Does English Sound Scandinavian?

Researchers now believe they can prove that English is in reality a Scandinavian language, which means that it belongs to the Northern Germanic language group, just like Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic and Faroese. But there is something more: its fundamental structure is strikingly similar to Norwegian.

What does English sound like to non natives Reddit?

so as an english speaker I’ve always wondered what my language sounds like to someone who doesn’t speak it. EDIT Thanks for all of the great responses! So basically to non-english speaking individuals I sound like the ‘Twin Peaks’ dwarf with a lisp. Good to know!

Does English sound like Icelandic?

No it doesn’t. English and Icelandic are the only languages to preserve the “th” sound. And Icelandic has neither the pitch accent of Norwegian or Swedish, nor the stoed of Danish. I think they sound remarkably similar.

Why do English speakers say like?

To an Old English speaker, the word that later became like was the word for, of all things, “body.” The word was lic, and lic was part of a word, gelic, that meant “with the body,” as in “with the body of,” which was a way of saying “similar to”—as in like. Gelic over time shortened to just lic, which became like.

What other language sounds like English?

Closest Major Language: Dutch Like Frisian and English, Dutch is another West Germanic language that developed from Proto-Germanic. Because of this, Dutch possesses many words and phrases similar to English and has a similar grammatical structure.

Does English sound similar to any other language?

However, both agree English does not sound similar to any other language – despite it belonging to the same family as German, Dutch and Afrikaans. Wayne Rimmer is co-ordinator of the Pronunciation Special Interest Group at the International Association of Teachers as a Foreign Language.

What would a mono-lingual native-English speaker do?

This is what a mono-lingual, native-English speaker would do listening to the staccato and intense German language, for example.

What are some unusual phonetic traits of the English language?

Speaking as a linguist, some of the unusual phonetic traits of English are: a lot of diphthongs (like “ey” and “ow”) and fricatives (like s z f v), long sequences of consonants (like in “strengths”), and a lot of reduction (the tendency for sounds to be simplified when unstressed).

Do English speakers know what Spanish or Russian might sound like?

So, the video–many English speakers know what Spanish or Russian might sound like, or even unique dialects and accents of English (e.g.,m Scottish, British, the aforementioned Southern US, etc.). What does English sound like to a non-native/non-English speaker?