How does German sound to your ears?

[BonnBonn 1,104]

When I first got here, I described it as a "smoker's cough", but now I am concentrating so hard on learning, I only think about the meaning.

 

 

...what a lovely language! So smooth and soft, it is quite lyrical and sounds nothing like Hitler at all. Of course, at the time--having never been to Europe and not speaking a lick of German--I did not realize that Hitler's being Austrian would make a difference

 

I just watched a documentary called Hitler Speaks. It was quite fascinating to see how they added sound to all those home movies and to understand how contrived his public speaking voice was.

[mlovett 8,681]

BB: thanks for the link; I'm watching it now. very interestink!

[dave6d 0]

If you do not like it go home wherever that may be.

[aqua_minie 2,797]

It's very manly to my ears & sounds unromantic and rough when I hear women speak in German!

but then I like it anyways when my German (man) speaks to me in deutsche (or french or englisch or hindi...) :wub:

[naz 3]

German sounds..RUDE..

[T.O. to go 429]

I find that when I first started learning German 27 years ago, it was very harsh and guttural, but I find over the years it has softened. I love hearing my friend in the Blackforest speak German and English, so sexy, as I love accents, especially French (Parisian, not Quebecois)people speaking English. However when he speaks with family I feel like I'm in an episode of Bill and Ben and expect the little weed to appear at any time, I really want to laugh, but control myself somewhat...off topic I don't like to hear Portugese, so didn't from Brazilian Portugese, so harsh on the ears....my favourite German word ''Genau''.

[london_lover 9]

Every language has its own beauty.

 

However, I will never understand how people emigrate to countries where they HATE the language and are absolutely unwilling to learn it. <_<

[Meatman 382]

New to learning German (Two Years off and on) and with a native German spouse, I've had my difficulties not so much with the learning of words but rather the grammatics. Der Die Das dieser diesem diesen...etc...To hear her speak is soft, smooth, and understandable. She speaks a dialect from Northern BW. Hohen-Lohe I think she calls it. It's about the most normal High German I have heard.

However, we live in the Schwabische Alb and the dialect of the Schwaben people (as well as accent) has both of us going HUH??? all the time.

I liken it to a mouth of marbles and being about 3/4 shit faced when I hear Schwabischer dialect.

I've heard both gutteral spewing and soft flowing French sounding conversations. I say, "to each his/her own". I chose to move here and I liken it to the dialects of the US. I'm west coast born and raised. To hear southerners talk or 'Joisy' 'Bwosten' accents and dialect, it's no different than here. Become a chameleon and adapt. They were speaking the languages way before our great greats were making babies, so here we go.

 

/when in Rome...etc

[Moho_sting 13]

 

German sounds..RUDE..

This is spot on.

 

The directness of language lacks any tactfulness. So long as I can get by without compromising how I express myself, I'm a happy camper.

[alterjank 83]

I agree with most of what Mark Twain had to say about the German language.

My link

 

In early times some sufferer had to sit up with a toothache, and he put in the time inventing the German language.

- Notebook #14, 11/1877 - 7/1878

 

Still, I'm here and still trying to learn it.

[HEM 11,164]

 

It's very manly to my ears & sounds unromantic and rough when I hear women speak in German!

 

I was at my Verein's Grünkohlessen yesterday evening with 46 others (all German except our son who is 50% DE/UK if you see what I mean). I spent some of the time talking to Julia, who is the wife of one of our club members - hes an Airbus guy & she had collected him from Finkenwerder after his plane got in (late) from Toulouse... Anyhow her voice is quite soft & not at all rough. She's also an engineer - not at Airbus...

 

Also I don't consider my wife's voice to be rough - I reckon the partner's voice is an important component in a lasting relationship.

 

I personally don't like Grünkohl & so joined the 15% who ate something else. All said the food was very good.

[Jembru 35]

It really depends upon the speaker (dialect, natural voice etc) but I usually find German a pleasant language to my ears. I was expecting something far rougher sounding. Before I had started learning German myself, I was surprised when I heard my (at the time) boyfriend speaking German and realised how much softer 'ch' is than the uninformed expect (a common misconception among those who've never experienced the language it would seem). I also absolutely LOVE the way they voice their 'r's -I could listen to that all day. Though aqua_minie has a point that it can sometimes sound strange when women speak in German. I feel far cuter when I speak Japanese -especially while wearing nekomimi (cat ears) though the Germans don't seem to appreciate 'cute' so much anyway. Still, I was pleasantly surprised while watching Harry Potter in German (yes, I'm a Potter fan ) and heard the voice they used for Luna, she sounded so sweet and gentle, just as she does in English. So maybe it's not so much the language but what you do with it that counts ;)

[jewski 5]

German is what it is and we have to deal with it, so to me I just make do. However last night at a Karnival party, I determined that Koelsch has nothing to do with German, and is simply drunken Dutch.

