Posted on 09/20/2026 1:39:08 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
LINGUISTS TEND to say that all languages are valuable, expressive and complex. They usually attribute negative attitudes to prejudice and politics. That is probably why no one has carefully studied the touchy question of which ones are seen as beautiful or ugly. That is until three scholars—Andrey Anikin, Nikolay Aseyev and Niklas Erben Johansson—published their study of 228 languages last year*. They hit upon the idea of using an online film about the life of Jesus, which its promoters have recorded in hundreds of languages.
Crucially, most recordings had at least five different speakers, as the film has both exposition and dialogue. The team recruited 820 people from three different language groups—Chinese, English and Semitic (Arabic, Hebrew and Maltese speakers)—to listen to clips and rate the languages’ attractiveness.
What they found was that nearly all the 228 languages were rated strikingly similarly—when certain factors were controlled for (of which more below). On a scale of 1 to 100, all fell between 37 and 43, and most in a bulge between 39 and 42 (see chart 1). The highest-rated? Despite the supposed allure (at least among Anglophones) of French and Italian, it was Tok Pisin, an English creole spoken in Papua New Guinea. The lowest? Chechen.
The three language groups broadly coincided in their preferences. But the differences between the best and worst-rated languages were so slight—and the variation among individual raters so great—that no one should be tempted to crown Tok Pisin the world’s prettiest language with any authority.
A few factors did make the raters say they quite liked the languages they heard. But those seem unrelated to intrinsic qualities. First, being familiar with a language—or even thinking they were familiar with it—made raters give a language a 12% prettiness boost on average. And there seemed to be some regional prejudices.
If a rater said that a language was familiar, he or she was asked to say what region it came from. Chinese raters, for example, clearly preferred languages they thought to be from the Americas or Europe, and rated those they thought from sub-Saharan Africa lower. (When raters said they were unfamiliar with the languages, such preferences disappeared.)
The other extrinsic factors that influenced ratings were a strong preference for female voices and a weaker preference for deeper and breathier ones (see chart 2).
But try as they might, the investigators could not find an inherent phonetic feature—such as the presence of nasal vowels (as in French bon vin blanc) or fricative consonants (like the sh and zh sounds common in Polish)—that was consistently rated as beautiful. Only a slight dislike for tonal languages was statistically significant. Tonal languages are those that use pitch to distinguish otherwise homophonous words. Even Chinese subjects slightly disliked such languages, though Chinese itself is tonal.
Dr Johansson highlights some unanswered questions. His team had no information about which sounds tend to appear together (English strings along consonants—as in “strings”—in a way that many other languages do not.) Such a feature was beyond their ability to measure. So was prosody—roughly, the rhythm of a language. And with just five speakers per language, the presence of a couple of attractive or unattractive individual speakers could easily move a language’s rating this way or that.
Finally, the audio materials were scripted. This was a good thing in one way, because the raters heard the same part of the film (with the same meanings) in each language. But spontaneous, natural speech could make quite a different impression. Perhaps people like and dislike not the sound inventory of a language, but the way its speakers tend to speak it. If that is so, the attractiveness of a language might be better attributed to its speakers’ culture—not to the language itself.
Negative results in experiments usually do not make waves, but this one is both interesting—since it goes so strongly against people’s instincts—and cheering. The world is divided enough. As the researchers conclude, “We have emphasised the fundamental phonetic and aesthetic unity of world languages.”■
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C
Perl
Essyay
After living with Spanish for 60 years, Portuguese is very easy on the ears.
“Tagalog”
.
Pronounced tah-GAH-log, a nurse corrected me in hospital...
“French was most difficult to understand. And so were French people.”
.
A Swedish friend says “French isn’t a language: It’s a noise”
“I have perfect pitch and am good at identifying dialects.”.
.
If you spoke Spanish at home, I have no trouble identifying your lineage—even out to the third generation...
“I lived in Hawaii for a few years. It’s beautiful”
.
So did I—eight years windward shore of Oahu. Now listening to modern native songs composed by K. Reichel and “Z”. While I don’t understand a word, the language is soothing.
I’ve made acquaintance with a Ukranian who fled to Cuba. His rolled “rs” come up from the depths—scary deep...
The Love Sonnets of Kharg, House of Grong read in the original archaic stentorian Klingnon are without equal among the civilized races.
“It is among the Klingons that love poetry achieves its fullest flower”.”Worf, House of Martok.
If you got other ideas.....take them up with Worf.
“French....language of diplomacy/culture...but Spainish...love”
According to AI....
English: Aviation, global commerce, science, internet, international law
French: Diplomacy, cuisine, fashion, ballet terminology, African development
German: Engineering, philosophy, classical music, automotive, precision manufacturing
Spanish: Lawn and pool maintenance.
All in good fun.
Everybody knows Spanish is the lingua franca of distributor level drug deals.
Jesus-Mercy-Peace.
Yes. When I want to relax, I’ll bring up my Keali’i Reichel, Brothers Cazimero, or Hapa. Sometimes I’ll Google the lyrics and try to sing along with them.
We were living in Simi Valley after HI, and I was at a grocery store deli. The lady behind the counter spoke beautifully. I asked, “Maui?” She said yes. Even the different islands there sound different. I can’t explain the difference, but I can tell.
I miss the place in many ways.
My dad was born in Norway but came to the US when he was 7 or 8. He came not speaking any English, but his mother and stepfather could (long story but his widowed mother left him behind with her parents when he was a toddler and went back to get him after she had remarried and established here).
My dad told me he was enrolled in school, but a grade behind other kids of his age, and was bullied because he couldn't speak English and was bigger than the other kids, so they thought he was "slow", so he, by emersion and necessity, learned quickly.
His parents spoke a mixture of English and Norwegian at home.
But I remember when my Norwegian grandparents would come to visit us, my grandmother who by know spoke perfect English, would start taking to my father in Norwegian.
My mother who didn't know any Norwegian suspected her mother was trash talking about her and she was right.
My dad never spoke Norwegian at home as I was growing up, except for a few words and phrases and I wish he would have.
Kids who learn a second language when very young have a much easier time learning other languages, even unrelated languages.
FWIW, my dad did have a bit of an accent, but it was Northern New Jersey.
Bellissima, referring to the comedy.
Vuolsi cosi’ cola’ dove si puote
Cio’ che si vuole e piu’ non dimandare
Translated:
It is wanted so there whatever he wants
Whatever he can, ask no more.
That is, this trip is wanted so by God.
Thank you. I was told by another Freeper it’s as ugly as Russia. It doesn’t sound that way to my ears.
LOL
Amharic - the main language of Ethiopia - is very musical to listen to, especially when females are speaking it.
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