# Favourite language



## Setwale_Charm

Do you have "a pet language" among those you have studied or is there one that you probably do not know but like the sound of or else very much?
Are there languages which you personally find very beautiful, unusual, fascinating merely for reasons of personal taste? 
I personally love the languages of the Baltic states: especially, the sound of Latvian and Lithuanian and the structure and vocabulary of Estonian. They "appeal" to me  and are in tune with my soul somehow. I also like most Scandinavian languages and Dutch. 
But every language seems to have its own "taste" when on is really into that.

This thread naturally does not claim to arrive to some decisive conclusion as these matters are purely personal and individualistic and one opinion cannot possibly prevail with some authority.


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## Daddyo

When GenJen said the following in her post:



> d) Questions that invite lists (i.e. "favorites" such as music (including lyrics), books, movies, etc.), ask for advice, ask about literary/film analysis, or are a part of research or homework projects are beyond the scope of these forums.


 
... Surely, she didn't mean lists of favorite languages too, right?


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## GenJen54

Actually, she did. "Lists" and "favorites" are out of our scope.  We welcome _*discussion*_, but lists rarely evolve into discussion.

We also have several - and I mean several - other posts regarding languages.  You can use the Search This Thread feature under "Language."  One of the many threads found there was this one:  Why did you choose your language?


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## Setwale_Charm

I am asking about something different. I am not asking WHY you chose to study a particular language, that might have nothing to do with your liking of it, it might be an objective need.  I am asking about languages you like and enjoy as languages and why. 
  This thread is just to discuss preferences and liking...the soul matters


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## maxiogee

My favourites are ones I know nothing about. I love overhearing people speaking a langauge I find incomprehensible and trying to guess from pitch and intonation, and body language, what they might be expressing.


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## panjabigator

I have become interested in some languages due to their community.  I began to identify with the Catalans in Spain and presto-chango, I have started learning Catalan.  I love Spanish simply because it is a door opening language, and I have devoted so much of my time to it.  I also like the diphtongs in Catalan a lot!

It is so cool hearing a different language.  When you try to listen to it outside of it being just "noise" you begin to wonder, what the hell could they be saying!! 

Now from the self centered end of the spectrum, I love Hindi and Panjabi.  I am such a nationalist when it comes to these.  I love Panjabi simply because of my identity.  And I love it even more because it is in danger.  It needs to be save, and I hope that my attitude will rub off on others.


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## Etcetera

I am fond of English. It's a language in which I can talk for hours. I love reading in English, I enjoy watching films in English, I like talking to native speakers and other learners of English. It's a language I've been studying for ten years already. I have become absolutely addicted to it. 
I love Italian - this language sounds so gracious! Its grammatical constructions fascinate me. I've started to learn Italian only recently, although I had had some Italian lessons last year, and I really love it. Italian is so friendly!
The Piedmontese language has fascinated me by being so like and at the same time unlike so many Central European languages - Italian, French, Occitan. Besides, it's the language of the region I'm so interested in - that is, Piedmont. 
Finnish is a really challenging language. I love its being not hard, but just tricky. Learning Finnish is like a logical game. Studying Polish is easier, but if your native language is Russian, you have to be especially careful with Polish.


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## duckie

I love English, my thoughts flow more freely in English than any other language (when I word my thoughts, that is). It also has a fairly melodic sound (depending on the dialect) that I enjoy. Italian (which I'm learning) also has a beautiful sound, and I enjoy the elaborate articulation it has, the exact counterpoint to my native language.

Speaking another language than my native liberates me from a preconceived notion of the meaning of the words and allows me to let everything flow unhindered.


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## Yuribear

I love Hindi, it is probably the sweetest language I have ever heard, very melodious, it has a unique vibration. Also many words do have a sacred meaning, besides their ordinary meaning. However I find devanagri script very complicated... but I guess it is a matter of learning it by heart before you dare to write anything.

Dutch I find extremely funny. Very gutural and funny, sounds like people are having fun when they talk... unlike german that is also gutural but it sounds like people are angry very often (not that they are, but it sounds like that to me).

I also find Mandarin very melodious to the ear, much more than the other chinese dialects or languages, like Cantonese et al.

