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  1. Do lyrics sound better in English. I'm from the states and i'm curious what others around the world think. I feel that words, rhyming schemes and such just sound like they fit and flow better in English than in other languages i've heard. At least as a whole, sure other languages can create rhyming patterns, but they seem limited and the words of the English language seem to have more possibilities to be arranged and rearenged to fit and flow better, especially when accompanied by music? Also anyone have any thoughts on if this is just a coincidence or part of the natural evolution due to the migration of humans?


  2. O-)
  4. Well I think English has a lot more words than most languages (lots of duplication with many words with similar meanings) which helps with rhyming.

    It also has quite a lot of sounds due to it's various linguistic influences (eg. Latin, Celtic, German, French, Greek etc)

    I think the only other languages that sound particularly good for singing are Italian, Latin and French, maybe Spanish.

  5. You are quite wrong there.

    (mainly agree with the rest of your post)
  6. Originally posted by patssox95:Do lyrics sound better in English. I'm from the states and i'm curious what others around the world think. I feel that words, rhyming schemes and such just sound like they fit and flow better in English than in other languages i've heard. At least as a whole, sure other languages can create rhyming patterns, but they seem limited and the words of the English language seem to have more possibilities to be arranged and rearenged to fit and flow better, especially when accompanied by music? Also anyone have any thoughts on if this is just a coincidence or part of the natural evolution due to the migration of humans?


    What's your comparison group? Do you speak any languages other than English?


  7. Nah, English has a lot of words from a lot of languages - it comes with being a global language

    English has the largest vocabulary of any language. Depending on counting methods it has approaching one million words. The Anglo-Saxon lexical base has been supplemented by the influx of words from Latin and Greek, from French and the languages of countries colonized by England.

    http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/english.htm

  8. I think that interpretation is a big thing too.

    Its the second language of lots of people around the globe. Naturally those know their primary language a lot better than English.

    I am quite sure non english speakers have lots of 'vague' definitions of lots of English words. It can be quite hard to translate 1 word from 1 language to another.

    I think this 'lack' of knowledge of another language makes it more interesting since there is more room for interpretation.

    It would be the same for any other language if that were 'mainstream', that is also why English has more words. Where most of those 'extra' words are just copied from another language
  9. Originally posted by Risto:I think that interpretation is a big thing too.

    Its the second language of lots of people around the globe. Naturally those know their primary language a lot better than English.

    I am quite sure non english speakers have lots of 'vague' definitions of lots of English words. It can be quite hard to translate 1 word from 1 language to another.

    I think this 'lack' of knowledge of another language makes it more interesting since there is more room for interpretation.

    It would be the same for any other language if that were 'mainstream', that is also why English has more words. Where most of those 'extra' words are just copied from another language


    Exactly

    It's the only true global language (wheras languages like Chinese or Spanish may have more speakers but are limited culturally) so many words are introduced as English speakers borrow words & concepts from other cultures they live/work with and also by speakers who do not have English as their native language.

    It also helps that English is the common language of science and technology so it also has a lot of scientific terms and technical jargon.

    I also think it sounds quite unique and unlike most of the other languages out there (especially compared to the other European languages where the Germanic, Slavic, Romance languages sound similar to each other but English is quite different)
    But perhaps that's just me as a native English speaker, what do you guys with English as a second language think? Does it sound similar to other languages or is it quite unique?
  10. Germanic and Slavic similar ? You have to be kidding

    I dont see English as unique really, I think Germanic languages have more in common with English than with Slavic languages.
  11. I think English lyrics sounds better than dutch ...but i also think in a opposite way ...
    isn't it not also boring to hear always the same language? ....i mean i think dutch songs ( not all but a lot) are so bad ..they sound so cheap ...there is no immersion in the lyrics ...
    In Holland we hear a lot of English on the radio and on TV all English programs are dutch subtitles ..but when i hear one hour of dutch songs after each other i get very bored
    but with English music it all sounds way much better ...
    example: the songs that holland will send to the eurovion song contest this year ...first in dutch then in english:

  12. Originally posted by Risto:Germanic and Slavic similar ? You have to be kidding

    I dont see English as unique really, I think Germanic languages have more in common with English than with Slavic languages.


    No no, I meant the languages in the families sound similar eg the Germanic languages sound similar to each other as do the romance and Slavic ones.

    English doesn't really fit in anywhere - apparently like Hungarian and Finnish which are also unique.
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