/lit/ - Literature

>>19087288
Portuguese

What the fuck does elegant even mean with regards to a language?

At any rate, the answer is probably French.

English

>>19087288
Latin.

English, French.
German is an angry incel language.

>>19087288
Obviously German

>>19087324
Sounds like retarded Russian

>>19087326
to me, elegence in this context would relate to efficiency and beauty of expression.

the least cringe language is english for some reason
t. esl

>>19087288
english, french, hindi

>>19087288
Most elegant looking is Chinese.
Most elegant sounding is probably a Romance one

>>19087345
Ok, Ahmed.

>>19087368
Brazilian Portuguese

>>19087345
Portuguese does not sound anything like "retarded Russian", where are you getting this from

>>19087374
>Ahmed.
>Fan of German
????

>>19087392
Most germans are turks

>>19087398
I thought Muslims in Europe stick to Arabic/Turkish and English and don’t learn their country’s language. If German Turks like the German language that’s pretty cool actually.

Japanese

>>19087345
what can be more retarded than Russian? >>19087414
you thought right

Portuguese is very sophisticated in its grammar and structure. You can express the same idea in a lot of different ways and that gives a lot of nuance to the language. The downside is that it relies too much on itself so it's not great for communicating ideas implicitly through omission.

>>19087288
German and Spanish

Italian, Romanian = Castilian Spanish, Portuguese, French
My (unbiased) ranking based on sound of the romance languages. Portuguese and Spanish are the only ones I dont speak. Not trying to offend lusophones, Im sure Id love it just as much if I understood it.

>>19087529
This is my ranking of most beautiful, not elegant btw. French would be the most elegant though.

Everyone who wrote "french" needs to be shot in their tongues

>>19087324
Only a foreigner or a nationalist that doesn't like thinking about the language as much as they claim to would say that. Portuguese is, specially but not only in literature, a clunky mess that suffers from a socio-linguistic chasm that is, to my knowledge, greater than any other language's dyglossia. It's the fact we have a scholarly norm that dictates uses other than ours, in which even the most educated speakers with post-doctorates don't feel accurately reflected in when they realize they can't start a sentence with an object pronoun.
The average speaker sees himself between an alternative the school tells him is correct, but sounds false to his ears, and an alternative he hears in the street but will feel dirty when he says it. The most emblematic of these dychotomies: "Eu a vi" vs "Eu vi ela". These two sentences are horribly ugly. What kind of language is this where we have to sell our soul to the Devil in order to say "I saw her"? We end up just saying "I saw Cecília" in order to not smell that stench that tells us, "you've broken the rule we've hammered into your head since your earliest memories". This isn't normal, and is something you can only understand through the study of socio-linguistics, which could have been prevented if the Lusosphere'd had writers such as the U.S that could accurately represent the spoken language onto the pages of their popular novels. But I do agree that Portuguese is a way richer flower of the Latium than Sp*nish.

>>19087585
>>19087501
>>19087380
Forgot to (You) everybody

Hebrew.

Probably English. Simple, succinct, yet beautiful.

>>19087288
Japanese or Chinese are leagues more economical than European languages without limiting the range of expression

>>19087288
Waldunese

>>19087585
I don't know, dude. I've been taught in school that it's perfectly fine to speak "incorrect grammar" and that the "correct" way to write or speak is actually just the most appropriate one for the situation. A lot of languages are like that: see Japanese for example. No one would dispute that "eu vi ela" sounds correct enough, or "eu vou pro banheiro" etc. Having different norms of speech and text is not unique to Portuguese nor is it necessarily bad.
One other thing that I dislike about Portuguese that I didn't mention in my post, though, is that it can be too wordy at times. It's quite difficult to be succint in it while sounding nice. Any translation from English will sound wordier for example.

Romanian

>>19087585
I understand what you're saying but, I disagree. English used to be more complex on its grammar. Why english can evolve and allow " I go, you go, we go" but portuguese can't allow" Eu vai, tu vai, nós vai"?

>>19087345
If it were elegant it wouldn't constantly sound angry

Sounds cliché but it's probably French for a reason.
The worst language is Portuguese or Greek (although I'm being racist because I hate those cunts)

>>19087288
Latin

>>19087288
Italian of course

>>19087288
English.

It's unlike all other language and its simple-building block structure makes it the most mysterious and elegant.

A better question- which language would you like to hear your lover speak to you?