What I like about English is that it seems to be constantly opened to change, in terms of adding more vocabulary to adjust it to evolving times, whereas Spanish I find more rigid in this respect.

I also like very much the Lakhota language... it is very very soft. Unfortunately just a few speak it now.


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## Setwale_Charm

As a matter of fact, I have got one more favourite language since today. And I do not even know which family it belongs to. I have just heard Letzeburgisch for the first time in my life and it`s amazing!!!


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## Setwale_Charm

Come to think of it, it is closer to German than French.


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## robbie_SWE

I promised myself that I wouldn't post, but here I am! 

Italian is for me the language that just makes my feel extremely happy when I hear it. It might sound strange, but it feels like falling in love all over again every time I hear somebody speak it (especially when it’s a girl who speaks it!). French is also a language that tickles my eardrums pleasurably.  

I have to admit a dark secret too: I also love hearing German. It's just fascinating to hear it on the train! 

Not taking into consideration Swedish, English and Romanian, since they're my true "mother" languages. But I still get fascinated when I hear them being spoken down here in the South. 

Hope I didn't confuse you all! 

Greetings,

 robbie


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## Heba

I love Spanish; I love the way it sounds.


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## Outsider

I have a love affair with Welsh, even though I do not speak a word of the language, and have only heard it spoken a few times. I know where it comes from. In my teens, I read Lloyd Alexander's _Prydain Chronicles_, which is a series of fantasy novels based on Welsh legends and mythography, and I enjoyed them a lot. Later, out of curiosity, I read a bit about the Celtic languages, and was struck by the beauty of the orthography of Welsh, which translates so elegantly the interesting phonetic shifts in the language. Furthermore, the way it uses the letter "w" as a vowel, and the way the letter "c" is always pronounced hard, even before "e" or "i", give it an alluring sort of archaic exoticism. It was one of Tolkien's favorite languages, too, by the way. Sindarin, the language you most hear in _Lord of the Rings_, besides English, was partly based on the structure of Welsh.

There are other languages to which I feel drawn without knowing how to speak them. For example, I find the spelling of Dutch quite attractive, also. And German, which many people seem to find rather cold-sounding, can feel quite elegant and cristalline to my ears. In other cases, it's the different writing system that draws me to them.

Of course, I also like other languages, languages that I speak, such as English and French, or languages that I understand a little due to their proximity to mine, such as Italian. Laura Pausini's songs are an absolute treat to listen to.

But I'm left wondering, is there such a thing as love at first sight for languages?...


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## Etcetera

Outsider said:


> But I'm left wondering, is there such a thing as love at first sight for languages?...


I'm sure there is.
I fell in love with Italian when I first heard it .


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## panjabigator

Yes! there is! (this should be a new thread btw).

I heard Catalan for the first time two years after I discovered it.  And I liked it from day one, so I was quite pleased when I heard it!


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## linguist786

See this thread made by myself a while ago


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## Insider

I couldn't decide what my favourite language is, of course; I'll try to make a short list of my favourites.

1. Ukrainian, as my mother rongue, I love the most. Well, I can easily do the sentences in the way I want, I can change the system of words i the sentence of somebody can do it, but still, I'll fully understand it, because its my mative.

2. English because of its enormous vocabulary. I adore all that thousands of synonums or equivalents in English very much. I'm fond of collacations and idioms in English.

3. Spanish, as for me, has the most marvelous sounding. I admire it; I hope that in some years I will be able to speak fluently.

4. German. I love it because of its grammar, and as for me, the sounding and the pronounciation of the words are quite strange, but with beautiful accent.

Insider


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## DrLindenbrock

I am absolutely passioned about how Persian sounds...unfortunately I only know a few words and have a very (very!) basic knowledge of its grammar....but I love listening to people speaking it!
I also like French a lot, and I'm glad I'm able to at least speak French pretty well. 
Another language that excites me is Arabic. What really got me were all the roots and the semantical links between words.


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## AGATHA2

Outsider said:


> ,
> But I'm left wondering, is there such a thing as love at first sight for languages?...


 
Of course there is ! But I think it´s not only the language its mostly what we associate to that language.


