EPTI always hear "yousemida" and -mida and -aseyo ending things. Would be interesting :D
[Q] What does English sound like to foreigners? - Page 7
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FoBuLouS
United States570 Posts
I always hear "yousemida" and -mida and -aseyo ending things. Would be interesting :D | ||
Pholon
Netherlands6142 Posts
It is true about the sound inventory of languages. The 'th' was mentioned earlier and another example would be the 'g' (as in Scottish Loch) that we have in Dutch (tip for anyone doing a 'this could be Dutch' vid) which is also very rare. Apart form that though there's also syllable make-up (e.g. Japanese only allows syllable ending in a n/m/ng or vowel), phonotactics (English does allow n - p sequences 'pancake' whereas Dutch and Korean rather avoid them (D: insert e - 'pannekoek', K: nasalise seup + nida -> seumnida)), and strespatterns. English for example prefers accents on the penultimate syllable whereas French puts the accent on the last syllable. I remember talking to some French people a while back and this dude siad one gem of a ( English) sentence where all accents had to be pen-ultimate and he put them final. All his friend were laughing and said he sounded ever so French. It is all these things that the dude in the clip made use of. Words dont really matter. In fact, I reckon one could write a single sentence of nonsense words and pronounce it with all kinds of accents. In fact, maybe we should do this. As to accents, I prefer listening to Brittosh but the other ones don't bother me much. Every "true" accent is pretty incomprehensible to me though (last real scottish or cockney). However I did want to shoot myself in the face listening to the blonde chick from Transformers >_> Like. Gawd. (Oh and usually I say about German that it's "Dutch but louder" which appears to be a familiar stereotype among the Dutch. I know a bit of German though and it doesn't sound angry/louder or anything) | ||
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Warrior Madness
Canada3791 Posts
On January 03 2009 23:29 FoBuLouS wrote: I wanna hear some fake korean from you people that watch pro Starcraft I always hear "yousemida" and -mida and -aseyo ending things. Would be interesting :D I'll give this a shot. Ahem. PLLAAAAAAGGGGUUUUUUUUUUUU!!! How was that? | ||
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jgad
Canada899 Posts
On January 01 2009 16:36 OmgIRok wrote: kinda off topic, but "what chinese sounds like to english speaking african americans: nigga nigga nigga nigga nigga" + Show Spoiler + 那一個 sped up I've actually seen this happen on the street. For those who don't get it, "nei-ge" (pronounced sort of "nay-guh") is almost like a stuttering word in chinese, almost like an "uhm... uh..." and it's often sputtered out in succession like "nei-ge, nei-ge, nei-ge... ". Anyway, there was a group of chinese students walking down the street and they were chatting away and one guy busts into this typical mandarin stutter and, completely oblivious as to why, it seemed, this black guy walking in front of them just turned around and gave them the most bizarre look - an odd mix of confusion and shock, overall doused with a load of WTF-factor. One of the funniest things I've ever seen. | ||
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jgad
Canada899 Posts
Oh and usually I say about German that it's "Dutch but louder" which appears to be a familiar stereotype among the Dutch. I know a bit of German though and it doesn't sound angry/louder or anything Funny because to my ears Dutch sounds probably the closest to English of any language in terms of phonetic content. There are a few telltale differences, of course, (some of the voiced rear fricatives, etc) but it otherwise overlaps, to my ears anyway, more than any other language I've heard. On the subject of the Kiwi accent, though, one need look no further than Flight of the Conchords for ample examples of hillarity. Eagle vs Shark is a great film too for those who may not have ever heard of it. | ||
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AnWh
Sweden220 Posts
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RaiZ
2813 Posts
 I've NEVER ever heard any english accent nor a single english word except maybe some from the movies but i can't remember as i've become deaf since age 3. Would be pretty funny i think if i've ever tried. But tried to speak with some dutch guys when i was snowboarding and so far they understood me pretty well. So i was like WEEEEEEEEEEE. They tried so hard to not smile but they were cool though ! | ||
Carnac
Germany / USA16648 Posts
