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Beauty of a language


Thrix

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Am I the only one who finds some languages more 'beautiful' than others? For example I find English much 'prettier' than my mother language, Croatian.

Not sure the cause of if, but it might be because English has so many words that have different meanings. If you called your partner 'medu' (honey) he would probably die laughing.

And it sounds much better when speaking, in my opinion.

What about you?

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Curiously to me English is not that beauty but Spanish, because while English seems to have more words and meanings, but when it comes to translate from Spanish to English, you realize that English is very poor in comparison.

There are much more ways to says one same thing in Spanish than in English, and there are many words and phrases that describe accurately something that you want to describe as opposed to English.

In example, the hours within midnight and dawn are called in Spanish "madrugada" but there is no translation for this period of time in English other than "early morning"

To me early morning means sometime beetween 6 am and 10 am, not the darkness hours noted above.

Similarly when you want the definition of a firearm, the dictionary returns "gun" for almost any of the many type of firearms that you can cite in Spanish and so on.

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I find French to be very beautiful. The way this song's lyrics are sung, it feels so sensual and sounds smooth and silky.

English can really go one way or another, as there are a lot of beautiful sounds as well as ugly ones.

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It's funny you should mention English as a beautiful language, I always considered it to be rather bland. There are more expressive languages such as Italian and French that really have a wonderful sound behind them, but I suppose it also depends on who is speaking them! To me, English always feels like a business type of language, just very to the point. Also, English relies a lot on idioms and sayings like "there's always more fish in the sea" and "you can't see the forest for the trees". I suppose other languages have just as many sayings, but it feels especially apparent with English.

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Am I the only one who finds some languages more 'beautiful' than others? For example I find English much 'prettier' than my mother language, Croatian.

Not sure the cause of if, but it might be because English has so many words that have different meanings. If you called your partner 'medu' (honey) he would probably die laughing.

And it sounds much better when speaking, in my opinion.

What about you?

My native tongue is patois creole. As a younger lad I despised it, but I've come to realize that a lot of people like to hear when us Jamaicans speak.

I guess I despised patois because I always felt that those who were able to expressed themselves in the Queens language sounded more refine. English does sound like a more beautiful language to me when I compare it with other languages (even the languages that I don't know particularly - but I hear their sounds).

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I have always loved learning new languages. It's freeing for some reason and I do found real beauty whenever they are spoken. I love my Filipino language. It speaks so much when it comes to freedom.

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Am I the only one who finds some languages more 'beautiful' than others? For example I find English much 'prettier' than my mother language, Croatian.

Not sure the cause of if, but it might be because English has so many words that have different meanings. If you called your partner 'medu' (honey) he would probably die laughing.

And it sounds much better when speaking, in my opinion.

What about you?

I also find english to be a really beautiful and meaningful language, specially when is spelled and pronounced right.  I like it even more than my own mother language, I just love the way it sounds and the way it looks.  I love the fact the english language is so clean when spelled right and the right punctuation is used.

I also love the fact no written accents are used on the english words, that's not the case in my mother language... you have to put a lot accents on almost every word.  And the saddest part is the fact most people don't know what words should have them, lol.  My language is beautiful, but we are ruining it each day that passes by!

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For me, the most beautiful language is Chinese. Not because I am particularly fond of how Chinese sounds, but I just love the way Chinese is written. The characters are so beautiful and each character has its own history. The etymological study of characters is just super-interesting and most of the characters can be traced back to very ancient times.

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I'm not sure why but I can't see the beauty in my own language (British) and I feel more attractive to other languages and accents such as the South African accent. I also love Brazilian. I think it's down to a personal choice really:) But I think that's what makes the world great.

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I think I would have to agree with you, because English does sound pleasant to the ears, even their curse words sound pleasant as compared to my native language, or the curse words that I know that are in Spanish.

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For me, the most beautiful language is Chinese. Not because I am particularly fond of how Chinese sounds, but I just love the way Chinese is written. The characters are so beautiful and each character has its own history. The etymological study of characters is just super-interesting and most of the characters can be traced back to very ancient times.

I completely agree. Chinese characters contain a lot of indicators and if people looked closer and fully understood each character they will unlock a good amount of mysteries in this world. I love the way that every small detail in these characters have a reason behind it. Other languages have this quality too, of course, but Chinese characters being symbols just makes it more universal, in my opinion.

Phonetically, however, I'd have to give it to French.

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For me the most beautiful language is of course my native Tagalog language. It is my mother tongue which I learned since I began to know how to write and speak when I was small child until now that I am grown up already. I love my own language and I am proud to tell everyone that it is also an interesting language to learn that has a beauty of its own..

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I think you can find beauty in just about every language. I find it interesting that everyone has their own preferences for what they consider beautiful. The more exotic ones to you might sound beautiful, or you might view them as strange and odd. Personally I think language and linguistics is very interesting and just the fact that we can communicate using different languages fascinates me.

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I believe the beauty of a language lies in being able to express yourself well using it. :) English has always been my favorite subject in school and now that I am a professional, I am still utilizing it in both my jobs as an English instructor and a professional writer and published poet. :)

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I think every language had a beauty of its own and I need not to compare them. God created the world and every country with a unique language for its people with the beauty that can be understood by each one of them. And its so wonderful to know that the world had many beautiful languages that we can learn.

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  • 1 month later...

I do believe that some languages are more beautiful than others. I find that when I speak my native language,Jamaican creole, around non natives they'll ask me to speak in my native tongue again or ask me to teach it to them because it interests them. It's funny though that the language I find beautiful is not my native language so it differs for each hearer.

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Because English is my first language, maybe that is why I don't necessarily view it as very beautiful. I think that it is absolutely possible to manipulate the way you say certain things to make them sound more beautiful, like with poetry for example. I find French and Italian to be two of the most beautiful and pleasant sounding languages.

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Yes. English is a very beautiful language especially in poetry, speeches and even debate. I admire the intonation and phonetics of the English language. Most people who speak English very fluently are also admirable and makes them even more attractive than those who can't speak a language fluently.

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  • 3 months later...

Language is so beautiful each time two people talk together and make a connection. I love it when my fiance calls me babe and that's a form of our endearment. It means a lot.

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The other languages sounds better than mine. I'm a Filipino, and I speak Tagalog words. But I love speaking English words either in written or oral because it sounds good and sounds classy. I also wanted to learn Japanese and Chinese because their language sounds unique.

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I think language in itself is beautiful. It's just amazing how we humans use words to communicate and express ourselves. That being said, I have to agree that some languages are more beautiful than others. But as with any other types of beauty, I guess it depends on the eye (or in this case, ear) of the beholder.

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