In this short video a linguist explains (in German) to a German audience why non-German speakers often thinks German sounds hard and aggressive. His explanation is quite entertaining and at the same time enlightening so well worth watching if you understand German.
Warum klingt das Deutsche so schön/hart?
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Re: Warum klingt das Deutsche so schön/hart?
Meine Meinung nach ist Deutsch gleichzeitig schön und hart, aber das ist eine der Gründe, warum ich diese Sprache liebe. Es ist für mich so faszinierend in seiner Härte.
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Re: Warum klingt das Deutsche so schön/hart?
Natürlich können die deutschsprachige Leute keine realistische Einschätzung über ihre Muttersprache machen, weil sie seit frühester Kindheit um bestimmte Phoneme zu hören aufgewachsen sind. In der deutschen Sprache gibt es absolut zu viele Konsonanten, während die meisten anderen Sprachen vokalische sind. In meiner Meinung sagt das Video nur die Wahrheit auf humorvolle Weise. Die Auslautverhärtung war ein sehr interessanter Punkt!
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Re: Warum klingt das Deutsche so schön/hart?
Dad video hat mich Spaß gemacht aber es ist die Wahrheit. Die deutsche Sprache klingt ganz hart, die Freunden meiner Vater haben immer Spaß gemacht wenn sie wussten daß ich deutsch lernte,aber ich liebe wie das klingt, deutsch ist meine lieblinge Fremdsprache.
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Re: Warum klingt das Deutsche so schön/hart?
There might be a bit of an exaggeration stemming from the Nazi days, but might also be true to some extent.
In Germany we are in touch with a lot of migrants from Arabic speaking nations. In comedy often Arabic is portrait as a "hard / aggressive sounding" language. I've heard opinions about Russian as well, but less prominent. Personally I think that Chinese Mandarin can sound pretty hard and aggressive.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9-VYlMgdNo - interviewing Germans about Arabic, and Arabic speakers in Germany about German
In Germany we are in touch with a lot of migrants from Arabic speaking nations. In comedy often Arabic is portrait as a "hard / aggressive sounding" language. I've heard opinions about Russian as well, but less prominent. Personally I think that Chinese Mandarin can sound pretty hard and aggressive.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9-VYlMgdNo - interviewing Germans about Arabic, and Arabic speakers in Germany about German
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Re: Warum klingt das Deutsche so schön/hart?
The thing he says at the beginning about German sounding like a barking dog is exactly the view I had of Dutch (and still do with regard to some facets of the language) after arriving from the much gentler Flemish in Belgium. It's even worse than German in some cases because of the harsh fricative 'G', especially in the northern regions. And the hard 'k' or fricative 'g' in place of German's much softer endings in words like natürlich and vierzig or at the beginning and end in gleich vs 'gelijk'; and in Dutch where two fricative 'g' sounds appear in rapid succession - e.g. gegeven - it can sound like someone in need of an expectorant. Both languages are very staccato, but that's also the case for Italian and Spanish, so it can't just be that.
My Syrian neighbours often say that people think they're arguing when they're merely having an animated discussion. I've heard the same from Turkish people and both Spanish and Italians. The combination of volume, heavy fricatives, rapidity, and perhaps prosody likely combines to give the (false) impression of irritation and urgency.
Though it also stresses the beginnings of words in the same way as German, English has minimal to no fricatives and in general is not that rapid (a few exceptions: I'm looking at you me old Scousers!) so it comes across as much less urgent. I feel German is unjustly maligned though, because there are many German natives who have quite gentle-sounding accents. I'm sure many here have seen the 'Easy German' videos on you tube and many of the speakers on there, especially the hosts, have soft accents/pronunciations.
My Syrian neighbours often say that people think they're arguing when they're merely having an animated discussion. I've heard the same from Turkish people and both Spanish and Italians. The combination of volume, heavy fricatives, rapidity, and perhaps prosody likely combines to give the (false) impression of irritation and urgency.
Though it also stresses the beginnings of words in the same way as German, English has minimal to no fricatives and in general is not that rapid (a few exceptions: I'm looking at you me old Scousers!) so it comes across as much less urgent. I feel German is unjustly maligned though, because there are many German natives who have quite gentle-sounding accents. I'm sure many here have seen the 'Easy German' videos on you tube and many of the speakers on there, especially the hosts, have soft accents/pronunciations.
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