Personally I have a hard time describing what English really sounds like to me. I guess once you reach a certain level of proficiency you don't really notice much about the "general" sounds of that very language. Then again it is only when you have a certain mastery of a language that you will be able to differentiate between local variations of said language and the better you get to at a languague, the more you will be able to notice even very slight variations. Those are two very different things. On the other hand when I hear people speak say Russian, which I don't know at all, I will notice a lot more stuff regarding the general tonality, phonemes, etc of the language. But I won't be able to differentiate between most of the variations or accents and regional dialects of the Russian language. On January 01 2009 10:17 HamerD wrote: I've yet to find a country with as varied accents as my home country it's ridiculous. Though makes for a really broad spread of voices. But maybe that's just my head playing tricks with me?! I understand for example the difference in northern spanish to southern, but it doesn't seem that much. Maybe if I were spanish it would be absolutely huge and the english different accents not. Though I doubt it because most foreigners who come here find scottish and northern (mancunian, yorkshire, newcastle, liverpudlian) completely unintelligble lol. I have never lived in England, so I don't really know all the different accents, nor am I sure whether I'd be able to differentiate between various northern accents etc. I mean I can distinguish RP, Northern English, Scottish English, Irish English, probably Welsh English, but I don't know if I could easily differentiate any further. What I do know though, is that Germany has a lot of different accents & dialects, whether it's more than England I don't know, doesn't really matter anyway. With a few exceptions I really love accents though and I admire people who can imitate a wide range of accents almost flawlessly, because I cannot do that at all. Scottish & Northern are pretty hard at first, but I hear my way into it. For the first couple of minutes I won't understand much, but then it rapidly gets better. Couple of months ago I met 2 guys from Edinbourgh in a bar here and the first time I heard them talking to each other I didn't even realize it was English, lol. But like I said, it's not really that hard to adapt to it so that I at least understand most of what they say. And I'm sure if I spent a week or two in Scotland I'd understand about everything. On January 03 2009 10:48 closed wrote: I actually always wonder how is it possible that the British, Germans (to some degree) and perhaps even the Chinese have so different accents that they have problems in understanding each others. You dont have TV or schools? o_o What exactly do you mean when you say each other? Germans speaking German, Chinese speaking Chinese, etc? If so your last sentence is pretty arrogant -.- For example there isn't actually such a thing as a Chinese language, but a lot of different Chinese languages (although I guess most Chinese will understand Mandarin? No idea). There are regional German dialects that I can't always understand 100%, especially if it's older people talking. Platt would be an extreme, but that's basically a separate language. On January 03 2009 21:45 Itachii wrote: your language does, and its truth, all these Z,R make it sound like you are screaming at someone even if you are actually saying something gentle^^ French on the other hand, god I just love it German does indeed sound harsher than say French (I know..., I grew up as a French German bilingual), but you are way, way exaggerating. I seriously doubt you have much of an idea about proper German -.- I'd also like to refer to the first two paragraphs I made in this post - listening to a language you can't speak is a very, very different sensation. On January 04 2009 01:26 jgad wrote: Funny because to my ears Dutch sounds probably the closest to English of any language in terms of phonetic content. There are a few telltale differences, of course, (some of the voiced rear fricatives, etc) but it otherwise overlaps, to my ears anyway, more than any other language I've heard. German and Dutch are really close. A German will understand quite a bit of a Dutch text (even when he knos zero Dutch) and vice versa. The same (maybe to a slightly lesser extent) is true when listening to a Dutch as German and vice versa. Although there is of course a number of false friends as well. | ||
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Sadist
United States7328 Posts
