We hear other people talk different languages, and they sound strange, so of course they are gonna think we sound strange too. So I was wondering, what do we sound like to people who don’t speak English?
Well, I’ve been told that, just as French speakers are considered by non-Francophones to sound romantic and Italian speakers to sound passionate, so (British speakers of) English are considered to sound “noble”.
I asked a French work colleague and he said it sounded like double Dutch. So then I asked a Dutch colleague and he said it was all Greek to him. So then I asked a Greek colleague and he said we all sounded like barbarians.
Depends on the accent. Most Europeans learn to speak British English, so they think we Ameiricans sound a bit like hicks (not helped by the fact that they identify us with John Wayne…). And my friends in Germany tell me they find Australian accents completely incomprehensible.
One general perception of English by speakers of non-Germanic (and non-Slavic) languages is that English is a “hissing” language. Sure enough, English features a greater proportion of sounds like "s"and “z”, “sh” and “th” than most other languages world wide. The frequency of these sibilant consonants stands out for many foreign listeners.
someone once said that english sounds like horses talking
Well . .for Mexicanos, English sounds like a wah-wah guitar with a lots of “yeahs” and “man” and “Hey, Jose, how much for this?”
xicanorex
A French friend told me that before he learnt English, he believed what he claims to be a popular French conception:
“The English speak like they’re sipping Tea and the Americans speak like they’re chewing gum!”
He now knows this is not true, but it’s interesting none-the-less.
When visiting Ecuador, I once met a man who upon learning I was from the United States and could speak English decided to do his impression of a speaker of my native tongue.
What came out sounded like some bizarre mixture of Japanese and German. It was really amusing. “Wornau weeown shoo sootoortheneer” was about all I could get down phoenetically before side-splitting laughter ensued.
I have wondered about this forever, and asking my foeriegn friends didn’t get much of a response. A native Spanish-speaker and a native Japanese speaker both told me English-speakers speak very slowly and sort of jerkily- we like to take pauses in the middle of talking that sort of baffles speakers of some other languages.
Also, I devised a way to hear for myself how English sounds when you don’t understand it- find a TV show that features nothing but people talking, like a news broadcast, then turn the sound down to where you just hear it, and sort of listen without concentrating. Also, the sound of voices where you can’t distinguish words, like a low conversation in the next room, is good to try out. English does sound sort of like hissing, but with a lot of “uh” sounds in there, too. And our ‘r’ sounds stand out as well.
Listen to George Bush…seriously…when he gives one of his non-informative speeches (quite a few of late) you can almost go into a zen-like state and just hear the rythmn and vowels.
Also, if you are American, rent the film Trainspotting…you won’t understand a word of the English they are speaking (I believe there are even subtitles in the American version) but it is English nonetheless.
Ooops…sorry Montezuma, I just noticed you are from England, so maybe Trainspotting isn’t the best example for you.
How about Sling Blade…that ought to be a trick for English speaking, non-Americans to follow.
This is the most interesting thread I’ve ever seen at SD. Thanks, everyone, for the great responses! An Ecuadorian once told me that English, to her, sounds “mellow”. She compared Spanish “la cámara” to English “the camera” as an example — bright and chirpy vowels in Spanish, sultry and mellow sounds in English.
On a barely related tangent, I sometimes try to imagine what Roman script handwriting looks like to those who use a non-European alphabet by looking at it upside down and in the mirror (or through the page). Interestingly, IMHO it doesn’t look that different from Arabic or Hebrew when you do that.
Another interesting experiment: listen to some Japanese and Chinese punk rock bands. They learned rock and roll by listening to English speaking bands, and when they want to make “good” music they do the same thing that anybody else does–they emulate their favorite bands. Sometimes the upshot of this is that their vocals are just jibberish–not Japanese or Chinese but just a bunch of English-sounding syllables strung together. I noticed this while listening to some early works by the Boredoms, and later noticed it again when I saw Guitar Wolf play. Upon hearing Yakazuma Eye (from the Boredoms) for the first time I remember thinking “What the hell is he saying?” and then realizing “This is what American and English rock and roll sounds like to them.” It’s English filtered through a Japanese speakers’ brain.
Nothing against you Guy, but I am very sick of this superiority complex vis-a-vis Americans, and actually hope it’s only a myth. As if anyone but a native American could presume to recognize our own hicks!
What’s more, I’ve even known Der Spiegel to print readers letters in bad English!! I guess the person who wrote the letter wanted to impress the world with his weak grasp of English, and Der Spiegel obligingly went along. The letter I remember was in response to an article about the anti-smoking movement, which read, “Kissing a smoker is like licking a dirty ice”.
We Americans may not be good at foreign languages, but at least we know we’re not!
Durring my time in Korea (late 80’s) conversational English tended to be described as “Shella, Shella”. In much the same way as Americans say Chineese sounds like “Ching, Chang”
This thread title reminds me of what I used to wonder when I was younger: what my sibs and I sound like to our grandmother, who speaks Chinese. (and a very limited amount of English)
I’d imagine it sounds like a bunch of gibberish to her, but then again, I am not a language expert. Then again, she can distinguish certain English words like “Grandma,” so we’ve had to be creative when referring to her when she’s around. (or she’ll think we’re talking about her, even when we’re not: “Grandma what?” she’ll ask)
F_X
Whenever you ask this question, the answer is usually colored mainly by the respondent’s perception of the culture associated with the language. For example, people say Southerners in the US speak more slowly, but there isn’t really any evidence that this is true. It’s a totally subjective observation. That’s what the OP asked for, but to me it’s an IMHO kind of question.
That said, I like bordelond’s GQ approach… pick the language you want to contrast with English and check out the phoneme inventory and prosody of both languages. The parts that don’t overlap will probably be what stands out to the non-speakers.
Don’t even get me started on how many people say German is an “ugly” sounding language while Italian is “romantic.” : )
-fh
I’m going to try to say this without heading into GD and IMHO territory but, for me, the defining characteristic of most American english speakers is their volume. US citizens seem to speak very loudly.
I’ve spent a fair bit of time travelling and have often spent periods of several months without talking to other english speakers. During such periods if I suddenly come across an American they seem to be speaking several decibels louder than everyone else.
Before Javaman jumps on me, I’m an Australian and, after not hearing an Australian accent for several months, they sound very harsh and unpleasant to me when I hear them again. The same holds true of New Zealand and South African accents btw.