Which language sounds the most beautiful to you?
For me, it’s properly-spoken Urdu.
WRS
I will have to go with French as it is spoken in France.
Portuguese, hands down.
Spanish, as spoken by Antonio Banderas in a hot tub.
English, spoken with an Irish or New Zealander accent. After that, the Irish language.
I’d have to say Spanish. Once you’ve had someone who’s completely bilingual recite Spanish love poetry to (well, in front of) you, there’s no turning back. Pablo Neruda? swoon
I think, also, that if anyone actually spoke Ancient Greek today, it would be in the running.
I love the sound of chanted Latin.
French, particularly when spoken by women.
I think Spanish is beautiful, and I hear it every day – although mostly mothers yelling at their kids or some idiot teenager and his mamí fighting over something. So I should say, it’s beautiful divorced from its content, but when you understand it, it becomes less so. I suppose this is true for any language, though.
I also love Portuguese, but Italian and French (the two that usually come up in this kinda thing) leave me cold. I think spoken German can sound kinda sing-songy and pretty in its own way, and I enjoy listening to Vietnamese as well.
I wonder, does anyone who doesn’t speak English find it to be attractive or “beautiful” as the OP put it?
To me, it’s clunky and ugly sounding, butI’ve been speaking it my whole life. But I am interested to know if people unfamiliar with it find it pleasing to listen to.
A hearty vote for Catalan.
English as spoken by my camp counselor from Zimbabwe - the hard edges were rounded out, and she had the most perfect voice ever for reading stories aloud.
As to Latin, Church Latin, lovely. Latin professor Latin, damn ugly. 
Woah how bizarre there are three languages quoted here which would have a place on my least ‘pleasant souding’ lists. The Latin languages seem popular - they aren’t classed as ‘Romance Languages’ for nothing eh ?
My vote would have to be for Welsh - I’m not really a Welsh speaker I should add, but to my ear it’s less ‘clunky’ than its cousin Irish.
As far as English goes we have so many regional accents that I’d have to specify before saying it sounded ‘beautiful’. In the UK - I love the South Yorkshire and North West Wales accents, less keen on ‘Brummie’ and Gloucestershire.
Having said that English as spoken by Richard Burton (originally from South Wales) … sublime !
Well, I’ll give my input from my opinion, and of those I know who don’t speak English as their native language. From mostly everyone I know who doesn’t speak English as their mother tongue, they say that American english is pretty much bland. Nothing irritating, nor beautiful. Pretty much goes for British english as well, except some find it to be prettier.
As for Spanish. This is a wide category. Ever hear Castillian Spanish? It is quite abrupt and sometimes abrasive. The “jota” sound is really there in comparison with, for instance, Mexican spanish. My experience is with Mexican, Castillian and Argentinian Spanish, by the way. Mexican seems to be the most agreeable to me. Its very singsongy. Ever hear a female speak in Spain? Many times, in my experience, they often speak in an abnormally low register. Women who speak Mexican spanish often speak in a really cute, sing-songy type voice that has a much higher pitch. Also, regarding the “jota” (similar to english H) in Mexican Spanish (especially northern) it is much lighter and less abrasive, and almost like the english “H” sound. For instance, compare a Spaniard and someone from Monterrey say “jefe.” The Spaniard will really put some uvula into the sound while the Mexican will make it sound more like the english version.
For me to be a beautiful lanugage, it has lack non abrasive sounds. High German is out because it has the uvular R. But then if you’ve ever heard an Austrian speak German it’s kind of pretty.
But then beautiful sounds aren’t necessarily all of it. It has to flow as well. From what I know, Germanic languages don’t flow as well as Romance languages. They are more halting. To me portugese is nice, with a few pleasant sounds thrown in that aren’t there in Spanish. Coincidentally, I think Portugese have an easier time with english because they have an easier time with the “sh” sound because there is something similar in English.
But to cut to the chase, I’d have to say Italian. It seems to lack the hard sounds of Castillian with an even more melodic cadence. But sometimes it gets too melodic as you go further down south.
As for French? I guess I’ve heard so much French that it has lost its charm for me. Its quite beautiful, but it simply doesn’t do it for me anymore. I’ve heard lots, and lots of french because I’ve had tons of French friends, but I never understood it. I never lived in France though. I encountered this in Germany and Spain. I think French would be a lot prettier if they dropped the uvular “r” and went with a more “Spanish” sounding “R.” I can’t speak to other dialects than what I’ve heard (all relatively “northern” dialects). Maybe French in Quebec or Provence has this? I don’t know, but it may lack other pleasing aspects of the dialects that I know.
My vote for most pleasing English dialect? That’s easy. It has to be Scottish. Don’t know why, but I just really like that. To me, Recieved Pronunciation isn’t that special.
Also, about Scandinavian languages. I find them to be a little halting, but better than other Germanic languages. That goes for Swedish and Norwegian. As for Danish? I think its very similar to English in a lot of ways in terms of sounds, but it is a little less pretty due to strange sounds.
As for other languages? Chinese, Japanese and Korean are all interesting to me. Not particularly beautiful or annoying. For the most part they are too foreign. Not that this is a bad thing. When I hear these languages I am thinking, “wow, that is really different,” rather than anything else.
Japanese.
Urdu. Its poetic beyond belief.
I think most languages sound better when spoken by women. Or at least “more beautiful”. Japanese, French and Italian are all nice. I have a friend from Trinidad & Tobago who, when she speaks English it’s like bells tinkling. Very beautiful. German can sound nice, but to me sounds best when spoken by women whose first language is Asian, for some reason. I don’t like German as spoken by the men in Bavaria, it just sounds too gravelly to me, although Austrian German and Swiss German are okay. Also the English spoken by people from the Francophone countries of Africa is very pleasant to listen to. Maybe I’ve put too much thought into this?
Off the top of my head Russian, but then I don’t know a few of the languages stated here, like Urdu. I may have heard it but I don’t know.
O português de uma moça carioca, cantando bossa nova. (The Portuguese of a girl from Rio singing bossa nova).
I once posted a thread on artists who insist on singing a song in the wrong language. This was after the disappointment of listening to the beautiful voice of Gal Costa shift from Portuguese into English in the middle of “Dindi” – I felt robbed of the full pleasure of enjoying the song.
Oh, how right you are! I find the Portuguese from Portugal to be really ugly in comparison (much too nasal and badly enunciated). Luckily my wife is from northern Brazil where they sound almost the same as the cariocas (a lot of “sh” sounds). I didn’t really like the pernambucano (from Recife and the surrounding regions) dialect, with the hard "g"s and "t"s instead of the soft "sh"s.
Quite a few votes for Urdu here. Although I may have heard Urdu in the past (Bollywood films tend to be in Hindi do they ?) I didn’t know it.
Where can I listen to a sample ? Would listening to the BBC news in Urdu put me off ? Any suggestions ?