On January 01 2009 05:51 AdamBanks wrote: +1, i hear chinese (mand? cant?) can be like this to with 3412341341 dialects, I myself am irish so i speak very rapidly, this is best juxtaposed with an american or a canadian from central or west as they speak soooooo slow you often wanna just go ahead and finish their sentence for them (eg. "How... boot... those... maple... leaf's... eh") This works both ways, people from those places have great difficulty understanding the tones and nuances and of a Newfoundland dialect. The irish definately speak insanely fast. My mother is from ireland so I am AMAZED when we have been over there and she can understand what the fuck some of my uncles are saying. I definately can pick up some of the accents though, my family is from the cork area and they sound noticabley different from the dublin area as well as waterford. Not to mention they say LIKE after every second. "How did you get on with em like?" also having been to london, I definately can tell the london accent from the rest of england, the annoying FANK YOUUU and the skipping of syllables in words. The london accent sounds horrible on women. | ||
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29 fps
United States5725 Posts
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qrs
United States3637 Posts
On January 03 2009 21:45 Itachii wrote: your language does, and its truth, all these Z,R make it sound like you are screaming at someone even if you are actually saying something gentle^^ French on the other hand, god I just love it Yeah, same here: I really like the sound of French, and I don't really like German, or German accents. Nothing personal; just the sound of the language. (That's a major overgeneralization anyway: it really depends on who's speaking.) Here's a fun video (there's a ton of these on YouTube; this was one of the longer ones). Everyone knows Disney songs, right? so you'll at least have an idea of what is being sung. + Show Spoiler [this one has 29 languages] + | ||
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uNiGNoRe
Germany1115 Posts
On January 01 2009 08:19 0xDEADBEEF wrote: Hmm... British English speakers sound a bit funny but "classy" American English speakers sound very colloquial, "chewing gum English". I never liked that Americans pronounce "can't" like they pronounce "can"... this is confusing sometimes. British speakers pronounce "can't" with a long aaa sound, it's more clear but doesn't sound so badass. Still, I prefer AE over BE in every other case. I absolutely hate German accent when speaking English... for example if you watch a Mondragon interview you'll immediately know what I mean. It's ugly. I always take care not to sound like that when speaking English. In general I like English very much... always did. So it doesn't really sound strange to me... it has almost become as familiar as German since I read and write so much English, and also watch a lot of English movies, and play English games all the time. Oh, and my operating system and programs, even my keyboard layout, is all US English. Well, my keyboard layout is not english. I will never get used to a "y" next to the "t". Thats just too wierd. Although I think the keys are placed way better for programming. Maybe I'll try it out some day. And I prefer the American English over BE. For me it just sounds more natural. I guess that's because you hear AE way more often than BE (Hollywood movies, etc.). But basically everything else you said is true for me as well. Many english movies, english OS, english games. I do even think in english sometimes because I'm more familiar with the english vocabulary of a certain topic. And I can't remember how english in general sounded to me before I learned it at school. Just the British sound a bit more classy like DEADBEEF said. | ||
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Zoler
Sweden6339 Posts
On January 07 2009 16:59 RaiZ wrote: Well, i think you'd never understand what i'll be talking in english with any english sentences. Why ? Cauz i'm deaf. It's sometimes hard to be understood in french if they don't pay attention so i can't imagine how it'd be like if i was talking english to you I've NEVER ever heard any english accent nor a single english word except maybe some from the movies but i can't remember as i've become deaf since age 3. Would be pretty funny i think if i've ever tried. But tried to speak with some dutch guys when i was snowboarding and so far they understood me pretty well. So i was like WEEEEEEEEEEE. They tried so hard to not smile but they were cool though ! You're deaf!?  Damn.... damn... I've never had a conversation (on internet or IRL) with a deaf... t.t pm me | ||
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MuR)Ernu
Finland768 Posts
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jgad
Canada899 Posts
On January 08 2009 03:12 Carnac wrote: German and Dutch are really close. A German will understand quite a bit of a Dutch text (even when he knos zero Dutch) and vice versa. The same (maybe to a slightly lesser extent) is true when listening to a Dutch as German and vice versa. Although there is of course a number of false friends as well. I agree completely - still, the phonetics of German and Dutch are quite different, despite the lexical content being very closely related. A Scot and a Londoner can converse perfectly well, for example, but the phonemes they use to produce the language are markedly different. What I mean to say is that the phonic content of Dutch sounds similar to english, not that the symbols and words themselves are related. | ||
