four different languages [very convincingly.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SqEmkwADmY) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/26 "2024-01-12T21:22:20Z")
Counterpoint: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/zLvL7a8Y0pI/maxresdefault.jpg "How beautiful German sounds compared to other languages") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLvL7a8Y0pI) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/27 "2024-01-12T21:31:24Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > They practiced, and learned their lines, like any other actor. I don’t think anyone could do that off the top of their head. They did that with varying degrees of success on _Whose Line Is It Anyway_: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ru8UQtUyeGQ/hqdefault.jpg "Whose Line Is It Anyway? Foreign Film Dub") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru8UQtUyeGQ) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/28 "2024-01-12T21:46:26Z")
And there are problems like the one in the video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C25VhUJn038](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C25VhUJn038). ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/29 "2024-01-12T21:50:51Z")
Klingon doesn’t sound so beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/30 "2024-01-12T22:19:52Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > But to me, “hard” languages are harsh to the ear. By which I mean languages with a lot of hard consonants, like German. The softest language I know is Irish, and it is the most beautiful to me. To me, those “hard consonants” make a language more intelligible and, maybe, more aesthetically appealing. Without them, speech just sounds like gurgling mush. For example, to me, French sounds like the adults in the Charlie Brown cartoon specials. But maybe the distinction between “beautiful” and “aesthetically appealing” is an important one. The music of Mantovani may be more beautiful than the music of Beethoven, without being more aesthetically appealing. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/31 "2024-01-12T23:16:29Z")
1. Of course what one says is crucial, but you can’t compare that very easily. Euripides, Plutarch, Goethe, Gibran, Li Po, Anatole French and Shakespeare were not screenwriters. 2. Modern research states the theory of how people learn (preferring visual, auditory, tactile, etc.) is wrong. Some people can see words, but I am not one of them. 3. Almost regardless of first language, people preferred in this study (in order): implosive sounds, musicality and spectral entropy (noise) and progressively dislike (in order): nasal sounds and number of vowels (though these are pretty neutral), diphthongs, pitch variability, novelty, tones, pitch and make speakers. 4. But yeah. There are accents that considerably turn me off and ones I could listen to all day. It’s hard to believe the result unless big differences are hidden in small score variations. So not sure if this study is useful. 5. Some folks like to talk Jebus more than others. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/32 "2024-01-13T02:27:54Z")
That was hysterical ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/33 "2024-01-13T03:05:40Z")
And, of course, the beauty of French. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2IHBGKsDkhc/hqdefault.jpg "Foux Du Fafa - Flight of the Conchords - English Translation") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IHBGKsDkhc) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/34 "2024-01-13T18:42:05Z")
People liked “implosive sounds” most of all (apart from female speakers). Only 13% of languages have them, but no European languages do. I know more than average about language but admit I still had to look this up. > **[Implosive consonant](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implosive_consonant)** > > Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can be modified by phonation. Contrastive implosives are found in approximately 13% of the world's languages. > In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ... ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/35 "2024-01-13T19:17:41Z")
Since I don’t currently speak Mayan or Kru… ---
**Author:** ![spikebrennan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@spikebrennan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spikebrennan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/36 "2024-01-14T14:49:20Z")
Hypothesis: - people don’t like consonants that they’re not familiar with. Especially the ones that sound like the speaker is trying to cough something up. Exceptions can be made for consonants that are a real novelty, like click consonants. - people who aren’t used to tonal languages don’t like tonal languages that have high and low tones, because the melody of such speech throws off expectations. (Languages like English use something like tone to convey emphasis, or to distinguish between questions and other kinds of statements- but other languages use tones in very different ways that are confusing to those who are not familiar to them). ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/37 "2024-01-14T14:54:09Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Beautiful language? Does this not 100% depend on the class of poets writing in that language? As per Pritchard > Poetry should not be fun. It should be oppressive and the reader should hate it. Poems are from hundred years ago. They were written by a bunch of dead men to punish children. When you read a poem, you should never feel emotion. In summary, poems stink. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2024, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/38 "2024-01-27T20:12:01Z")
People who do not know anything at all about American SIgn Language often tell me they think it is a “beautiful” language. What’s weird, and maybe ironic, is that a few of them will then make motions that are their idea of ASL, and it 1) looks nothing like ASL and 2) to me, looks very ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2024, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/39 "2024-01-27T22:09:09Z")
In the YouTube video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vbraa31zNI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vbraa31zNI) Emilia Jones is shown singing at the BAFTA awards in 2022 the song “Both Sides Now” that she sang in the movie. There is an ASL interpreter on one side of her and a BSL interpreter on the other side. This allows you to see the difference between the two sign languages. I don’t know which is which. ASL and BSL are different enough that they are different languages, not two dialects of one language. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2024, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016/40 "2024-01-27T23:23:07Z")
It’s highly, uh, interpretive by two interpreters who are both hearing, and may not even be interpreters, just people who learned something for the show. I think the brunette is the American one, but it wasn’t real ASL-- the interpreter just has a simpering smile the whole time, and none of the facial expressions of ASL. Meanwhile, the other interpreter was pretty clear to me most of the time, and I do not know BSL at all, and should NOT have been able to understand as well as I did-- if you watch closely (try it with the sound off) you’ll see the are not in sync, but are still doing quite similar things at the same time. [Here’s a real side by side of BSL & ASL](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TIsucTITRiQ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-languages-are-about-equally-beautiful/996016.md?page=1)