>>19088700
>English
>most elegant language
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iI4ap-QA38

>>19088715
das war sehr schoen

>>19088715
top kek

actually, as a native English speaker, I have wondered what English sounds like to non-natives? I imagine it sounds maybe a little bit like Norwegian…

>>19087381
In fairness, something strange about Portuguese, whenever I hear it I swear it's some type of Russian or Slavic language, except with a vocabulary that sounds like nonsense. Something or other to do with its sound profile or some shit, I don't know, probably something that some obnoxious redditor has written an essay about on /r/languages for 200 updoots and a reddit gold

>>19088871
apparently we sound like we're hissing a lot

>All these posts proposing variations of devolved provincial Latin, all simplified into vulgar imitations for the sake of the local plebs, stripped of its great features and complexity
>O! Si modo sciant quae elegantia linguam Latinam pertinet

>>19089001
Cur non Latinam scis? Grumo est in culina, vinum bibens. Grumio videt ancillam intrantem. Ancilla delectat Grumionem. Grumio rogat, "Femina, cur non sedes in vultu Grumionis?" Ebrius est Grumio. Ancilla clamat, sed nemo audit, nam dominus et domina hodie in forum sunt. Grumio ancillam capit manibus. "Nunc stupro te! Stupro! Stupro!" Grumio ridet. Sed Ancilla quoque ridet, quod Grumio ebrius est, et stupravit filium dominorum. Anus eius deletus est. Cum Grumio sobrius est, timet ne dominus se interficiat. Sed omnis bene est! Domino quoque placet stuprare filium eius. Videt anum filii. Deletus est. "Grumio! Fecisti?" Grumio tremit. "Bene, Grumio! Bene!" Dominus et Grumio rident. Ancilla ridet. Etiam domina ridet! Sed filius non ridet. ANUS DELETUS est filio.

>>19089010
>Stupro! Stupro!

>>19089010
>Stupro! Stupro!

>>19089010
beyond based

however, I was told once that most Romans never spoke the kind of Latin that is taught in school today

>>19087288
To write or to speak? If the latter, English I think.

>>19088902
yeah, as a native English speaker, I don’t think it is the most beautiful spunding language, but I love it none the less

Finnish.

>>19088871
It sounds like nothing special, like every other language that you're exposed to and use frequently.

>>19088899
That's because people just judge the phonetics without knowing the words at all and making the most tenuous associations. I've also heard people claim that Serbian/Croatian sound like Italian.

>>19087585
Congrats for being the only post that actually deals with grammar instead of just posting random languages with no explanation.

Finnish. I dated a Finnish girl once. Listening to her speak on the telephone to her friends and familty was heavenly.

>>19087368
>Most elegant looking is Chinese.
I prefer Japanese, I love how the kana break up the strings of kanji while Chinese is just a wall. And Japanese is definitely up there as one of the most beautiful sounding languages, assuming it's spoken by normal people and not retarded anime voice actors. I have studied both and I really hated Chinese in every way. Hate its grammar, hate how it sounds. Very ugly thing.
>>19088871
>I have wondered what English sounds like to non-natives?
In its contemporary incarnation it sounds awful because Internet newspeak has degraded it faster than all other languages combined. But the more classic English unsullied by technology is still one of my favorite languages, I think it's beautifully direct yet articulate. Sounds like a much gentler German to me.

>>19088871
>>19089342
>what English sounds like to non-natives?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY

>>19089134
>however, I was told once that most Romans never spoke the kind of Latin that is taught in school today
That's true, but by most Romans those who say that mean the slum-dwelling plebs who didn't really have a proper command of Latin and its grammar and spoke in a vulgar, simplified form. Particularly as the empire grew out of Italy and Rome, the gap widened between the high Latin of literature (i.e. the proper Latin of Cicero, Caesar, Seneca, Virgil, Ovid et alii) and the vulgar, simplified Latin of the provincial plebs, soldiers, the uneducated and the like.

It's essentially the same process that happens to any language, but affected Latin to a greater extent because it's based more on grammatical technicality than most languages and because it was exported to some of the most filthy, disgusting, mud-hut dwelling savages that the annals of history have ever known.

>>19089354
that image makes me fucking kek every time

I think very few people know about Cantonese, especially the Hong Kong accent. (i don't like the guaanxi or vientamese accent of cantonese)

comfy cantonese songs:
https://youtu.be/HbYss6WvFRA
https://youtu.be/hTpfch_Ps-E
https://youtu.be/_vHfoPOWTEE

The only huge drawback is that it's a diglossic language, but its the best sounding Chinese language imo. (also, I like how most languages listed here are European languages and that just shows our own biases)

>>19087342
German sounds very magical to me, like leprechauns, elves, gnomes, etc.

>>19087919
Hebrew is terrifying, I associate it with the apocalypse

>>19087329
English is also incredibly beautiful if you can step back and put yourself in a dream-like daze. It sounds sophisticated and learned, like you're at a university

>>19089375
desu I'd like to learn ancient Hebrew but I'm pretty sure I'm too stupid for that

>>19087288
The language of first order logic theories.