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SoleSteeler
Canada5459 Posts
On January 03 2009 13:21 Warrior Madness wrote: This? Was awesome. I loved the Cockney accent. She sounded exactly like Eliza Doolittle. What I found interesting about it is that my attraction for that woman fluctuated up and down to the tune of her many accents. She got Toronto WAAAAAYYY off though (At least I hope so!) so it leaves me questioning the accuracy of the rest of her accents. Her Torontonian sounds more like Wasilla, Alaskan. Yeah her Toronto was pretty off. It would be more accurate if it was supposed to be someone in pretty much any rural part of Ontario, though. Of course, probably a bit exaggerated. But I'm starting to notice some friends and family that have the stereotypical Canadian accent, but none are from a major city. | ||
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Itachii
Poland12466 Posts
On January 08 2009 03:12 Carnac wrote: Definitely one of the more interesting threads in a while Personally I have a hard time describing what English really sounds like to me. I guess once you reach a certain level of proficiency you don't really notice much about the "general" sounds of that very langauge. Then again it is only when you have a certain mastery of a language that you will be able to differentiate between local variations of said language and the better you get to at a languague, the more you will be able to notice even very slight variations. Those are two very different things. On the other hand when I hear people speak say Russian, which I don't know at all, I will notice a lot more stuff regarding the general tonality, phonemes, etc of the language. But I won't be able to differentiate between most of the variations or accents and regional dialects of the Russian language. I have never lived in England, so I don't really know all the different accents, nor am I sure whether I'd be able to differentiate between various northern accents etc. I mean I can distinguish RP, Northern English, Scottish English, Irish English, probably Welsh English, but I don't know if I could easily differentiate any further. Offtopic:this thread reminds me the scene in "Lost in Translation" when the guy had photographic session, I laughed so hard when i saw it first time~~ What I do know though, is that Germany has a lot of different accents & dialects, whether it's more than England I don't know, doesn't really matter anyway. With a few exceptions I really love accents though and I admire people who can imitate a wide range of accents almost flawlessly, because I cannot do that at all. Scottish & Northern are pretty hard at first, but I hear my way into it. For the first couple of minutes I won't understand much, but then it rapidly gets better. Couple of months ago I met 2 guys from Edinbourgh in a bar here and the first time I heard them talking to each other I didn't even realize it was English, lol. But like I said, it's not really that hard to adapt to it so that I at least understand most of what they say. And I'm sure if I spent a week or two in Scotland I'd understand about everything. What exactly do you mean when you say each other? Germans speaking German, Chinese speaking Chinese, etc? If so your last sentence is pretty arrogant -.- For example there isn't actually such a thing as a Chinese language, but a lot of different Chinese languages (although I guess most Chinese will understand Mandarin? No idea). There are regional German dialects that I can't always understand 100%, especially if it's older people talking. Platt would be an extreme, but that's basically a separate language. German does indeed sound harsher than say French (I know..., I grew up as a French German bilingual), but you are way, way exaggerating. I seriously doubt you have much of an idea about proper German -.- I'd also like to refer to the first two paragraphs I made in this post - listening to a language you can't speak is a very, very different sensation. German and Dutch are really close. A German will understand quite a bit of a Dutch text (even when he knos zero Dutch) and vice versa. The same (maybe to a slightly lesser extent) is true when listening to a Dutch as German and vice versa. Although there is of course a number of false friends as well. Excellent post, but German really does sound harsh without exaggerating, and I believe most people would agree with that after listening to it for a bit.Sure defining how language sounds while actually knowing it differs alot from describing it when you hear it first time, but I was basing my opinion on own experience (was learning German for 4 years) and I still had the same impression while being able to talk in it. I am learning french atm, and really loving it, not only becouse of how it sounds but also cuz of its grammar( it seems exciting for me, heh) Dutch/German thing is the same as polish/slovakian/czech, we are able to communicate on basic level without knowing single word in other's language. | ||