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## love2travel

I would have to say that I love listening to people speak Spanish and French. I think that those languages just flow off the tounge so smoothly. I also enjoy hearing Spanish music. It is so romantic and feels like it will never end. I hope to someday be able to speak both the languages as smoothly as their native speakers.


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## cuchuflete

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned RPG or C++ yet.
They have their own special appeal, despite the lack of sonority and melifluousness when read aloud.


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## Frank06

Hi,

I got several languages I love to hear.
- Most of the Dutch dialects (from Flanders and from the Netherlands, my favourite being Limburgian) [Dutch is my native language],
- Persian -- and apparantly I am not the only one here  -- esp. the dialect from Isfahan sounds lovely [alas, I don't speak/understand it well],
- Portuguese, but... as spoken in the north east of Brazil.


Groetjes,

Frank


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## Richard Levy

I havbe been in "love' with French for decades, then I started listening to and began playing and singing Brazilian (Portuguese) music.It is incredibly beau....ti...ful! It is one language that lends itself so well for this type of Latin Jazz. Fantastic. One of, if not the best for this genre of music.
Legal!


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## Setwale_Charm

Outsider said:


> I have a love affair with Welsh, even though I do not speak a word of the language, and have only heard it spoken a few times. I know where it comes from. In my teens, I read Lloyd Alexander's _Prydain Chronicles_, which is a series of fantasy novels based on Welsh legends and mythography, and I enjoyed them a lot. Later, out of curiosity, I read a bit about the Celtic languages, and was struck by the beauty of the orthography of Welsh, which translates so elegantly the interesting phonetic shifts in the language. Furthermore, the way it uses the letter "w" as a vowel, and the way the letter "c" is always pronounced hard, even before "e" or "i", give it an alluring sort of archaic exoticism. It was one of Tolkien's favorite languages, too, by the way. Sindarin, the language you most hear in _Lord of the Rings_, besides English, was partly based on the structure of Welsh.


  Well, I `ve always had a love affair with Welsh too. But one can find anybody with whom to share or put this love into reality

[/quote]
But I'm left wondering, is there such a thing as love at first sight for languages?... [/quote]

 at first hearing rather


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## Setwale_Charm

Insider said:


> I couldn't decide what my favourite language is, of course; I'll try to make a short list of my favourites.
> 
> 1. Ukrainian, as my mother rongue, I love the most. Well, I can easily do the sentences in the way I want, I can change the system of words i the sentence of somebody can do it, but still, I'll fully understand it, because its my mative.
> 
> 
> Insider


 
Well..here is something I have often wondered about...
Can one actually evaluate the sound of one`s own language? In my own experience, I had a "marvellous revelation" somewhere after Language N 12. I suddenly heard English from the "outsider`s point" and realised how beautiful it is. (It was British English, sorry, American brothers. I think, with regard to the sound and the music of the language BrE and AmE can, with the exception of a few regional variations, be considered different languages). And that was also much helped probably by the fact that I was living abroad and my ears were not so much immersed into English. Otherwise, I question to what extent one can actually "hear" or see one`s own language with a detached approach. There is even something in what Maxiogee said: you can evaluate the music of the language better if you do not understand the meaning because then your energy and attention all go into grasping the point.


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## ronanpoirier

Outsider said:
			
		

> I also like other languages, languages that I speak, such as English and French, or languages that I understand a little due to their proximity to mine, such as Italian. Laura Pausini's songs are an absolute treat to listen to.


I like Italian because of Laura. It's a language I like just because of hearing it.

I fell in love (at the first sight) for Hungarian. All that complex grammar which is not that complex after is really fun. 

I like the way Portuguese sounds! Even that's my mother tongue. I like it. I like nasal vowels. That's why I like French too. 

I believe in love at first sight for languages. I actually believe in love at first for anything


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## zebedee

MOD NOTE:
At the start of this thread, it was made clear that this forum is for Discussions. As such, threads that are a long list of posts saying: "I like..." , "My favourite... is..." are not tolerated here. 

To quote the Sticky at the top of this forum:


> d) Questions that invite lists (i.e. "favorites" such as music (including lyrics), books, movies, etc.), ask for advice, ask about literary/film analysis, or are a part of research or homework projects are beyond the scope of these forums.


