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Thanks for sharing the article. German is my mother language - and I came to appreciate it as a beautiful language. It has not the natural beauty of Italian, i
by geff82 9y ago
Thanks for sharing the article.
German is my mother language - and I came to appreciate it as a beautiful language. It has not the natural beauty of Italian, it is more how you can go from sounding harsh to sounding soft, where you not only change your voice but also the kind words you say. You can make it sound and feel like the worst of all Nazi movies or as romantic as a Beethoven piano serenade.
By the way, I think it is a language for men. Women have a tendency to sound too harsh with it. In contrast, egyptian/syrian Arabic or Farsi tend to let you fall in love with the women who speak it, yet men speak it to harsh (Arabic) or often strangely funny sounding (Farsi). Few languages are nice to hear whichever gender it speaks (French comes to my mind, of course its all a personal taste).
- wingerlang 9y agoCould you give an example of soft-speaking romantic german language? Like a video or something.
- omer_balyali 9y agoAve Maria by Schubert (Barbara Bonney) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM0W98t9KSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM0W98t9KSU
- wingerlang 9y agoSorry, but any normal speaking? Opera like this sounds exactly the same to me regardless of language so it is harder to compare.
- superplussed 9y agoI'm an American that has lived in Berlin for over 3 years now, so I'm very used to the language (if not exactly fluent). And one of the early surprises for me was how soft and beautiful it can sound when spoken by a woman. An example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEJDJnnfRc8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEJDJnnfRc8 And this is more of a joke video, but it shows how most of the reputation of German being harsh comes more from its typical usage in movies than anything fundamentally harsh about the language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLvL7a8Y0pI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLvL7a8Y0pI
- cafard 9y agoMy father said that when he heard a record of Lotte Lenya's, he couldn't believe that German could sound like that. Such German as he then knew, he had learned in the Army and then at an all-male college.
- lvkleist 9y agoGerman here. This is a recording of "Willkommen und Abschied" by Goethe. It's a beautiful poem and I find that this recording does it justice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgd0JYKu14Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgd0JYKu14Q
- lcall 9y agoI have wondered if Samoan is the most beautiful-sounding language I have heard of. I don't speak it but have heard a little. edit: some quick examples I found: - This one (speaking in a room, not great audio, but at say 1:28:00 OR 1:45:00): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFwiIMtdoQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFwiIMtdoQU - or some nice-sounding music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfx6SoyH1kE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfx6SoyH1kE - or "talofa" as "hi": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XLt5Bw_xag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XLt5Bw_xag - or the Lord's prayer in Samoan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCiEIzDQzyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCiEIzDQzyo (has a very soft, nice ring to it)