Mommo

Throughout all of your travels, which is the language that most fascinated you? the one you though was the most pleasant musically speaking, or the one which had more character? This includes English which can sounds preatty different whether it is spoken in Ireland or in Scotland for instance...

Mommo

...and feel free to state the ones which on the contrary sounded to your ears rather odd, funny, or unpleasant...

RufusTFirefly

Most interesting to me is Japanese. Most enjoyable to listen to is Italian.

travelbear

Most fascinating to me has been Arabic, especially written. Although spoken as well always captivates me. There is nothing like listening to a Arab shopkeeper bargain with a customer.

uncle_sam

Engish spoken by the Scots and of course English spoken by American Southerners, y'all!

US

Art

Of the languages that I've studied, German, Polish, Spanish, Romanina, Italian and currently Russian, I have to say that I liked the sound of Romanian best.

RAR

Senegalese. Wow what a language.

KathrynT

French or Italian

amyb

For listening, I could listen to folks in certain parts of Ireland and Scotland all day. Proof: I fell in love with a Dubliner first and foremost because of his accent.

For speaking (other than my native English), I loathe speaking French (sorry, it's too difficult, after several years of classes), like Spanish, but absolutely love to speak Italian...there is just a wonderful rhythm, smoothness and feel to it that the other two don't have for me.

RufusTFirefly

Now that I think of it, we have a classical music station hostess from South Africa who has the sexiest "English" accent I have ever heard.

StCirq

Italian is to my ears the loveliest language. French is a somewhat distant second. I find Dutch awful to listen to - sounds like people with bad respiratory infections.

Lola

1-French
2-Scottish
3-English (British) especially since I can understand it

JandaO

Tsimpsian

Powell

French.

It is a beautiful, expressive and lyrical language. Even the phrases for common courtesy are wonderful, e.g. for "thank you" one might say "Je vous remercie". The English language is replete with words directly lifted from French, e.g. bouquet, sobriquet, because they are so beautiful.

melr

I like French because it sound smooth and I like Swedish and Italian because they are so lyrical.

And the ones that sound unpleasant to me are Dutch and, to a lesser extent, German. They sound harsh and guttural.

But Welsh is the most beautiful of languages -- but then, I am biased!

me

French and Portugese - YES!

Wayne

It may sound stupid, but my favorite languages are the ones I have learned well enough to "get along" in the country of interest. So that includes Russian, Italian, German, French, and a spattering of Farsi, which I haven't had the chance to exercise lately since the Ayatollah threw me out of Iran over 20 years ago. As for which of these is the most pleasant-sounding, I think I'd have to vote for Italian, spoken by classical upper-class Italian gentility. Second would be high French, not the kind the Cajuns speak in my home state of Louisiana.

usbeauty

My favorite language is Dutch and my life won't be complete until I have learned it well enough to speak it in Belgium and the Netherlands.

LissaJ

I kind of like the way German sounds.

Canadian French has a lot of English works lifted in it, but France French sounded nice.

cmt

My favorite language is English. I don't care that it's not the most melodic or that it's spelling is highly irregular or that its mixed history has given it an incoherent mongrelish character. I think English has a tremendous expressive range, and although it is not inherently pretty, it can be beautiful when spoken well. However, I may just be more aware ofthe ability of the English language to express a wide range of thoughts with sublety and precision because its my own native language. I wonder whether most people, when not trying to be too PC or too modest or too flattering or polite might actually say that they love their own native language. To me English sounds best without a really strong regional or local accent. (However, I do like Irish brogues, even when they are strong.) In addition to certain substandard strong NY/NJ accents that everyone loves to hate, I particularly dislike strong Chicago accents and certain Wisconsin accents.

For sound alone, I love Italian most. It sounds round, rolling, open, rhythmical, without unpleasant harshness, and is easy to listen to and not so difficult to pronounce as a foreigner. It's a beautiful melodic language, but sometimes too beautiful for the the particular subject that it is trying to express. Although it sounds wonderful, the style of expression in Italian is often (not always) too verbose, flowery, bombastic and baroque.

French, on the other hand, is wonderfully elegant and graceful in its syntax, and the style of written French is often (not always) more sleek and streamlined than Italian. I like French. However, I honestly do NOT like French vowel sounds, and I dislike the "r" sound in French (especially Parisian or northern). To me, French sounds are too tight, distorted and artificial, and I feel like one must do tight, unnatural things to the lips and tongue to produce them correctly. (I feel the same way about certain Italian dialects, e.g., the dialect of Basilicata, which in certain parts of the region also uses those tight or and nasal vowels that I just don't like very much.)

I don't really like the sound of German, but maybe I would learn to appreciate it if I learned German and undestood it. (Then again, maybe not.) Chinese sounds very strange to me and not too pleasant, but though I know nothing about it, I think it's fascinating that what I (and probably most westerners) think of as the same sound will have a different meaning depending on the pitch of the voice. (I think the same was true re ancient Greek, which I also don't know at all.)