How does finnish sound like?

[haahatus]

I looked and did not find any older topics about this. How did finnish sound when you first heard it? How does it sound now?

[Phil]

I remember thinking "It sounds like speaking Japanese backwards" - I've always enjoyed the sound of the language and always thanked God I didn't have to learn Swedish cause I can't stand the sound of Swedish.

[Emi]

Phil, why not sound of Swedish? for me it sounds ok
And about Finnish - firstly it sounded for me like Finnish especially that I had heard it in songs downloaded from the Net.
And when I came here and read some stuff on this forum about Spanish similarities - I really started to notice that Maybe that's why I think it sounds nice because of Spanish and Italian accociations

[dreamer]

For me it first sounded like Hungarian, but now I can't find any connection anymore, except in the structure of the language, but the sounds seem totally different.

Italian and Spanish associations where do those come from? the only thing that seems somehow related is that you mostly read how it is written, but that comes out mostly if you compare with English, otherwise nothing special IMO

[Phil]

Phil, why not sound of Swedish? for me it sounds ok

I dunno, it's too much like a roller coaster. Up and down and up and down. Although, ever been on a bus sitting between a bunch of loud Asians? Those languages can be quite unpleasant for the ear. And even worse, being on a bus with a bunch of loud Americans!! GRR!!

[Hank W.]

Heres a really good "accent bleed" page:

http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/

Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.

I think I'll try getting that read for posterity.

[PeterF]

To me French always sounds the most pleasing (sexy) to the ear.
Ça va mon chou ? -can mean "How are you my cabbage?" or "how are you my darling?" but depending on the occasion/accent I suppose.

The Swedes sound as though they are trying to clear phlem from their throats..
Their toungue twister that starts...
"77 sea sick nurses... etc..." is a real throat cleaner..

sjuttiosju sjösjuk sjuksköterska.....

[Hank W.]

A Finn and a Swede had a debate whose language was more beautiful. They decided to translate a poem verse into their own languages.

Island, grassy island, the grassy island's bride.

the Finn went:
Saari, heinäsaari, heinäsaaren morsiain...

and the Swede:

Ö, hö-ö, hö-ös mö...

[kalmisto]

>> The Swedes sound as though they are trying to clear phlem from their throats.. <<

I would say that Danes and Swedes in southern Sweden speak like that. I find your comment very interesting if you are talking about Swedes living in Stockholm. Finnish sounds very bad to Swedes. It sounds harsh and monotonous. Also the falling intonation of Finnish sounds very strange to Swedes.

[becca]

I think the Finnish 'R' is a lovely sound, and always have done

[Lau]

I looked and did not find any older topics about this. How did finnish sound when you first heard it? How does it sound now?

When I first heard Finnish I believed that Finns don't breathe while speaking and at the end of a conversation it always came a kind of suffered -jooooo- to mean -It's ok!-
Now I've learned not to breathe... but with a bit of Italian intonation

PS: to me Finnish sounds more like Japanese than Spanish/Italian.

[Emi]

>> The Swedes sound as though they are trying to clear phlem from their throats.. <<

I would say that Danes and Swedes in southern Sweden speak like that. I find your comment very interesting if you are talking about Swedes living in Stockholm. Finnish sounds very bad to Swedes. It sounds harsh and monotonous. Also the falling intonation of Finnish sounds very strange to Swedes.

Exactly the same feeling but only about Danes

[Hank W.]

There is sort of an accent "belt" from North Norway - Middle Sweden - Finland that is pretty uniform - I can understand it more or less. Stockholm-Swedish already is gobbledygook and Southern Dialects sound like they eat their potatoes too hot Actually I spoke once with a Danish guy I was wondering why I understood his Swedish he said he spoke "accentless" Danish, every village has its own recipe for potatoes apparently...

Finnish-Swedish is also quite archaic. The relationship is a bit like French-French vs. Canadian French but not quite as far as with Flemish vs. Afrikaans.

[mookoo]

I thought Finnish sounded like Russian being spoken by an American person (meaning, like Russian, but without that "Russian" accent) and I actually mistook a group of Finns for being Russian on my first exposure to Finnish (I was promptly corrected).

It still sounds a bit monotonous to me, and my boyfriend quite often sounds like he is informing people that someone has died when he talks on the telephone. Just the other day, I thought he was really sad about something and it turns out he was calling his family to tell them about our wedding plans I guess the excitement was so great it got stuck in his throat and didn't make it all the way out

[Emi]

well, being Polish I must say - never had Russian accociations