Most people seem to have skipped over this part of the thread and have just continued writing "I like .... language", "my favourite language is...." This will never lead to a discussion!

Finally, thanks to Setwale_Charm,  26 posts later, we have a possible discussion point:



			
				Setwale_Charm said:
			
		

> Can one actually evaluate the sound of one`s own language? In my own experience, I had a "marvellous revelation" somewhere after Language N 12. I suddenly heard English from the "outsider`s point" and realised how beautiful it is. (It was British English, sorry, American brothers. I think, with regard to the sound and the music of the language BrE and AmE can, with the exception of a few regional variations, be considered different languages). And that was also much helped probably by the fact that I was living abroad and my ears were not so much immersed into English. Otherwise, I question to what extent one can actually "hear" or see one`s own language with a detached approach. There is even something in what Maxiogee said: you can evaluate the music of the language better if you do not understand the meaning because then your energy and attention all go into grasping the point.



* How about using this as a springboard to rescue this thread and turn it into a discussion rather than a list?*

* Further posts that limit themselves to "I like ...." or "My favourite language is ..." without aiding or advancing the discussion, will be deleted.*

Thank you for your collaboration,

zebedee
Culture Moderator


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## Etcetera

Setwale_Charm said:


> Can one actually evaluate the sound of one`s own language? In my own experience, I had a "marvellous revelation" somewhere after Language N 12. I suddenly heard English from the "outsider`s point" and realised how beautiful it is. (It was British English, sorry, American brothers. I think, with regard to the sound and the music of the language BrE and AmE can, with the exception of a few regional variations, be considered different languages). And that was also much helped probably by the fact that I was living abroad and my ears were not so much immersed into English. Otherwise, I question to what extent one can actually "hear" or see one`s own language with a detached approach. There is even something in what Maxiogee said: you can evaluate the music of the language better if you do not understand the meaning because then your energy and attention all go into grasping the point.


I didn't pay much attention to the sound of my own language till quite recently. 
The problem is that, generally, it's very hard to speak about the sound of a language. Each language has some variations. In different parts of a country people usually speak at least a bit differently (maybe except some small countries, like Luxembourg). 
As for me, I enjoy the sound of 'Petersburg Russian', but strongly dislike the Moscow pronunciation. I know that it's considered to be _standard_, but to me pronuncing, for example, симпати[шн]ый instead of симпати[чн]ый sounds quite uneducated.


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## Thomas F. O'Gara

For myself, my love affair was Russian, although I've studied and enjoyed many languages. In Russian (and other Slavic languages) you can say so much with so few words - the amount of information in one verb form can require a full sentence in English.

But truth be told I believe that generally speaking one falls in love with a culture, not a language; language is only one aspect of it. Russia was the love of my youth; maybe that's why I ended up marrying one.

Aside from that I've gotten considerable satisfaction from other languages, but sometimes only after considerable study. While I enjoy Japanese, I didn't really come to love it until I could read poetry, particularly haiku, in the original - what a thrill!

As for appreciating one's own language, I confess to a dislike of English, at least in its modern-day form. English has so many words, but they come from roots outside the language, or else are _ad hoc _constructions to label phenomena. There is something rootless about English, the pun only half intended. It has become the language of advertising, and in the process it seems to have lost its soul. I was forcefully jolted to this realization some fifteen years ago when I attempted to translate some press releases for the company I worked for into Russian.  They didn't translate, and the reason was because the English copy was made up of hype that had no real meaning, but simply sounded good - a technique that English is particularly advanced in.  That the Americans have probably taken this technique to the level it is does not make me particularly happy.  On the whole I think English poetry doesn't compare with the corpus in Russian, Spanish, German, Japanese or Chinese.


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## Gio77

> Can one actually evaluate the sound of one`s own language?


