Favourite language.

Henapon said:
However I'd say my favorites are slavic ones (norwegian, swedish, polish, russian...) because they sound really appealing to me and I'd love learning them!

konkelo said:

Norwegian and Swedish alongside Danish, Icelandic and Faroese are North Germanic languages, otherwise known as Scandinavian languages. They're more close to Germany than Slavic languages like Russia and Ukrainian. But I agree Slavic languages are nice sounding.

Flevalt said:
The sounds used by each language have a strain on the user of the language.
Some sounds are more strainful than others and they will exhaust you faster.

It becomes most obvious when you try to speak a tribal tongue that is spoken with sounds that are produced by clicking your tongue.

There are also sounds so hoarse that their constant, repeated usage will roughen up your lung/voice. A person that has spoken a language for years will be best able to tell what sounds the language has that strain your voice.

German has sounds that produce a lot of friction in your throat, like the classic "ch" which sounds like a cat's hissing.

Producing this sound in full (and not half-assed like e.g. some accents would produce it) and often using words that have this sound will roughen up your voice over the years.

There are also sounds whose low or high pitch can be a pain to use. Not talking about once or twice, but if you use these on a constant basis to produce some words, you can notice how the sound itself is extremely unnatural for a human as you have to put vastly more energy into producing it as opposed to other sounds. I find this most notable when you're sick in bed or in a state where your immune system is broken down. You can really feel the impact of every sound you produce in such a state and if you pay attention, you'll notice that some words and sounds are a no-go in such a state while others just fly off the tongue.

An Indian will sound like a clown because the sounds they have to produce are mostly nasal. Their sounds go through the nose and the output comes off as silly.
Having to listen to Indian accents is annoying as hell.


I would rate languages based on their effects on the speaker rather than on the effect of the sounds on listeners because, from what I can tell, it has a lasting impact on the mental and physical health of the speaker. Some languages are more pleasant to listen to, but they may not be as pleasant to speak them yourself permanently.


Many of the sounds produced by the German, Mandarin and Japanese languages are rather pleasant to listen to (though Mandarin is more for the fine taste).
As opposed to having to listen to any Hindi-based language or those languages that never developed much away from latin (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese).

The english language has this downside, not sure if anyone else ever paid much attention to it, that tones make a lot of use of sounds produced from reaching for sounds from the throat or having you tense up your tongue.
An effect of this is that native English speakers sound far more quiet than many other languages and sometimes this produces the effect for the listener that the spoken may sound as if the speaker whispers or mumbles.
This effect of "soothening" of the voice also has a side-effect where an English speaker whose voice cracks trying to convey an emotion will sound "less into it" if that's the right way to put it, than what many weebs complain about all the fucking time as opposed to a Japanese conveying emotion.

The English language is very capable of sounding affectionate and passionate too. The English soft/quiet tone just causes this phenomenon where some ears' reception can't process the information well to distinguish it.


The most pleasant language to speak, imo, is Russian. The sounds are easily produced and flow well. And unlike the English language, it doesn't regress your voice. The only bad part about the language is the effect of the sound on the receiver's end. Since the sounds are so easily produced, the language can come off as indifferently cold and kind of, how to put it, down-to-earth (some would say mentally challenged).

Flevalt said:
I don't think the differentiation matters too much betw. something like ich and ach because you're causing a lot of friction either way but the ach is of course more rough.

Yes and so does Low German. Like the Netherland's "ik" instead of "ich".

You might get a similar effect with English. Everything I say in English feels much more convincing, smarter, elegant and "cooler" than with German (or any other language for that matter). And all without even mimicking British accent.