>>19087288
english

>>19089375
>English is also incredibly beautiful if you can step back and put yourself in a dream-like daze. It sounds sophisticated and learned, like you're at a university

It's so interesting how people can develop such markedly different associations with languages (and things in general). As a native Brit the idea of English being especially sophisticated and learned sounds crazy but of course it's all a matter of cultural context.

>>19087288
Obviously Gaelic

>>19089876
Irish Gaelic of course

Classical Japanese written in man'yōgana

>>19087339
this

>>19089857
I don't see how it is interesting. It is obviously arbitrary and completely subjective. People have some vague stereotype of how a language sounds, most commonly based on its relationship to the languages one actually knows, and on the various cultural stereotypes (French = lovemaking and refinement, German = nazis and ordnung, Russians = commies and poverty). Then you pose the question such as OP, and then the ones asked push together the vague impressions into whatever functions as a logical whole to them. Obviously the result vary wildly.
In your case, English is something you're exposed to all the time and of course you don't have any strong emotional reactions to it. The other guy sees it as a path to sophistication, chances are he's a self-hating third-worlder, or at least desiring moving into the "big world" (anglophone world).

>>19087585
Just because you’re a self-hating Brazilian monkey who wishes he lived in Florida it doesn’t mean there are not people who say “eu a vi”. If you’re not confident enough to do, make friends that are not funk listeners.

>>19089354
>>19089134
>>19089010
>>19089001
>>19088682
>>19087339
You barbarians gotta go back

>>19087329
>>19087364
>>19087929
English is a mess

>>19087324

Portuguese is indeed one of the most sweet sounding languages on the world, but only the Brazilian version. There’s something strange with the Portuguese from Portugal: they seem to chew and swallow the vowels while retaining the thorny and elbowing consonant. I have no idea why there’s this difference.

The language that, to me, has the most beautiful sound is Latin. It’s incredible how sweet and at the same time rigid that language was. It’s cliche to say this, but it’s actually something as the voice of marble itself.

I love English for its flexibility. You can do many things with it, invent all sorts of new words with ease and transform words from one genre to another without that sounding strange or inappropriate. It’s a great advantage for the writing of poetry.

As for the language I would like to be writing on (that is, if the language was still alive and prospering) it would be Greek, the Greek from the Classical Athenian period, the Attic/Dorian Greek. It’s a very impressive language, it’s stony in it’s sound, at the same time sweet and harsh. And the greatest thing about it: it’s incredibly flexible and malleable. It’s joints are those of a gymnast: you can do whatever your mind wants to do with it. I know just a little bit of the language and I already love it.

As for the sound, I would say that Latin is the language I deem the most elegant, followed by Brazilian Portuguese and Italian. Of course, as with any language the speaker may destroy the language, but when I listen to Brazilian songs or Italian songs, when I listen to some of their poems recited, I can’t help but feel that these are indeed the most beautiful of all living languages.

The most beautiful of all time? Latin. The greatest language of all time (to me, of course, this is not a science) Classical Greek.

I wish I could love German. My father is German and he loves his language, and insists that it’s the most complete and organized language there is. But it pains me to say that German sounds very ugly to my ears.

>>19090055
>As for the sound, I would say that Latin is the language I deem the most elegant
Are you referring to church Latin or are you a retard?

>>19087288
Whatever it is it's not e*glish.

Southern north-west Uzbek

>>19090060

The Latin I studied a little bit. The one of the Aeneid, Georgics, Bucolics, and the Odes or Horace.

I love to listen to it even though I don’t understand most of it. I like the fact that it retains some harshness that Brazilian Portuguese and Italian especially seem to have smoothed.

>>19087585
>"Eu vi-a."
Greetings from Portugal

>>19090075
Aeneid is a poem from the classical age, we don’t know how it sounded like, and never will.

>>19090094
Just fucking nuke us and colonise again, please, I can’t stand these macacos

>>19090107

And you want the Portuguese of all people to colonise the country? People like you should be sterilized.

>>19090094
>>"Eu vi-a."

Eu a vi sounds better.

>>19090160
It really doesn't. Eu vi-a is way more elegant.

>>19087381
I'm Portuguese thus Russian sounds quite distinct to me but we do share similar sounds hence why it sounds Slavic to some. That's probably why I can pronounce Russian words with little difficulty even if they sound gibberish.

>>19088551
>But portuguese can't allow" Eu vai, tu vai, nós vai"?
I mean, the favelados speak like that. It's like asking why English doesn't adopt ebonics as formal rules.