[Moondancer 5,723]

German sounds so completely different depending on which part of Germany you are in. East German dialect and pronunciation sounds nothing like Bavarian, or Schwäbisch, Koelsch or Hessisch. Perhaps I am partial, but I think Hessisch sounds a lot softer, full of shhh on the ends of words. Like zwanzisch and not zwanzig, or isch and not that hard ick. Maybe cause the French were here for so long?

[BonnBonn 1,104]

 

German is what it is and we have to deal with it, so to me I just make do. However last night at a Karnival party, I determined that Koelsch has nothing to do with German, and is simply drunken Dutch.

 

I thought the dialect was called Kölnisch? Anyway, my Dutchman would beg to differ.

[Mezzosopran 167]

Jembru:

 

 

I also absolutely LOVE the way they voice their 'r's -I could listen to that all day.

- exactly what I was about to say. I got completely hung up on one of my colleagues pronouncing "Heiraten...?" in my first opera, and it changed forever my perception of German. I like it more, the more I study it. (Thank god! I started with NO feeling for the language, and am actually, much to my surprise, starting to enjoy it!)

[aqua_minie 2,797]

 

It is a fucking frightful language. (...) attack my naked cock with a cheesegrater for 10 hours...well, my cock would be sore.

 

Dude! All this while I was under the impression that you're a whiney lil' biatch!

 

 

I was at my Verein's Grünkohlessen yesterday evening with 46 others (all German except our son who is 50% DE/UK if you see what I mean). I spent some of the time talking to Julia, who is the wife of one of our club members - hes an Airbus guy & she had collected him from Finkenwerder after his plane got in (late) from Toulouse... Anyhow her voice is quite soft & not at all rough. She's also an engineer - not at Airbus...

 

Also I don't consider my wife's voice to be rough - I reckon the partner's voice is an important component in a lasting relationship.

 

I personally don't like Grünkohl & so joined the 15% who ate something else. All said the food was very good.

 

Yes actually Jembru explained it better than me...I guess it depends on the speaker of the language! However, I still feel that German has a quiet a masculine touch to it! (to my ears atleast)

 

 

It really depends upon the speaker (dialect, natural voice etc) but I usually find German a pleasant language to my ears. (...) So maybe it's not so much the language but what you do with it that counts

 

 

[don_riina 7,406]

 

German sounds so completely different depending on which part of Germany you are in. East German dialect and pronunciation sounds nothing like Bavarian, or Schwäbisch, Koelsch or Hessisch

Yeah, yeah, yeah but it is still recognizable as German. If you step in a brown squishy dog shit, or a yellow squishy dog shit, you still go "oh bollocks, I've just trodden in dog shit".

[Schnuckel 8]

Whether I hear my girlfriend speak in "high German" (no accent) or her native Saarlandisch, her voice sounds slightly deeper than I'm used to hearing when she speaks in English. However, I have actually noticed this with all Germans; male and female. I think Americans perceive the German language as "rough", in all meanings of the word. Until I took an English Linguistics course 1 year ago, I did not know that English is a Germanic language. I had never thought about it, but then I thought it may explain why I take more interest in German than other foreign languages. There was something comfortable about the challenge of it, but that is not to say I have learned to speak it fluently. Although my linguistics professor said German and English were not "romantic" languages, I opine to disagree.

 

I always liked this scene in "Scrubs" where Sarah Chalke compares speaking German as she impersonates a "sweet little milkmaid" and an "evil, old, house-kraut." I would say that milkmaid impression shows it can be romantic or beautiful, at the least

 

 

 

The language is a small part of the attraction to my girlfriend. I even hate to correct her English which is getting more rare because the mistakes plus the German accent are kind of cute. She hates to correct my German errors too. I don't get tired of hearing German; not yet ;-) and probably never will since I recently learned of my heritage on ancestry.com. I still liked hearing the language before I had a couple of reasons to make me biased.

[miwild 160]

 

... my linguistics professor said German and English were not "romantic" languages ...

Doubt it ... (s)he probably said that German and English aren´t Romance languages