Sorry, me no speaky the english.

I've always been curious as to what english sounds like to a person who doesn't understand the language. When I come up against a foreign language that I don't understand, I'm usually quite quick to tune in to the predominant sounds of that language, even though the words make no sense. For example, japanese has a lot of 'sh' sounds to it and generally sounds like it has a flowing softness to it.

If english is a second language to you and are you are fairly competent in its use, I'd be keen to hear what english sounds like to you, or how it sounded to you when you first came across it. If I think about it, I notice a lot of 'ch' sounds, and emphasis on 's' (hard or soft). Does the language itself sound quite hard, or does it have an overall softness to it?

now FUCK OFF

lol jk

  On 8/9/2012 at 1:02 PM, Iain C said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY

 

now FUCK OFF

 

lol jk

excellent!

That video needs the caveat "how AMERICAN English sounds to non-English speakers," because those are definitely American accents.

i think english is quite clipped, clear starts and endings to words and gaps here and there as oppose to latin languages which often seem to flow seamlessly together without many pauses.

brilliant video!

I bloody love this song:

  Quote

Prisecolinensinenciousol, a parody by Adriano Celentano for the Italian TV programme Mileluci is sung entirely in gibberish designed to sound like American English.

  On 8/9/2012 at 2:40 PM, BCM said:

i think english is quite clipped, clear starts and endings to words and gaps here and there as oppose to latin languages which often seem to flow seamlessly together without many pauses.

IE stress-timed (English, German etc) or syllable-timed (French, Spanish etc) languages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isochrony

i used to speak fake english all the time as a kid. it sounded pretty much exactly like that video.

  On 8/9/2012 at 2:53 PM, Iain C said:

  On 8/9/2012 at 2:40 PM, BCM said:

i think english is quite clipped, clear starts and endings to words and gaps here and there as oppose to latin languages which often seem to flow seamlessly together without many pauses.

 

IE stress-timed (English, German etc) or syllable-timed (French, Spanish etc) languages.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isochrony

yeah this!

From the point of view of native Finnish speaker English has lots of single syllable words.

For example the above sentence in Finnish: "Suomea äidinkielenään puhuvan näkökulmasta englannissa on paljon yhden tavun sanoja." 11 vs 1 single syllable words.

Also there's weird consonants in English, especially 'th' and the toned down 'r'. Finnish consonants tend to be much clearer and harder, almost Scottish if you will.

I'd say those 2 videos give a pretty accurate idea of what it sounds like to non-english speaker :P

American english is by far much easier to pick up than british english, or rather, the american accent is much easier to understand and imitate. For me personally, I struggle to understand geordie and south london accents if people are speaking quickly. English irish and southern USA accents are fairly easy for me to understand.

The grammar is quite different from most latin languages so the natural tendency for someone from southern europe who can't speak english is to use the grammar rules of their native language to build sentences (which can sound pretty funny sometimes). For instance, in most latin languages there's a gender to every noun (eg the sun and the sea are masculine, the moon and the sand are feminine), there is no "it" conjugation for verbs and instead there is a formal version of the "you" conjugation which doesn't exist in english.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc8tfioOKvU

  On 8/9/2012 at 12:52 PM, Higgins VanHiggins said:

I've always been curious as to what english sounds like to a person who doesn't understand the language. When I come up against a foreign language that I don't understand, I'm usually quite quick to tune in to the predominant sounds of that language, even though the words make no sense. For example, japanese has a lot of 'sh' sounds to it and generally sounds like it has a flowing softness to it.

I am terrible at speaking new languages, but Japanese was actually the easiest one for me to pronounce (I've taken German, Russian, and Spanish), there is quite little variation to the sounds, and it's quite consistent in terms of word structure (there's a vowel after most constants the majority of time). I'm guessing it sounds varied only because of accent and pitch differences of speakers. I respect anyone who can understand and speak tonal languages in Asia and Africa - I wonder if it's near impossible for certain people simply because it's dependent on pitch control.

The other thing I try to do is avoid saying "they don't speak English very well" for anyone who isn't a native speaker. I get quite annoyed and offended at people who make fun of new English speakers IRL - it's a difficult and often ridiculously arbitrary language. And to be honest, I find the vocabulary choices and overall lack of casual idioms by new English speakers rather illuminating - sometimes they say things that I would never come up that are completely logical. I've notice a lot of Arab speakers say "I make it" instead "I'll do it" or "I'm doing that." Kids of Spanish speakers say "hey mister" to adults and teachers which some find rude sounding, but in reality they're used to saying "Senor" to elders in their native tongue.

This a good example, I really enjoy listening to Fenriz speaking English, it's quite humbling. There are millions of Americans who only speak English who can't even put together a decent sentence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzOYebQlALE

Thanks to all who've given an answer, starting to get something of an idea of how it sounds to the outsider (and getting some nice insights into some of the particulars of other tongues).

  On 8/9/2012 at 3:47 PM, joshuatx said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc8tfioOKvU

lol

  On 8/9/2012 at 1:29 PM, milorad said:

  On 8/9/2012 at 1:02 PM, Iain C said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY

 

now FUCK OFF

 

lol jk

excellent!

whenever i see this it reignites my love for Marlene Dietrich.

American english sounds like coca cola and money. all those soft sh, th, and bendy y sounds are like zooming G4 airplanes.

UK english is not too different from the rest of the european languages. hard, down to earth consonants from scandinavia. it's got a strange strained melody to it, which is why it pulls off anal retentiveness way better than all else. the only thing it lacks is the hard r. the hard r is the secret behind the depressing syllables of northern and eastern europe that makes for excellent philosophy and social commentary.

This thread is 4 me! I'm enchanted that we think of me!

  On 8/9/2012 at 2:59 PM, data said:

i used to speak fake english all the time as a kid. it sounded pretty much exactly like that video.

The first word I learned was 'way'. I didn't know what it meant at that time, but it was the first word I comprehended. So my fake english mainly consisted with vowels and general tongue twirling and with as much 'way' in it as possible.

  On 8/9/2012 at 2:49 PM, mcbpete said:

I bloody love this song:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8

 

  Quote

Prisecolinensinenciousol, a parody by Adriano Celentano for the Italian TV programme Mileluci is sung entirely in gibberish designed to sound like American English.

haha, fuck, forgot about this one. Hilarious song.

edit:

English somehow manages to sound stupid and pretentious at the same time.

listen to anything thats sung by Eddie Vedder. ive been speaking the kings english for years now and ive got no fucking clue what that dude is saying. lol

my GF speaks some pretty good Engrish but also being dyslexic its a chore sometime to deduce what she means to say. She also has 3 nephews under age 5 who are being taught English and Vietnamese at the same time, and neither of us nor their parents can understand their speech impediment. The youngest seems so confused by the different jibber jabbers that he's basically making up his own speak as he goes, so we have no idea what he's saying. I love em to death though. :)

  On 8/9/2012 at 6:22 PM, Frankie5fingers said:

listen to anything thats sung by Eddie Vedder. ive been speaking the kings english for years now and ive got no fucking clue what that dude is saying. lol

lol

yellow ledbetter

  On 8/9/2012 at 4:56 PM, chimera slot mom said:

American english sounds like coca cola and money. all those soft sh, th, and bendy y sounds are like zooming G4 airplanes.

 

UK english is not too different from the rest of the european languages. hard, down to earth consonants from scandinavia. it's got a strange strained melody to it, which is why it pulls off anal retentiveness way better than all else. the only thing it lacks is the hard r. the hard r is the secret behind the depressing syllables of northern and eastern europe that makes for excellent philosophy and social commentary.

sooooo, we sound like the sims?