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Pholon
Netherlands6142 Posts
On January 08 2009 03:12 Carnac wrote: What exactly do you mean when you say each other? Germans speaking German, Chinese speaking Chinese, etc? If so your last sentence is pretty arrogant -.- There are regional German dialects that I can't always understand 100%, especially if it's older people talking. Platt would be an extreme, but that's basically a separate language. I have to agree with closed here, I know there's accents of Dutch WITHIN Holland that are pretty much unintelligible to me. I'm pretty sure the case is the same in Germany since that's an even bigger country. That is, however just restricting ourself to within-nation communications. It can still be considered whether strong accents, like Platt or Limburgs are still accents or seperate languages. On January 04 2009 01:26 jgad wrote: Funny because to my ears Dutch sounds probably the closest to English of any language in terms of phonetic content. There are a few telltale differences, of course, (some of the voiced rear fricatives, etc) but it otherwise overlaps, to my ears anyway, more than any other language I've heard. German and Dutch are really close. A German will understand quite a bit of a Dutch text (even when he knos zero Dutch) and vice versa. The same (maybe to a slightly lesser extent) is true when listening to a Dutch as German and vice versa. Although there is of course a number of false friends as well.[/QUOTE] Sure many words are cognate but in my opinion the phonetic systems of the three languages are still quite different in many ways. + Show Spoiler + For those interested let me illustrate with a partly result from my MA thesis. Among other things we investigated the perception of sibilants (the sounds s and sh as heard in see and she) by native speakers of Dutch and English. 8 speakers of each language listenened to a range of sibilants, going gradually from s to sh. These 11 items (on the x-axis below) were rated as s or sh by the speakers. Reduplicated results (y-axis: 8 = definite s, 0 = definitely no s (sh therefore): ![[image loading]](http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/6317/masumau0.jpg) The interesting item is no. 6, which received an 's' judgement by the Dutch speakers, but an 'sh' judgement by the English speakers (If you're English, this may explain why a Dutchman offering you to sit on his couch may sound funny). Pretty interesting outcome, since most people dont expect this to happen since both languages use the same two sounds. We're still working on testing German and French people (*cough* volunteers?) so we can compare those outcomes to the D/E results. I kinda lost my train of thought now so I'll close of by hoping this information was valuable in some way. | ||
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Warrior Madness
Canada3791 Posts
On January 08 2009 05:05 SoleSteeler wrote: Yeah her Toronto was pretty off. It would be more accurate if it was supposed to be someone in pretty much any rural part of Ontario, though. Of course, probably a bit exaggerated. But I'm starting to notice some friends and family that have the stereotypical Canadian accent, but none are from a major city. Interesting. I've never heard ANYONE with that sort of accent before. But then again I've never been outside of Toronto. The weird thing is that my cousins from florida once said that I and all my friends, and everyone on tv (much music) had a heavy Canadian accent, whatever that means. I'll be going to manitoba and then vancouver for a little while and it'll be interesting to see whether I can pickup any differences in how people sound. Also, my friend is a newf, and he's shown me what they really sound like up there. | ||
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Yogurt
United States4258 Posts
On January 04 2009 01:10 jgad wrote: I've actually seen this happen on the street. For those who don't get it, "nei-ge" (pronounced sort of "nay-guh") is almost like a stuttering word in chinese, almost like an "uhm... uh..." and it's often sputtered out in succession like "nei-ge, nei-ge, nei-ge... ". Anyway, there was a group of chinese students walking down the street and they were chatting away and one guy busts into this typical mandarin stutter and, completely oblivious as to why, it seemed, this black guy walking in front of them just turned around and gave them the most bizarre look - an odd mix of confusion and shock, overall doused with a load of WTF-factor. One of the funniest things I've ever seen. hahaha made me think of this p.s watch till the end | ||
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