 
Hello everyone,

this is a very interesting question. I started wondering about that as I was reading a book by an English author: the character, from England, was in Italy and, as he heard the language spoken around, he suddenly realized to be listening to “the language of angels”. After a couple of years I stayed in Germany for some months, where I was always hearing phrases like “Italian? What a wonderful language!” and associated terms like “melodious”, “smooth”, “sweet”...
This is obviously not intended to be a panegyric to my language. This is just to say that, as this is my mother tongue, I simply cannot catch even one of such qualities. And I would pay a lot of money to be able to do it, but I think it is just impossible. The native speaker is _inside_ its language, therefore he can’t look at it as a “detached” object, i.e. from an external point of view. At the time you understand everything – or a large part – of what is being said, this perhaps stops automatically to be perceived as a sound that can be characterized as an indipendent thing.

I suppose this could be true for foreign languages too, although maybe in a less strong way. I had always considered German as rather hard, concerning its sound: this until I started learning it. Now I am not able to feel it as an objective sound anymore, it has lost these connotations to gain that of an intelligible language.
Have perhaps words in this regard priority over the general sound in our perception?


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## duckie

I have no real difficulty hearing the sound of a language I understand, including my native.. try to simply zone out your focus like you can do with your vision - look at something behind what you're actually looking at. Listen not to meaning but let sound flow through you while you focus on something behind the words.

In addition to that, I pay a great deal of attention to the melody of my own pronounciation (when I want to improve it, at least), and I do this in all lanaguages. Thereby the inherent melody of a given language and dialect becomes very obvious.


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## Frank06

Frank06 said:


> I got several languages I love to hear.
> - Most of the Dutch dialects (from Flanders and from the Netherlands, my favourite being Limburgian) [Dutch is my native language],
> - Persian -- and apparantly I am not the only one here  -- esp. the dialect from Isfahan sounds lovely [alas, I don't speak/understand it well],
> - Portuguese, but... as spoken in the north east of Brazil.





> At the start of this thread, it was made clear that this forum is for Discussions. As such, threads that are a long list of posts saying: "I like..." , "My favourite... is..." are not tolerated here.



A reason... I am fond of dialects, since they remind me that the so highly esteemed 'standard variety' is nothing more than the successful cockoo in the 'language nest'. They remind me that people have much more and much more various ways of expressing themselves than the sometimes dull set of prescribed rules which consitute the standard language.

Groetjes,

Frank


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## stranger in your midst

Does *bad* language count ?

What about slang ? For example, if anyone is familiar with the English language version of 'A Clockwork Orange', you will recall the author invented a make-believe slang for the characters, based on Russian.

For me that's fascinating, and somehow, 'There I was with my three droogies in the moloko milkbar, trying to make up our razoodoks what to do with the evening', just wouldn't work in straightforward English.

The creators of the film, 'Bladerunner' also used a similar technique for the street talk.

Pijins and Creoles are similar.

Any unusual mish-mash of two more common languages is appealing.


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## Setwale_Charm

robbie_SWE said:


> I have to admit a dark secret too: I also love hearing German. It's just fascinating to hear it on the train!


 

  The secret is not so dark  I love German too!!! I don`t know why people are usually reluctant to admit it. And it is worth making a secret of!!- It sounds so...I cannot find other word but 'sexy'!!! And everybody knows I love Germans!!


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## Karavaha

I've heard something about "for what the language is more comfortable..."

English - for writing and reading documents;
German - for army;
Italian - for singing;
Spanish - for speaking;
Russian - for thinking;

I like speaking!!! 

PS: Estoy enamorado de Espanol. Que puede ser mas hermoso?


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## cem42

Certain noble said that he talked to other men in french, with women 
in italian, with God in spanish, and with hid dogs in german.


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## Setwale_Charm

Oh please!!! I prefer to be talked to in German. Dutch, at worst. And I am no Bundeswehr!

  With Russian, I always have the feeling people are cursing all around (and very often they are!!).


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## zebedee

MOD NOTE:

Back in post nº28, I suggested we take up a theme of discussion so as to give this thread a direction. Thank you to those who have contributed to this theme.

Unfortunately we've gone back to "I like ....", "I prefer..." etc. which is not a discussion but rather borderline chat. 

If in any doubt, please read this sticky to remind ourselves of what constitutes a thread in the Cultural Discussions forum.

For all of the above, this thread is now closed.

zebedee
Culture moderator


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