Interestingly, just listening to the syllables, it sounded like a cross between the rough, consonant-heavy European languages and the vowel-heavy Romance languages. There was also an emphasis on sort-of-soft consonant sounds like “ch” and “g”.
Which sounds about right for a language that regularly mugs every other language out there for spare words.
While channel-surfing, I ran across an Italian rock singer who was singing Italian lyrics, but pronouncing the words exactly the way an American who had no idea what Italian sounds like, would pronounce them. It sounded like English until you listened to the lyrics.
To Italians, I suppose, it sounded like rock.
Big D.
Old English was mugged by French in 1066. That is why Old English, a Germanic language (Saxonish?) is incomprehensible but Middle English is fairly easy to understand.
This is one of those questions that I’ve always wondered about whenever I’ve seen a comedian, say, doing an impression of what they think maybe Chinese or Japanese sounds like, but using nonsensical arrangements of the relevant phonemes. My other big question is what different accents sound like to other people. For example, I know how a Brit or an Aussie sounds to me, but what does a Brit sound like to an Aussie (besides vaguely effeminate, if Aussie humour is anything to go by) and vice versa?
My brother did a year in Edinburgh, and the consensus among his flatmates was that as a Canadian, it sounded like he spoke with a drawl, which I find fascinating. I can only imagine what a Texan would sound like to them. Perhaps that explains some the hostility to George W. Bush.
I understood it perfectly, hugnet balall idigeat, uddasgeet?
I don’t see why English should be seen as sounding differently than the other germanic language. English has a lot of variations and to me all sounds being part of the germanic familiy. That doesn’t mean that they sounds like german. German is one germanic language among others, like enlgish is, you don’t need to sound german to sound germanic. English definitly doesn’t sounds like german, but definitly sounds very germanic.
Interestingly, just listening to the syllables, it sounded like a cross between the rough, consonant-heavy European languages and the vowel-heavy Romance languages. There was also an emphasis on sort-of-soft consonant sounds like “ch” and “g”.
Which sounds about right for a language that regularly mugs every other language out there for spare words.
While channel-surfing, I ran across an Italian rock singer who was singing Italian lyrics, but pronouncing the words exactly the way an American who had no idea what Italian sounds like, would pronounce them. It sounded like English until you listened to the lyrics.
To Italians, I suppose, it sounded like rock.
Big D.
Old English was mugged by French in 1066. That is why Old English, a Germanic language (Saxonish?) is incomprehensible but Middle English is fairly easy to understand.
See if you can make sense of these lyrics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNRYa8hsUug
This is one of those questions that I’ve always wondered about whenever I’ve seen a comedian, say, doing an impression of what they think maybe Chinese or Japanese sounds like, but using nonsensical arrangements of the relevant phonemes. My other big question is what different accents sound like to other people. For example, I know how a Brit or an Aussie sounds to me, but what does a Brit sound like to an Aussie (besides vaguely effeminate, if Aussie humour is anything to go by) and vice versa?
My brother did a year in Edinburgh, and the consensus among his flatmates was that as a Canadian, it sounded like he spoke with a drawl, which I find fascinating. I can only imagine what a Texan would sound like to them. Perhaps that explains some the hostility to George W. Bush.
I understood it perfectly, hugnet balall idigeat, uddasgeet?
I don’t see why English should be seen as sounding differently than the other germanic language. English has a lot of variations and to me all sounds being part of the germanic familiy. That doesn’t mean that they sounds like german. German is one germanic language among others, like enlgish is, you don’t need to sound german to sound germanic. English definitly doesn’t sounds like german, but definitly sounds very germanic.