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How does Greek sound to you?

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Mato

Mato

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3EH...D3E5E4880&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2

sounds like greek to you haha never thought of that.

seriously, modern greek. I'm just wondering. I mean I can't tell because it's my native. But I'm wondering does it have a distinctive sound? French, italian, russian, german etc many languages have a distinct sound and u can use adjectives to describe their sound. How does greek sound? Does it remind you of another language? Slavik like? Russian? What?
 
ken.gif


sounds cool to me

edit: am i the only one getting a shitload of 500 server errors?
 
It sounds like Greek... which is a unique branch of the Indo-European language. It doesn't sound like anything else, if you ask me. It is heavily palatised from its ancient versions.

For insance β went from a labial voiced stop /b/ to a labial fricative /v/, leading the /b/ sound to require the combination of μβ. Also θ and φ went from voiceless aspirated stops /tʰ/ and /pʰ/ into /θ/ (equivalent to english "th") and /f/.

I find it very interesting, myself as I study Attic Greek.
 
It sounds like... Arianna Huffington.

Otherwise, I'd say it sounds like a mix of Spanish and Italian, in tempo and pure vowels, yet with no word I can understand.
 
I took a year of Ancient Greek and it sounds awesome when spoken by specialists, but modern Greek sounds way too like Turkish.
 
The sound of it is similar to spanish and portuguese in my ears. Its easy to tell its greek tho because there is enough uniqueness to it.
 
I've always been really in to the way languages sound. I can't speak another language or anything I just think they sound neat. Greek sounds like YADDA BADDA PADDA LADDA PADDA. Chinese is easy because it sounds exactly like the noises people make when they want to make fun of Chinese people: CHING CHANG CHONG YONG SHONG. Easily distinguishable from Japanese. But Korean can sound a lot like Japanese to me, the only way I can tell is that every sentence ends in the word "mida" or something like that. Maybe some one here can explain what the hell that's all about. Also one time I asked a non native speaker what English sounded like but now I forgot what he said. :(
 
Borgnine said:
But Korean can sound a lot like Japanese to me, the only way I can tell is that every sentence ends in the word "mida" or something like that.
Click to expand...

hehe the "mida" thing is what i noticed too:lol
 
Instigator said:
It sounds like... Arianna Huffington.

Otherwise, I'd say it sounds like a mix of Spanish and Italian, in tempo and pure vowels, yet with no word I can understand.
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A friend of mine brought some Greek friends from his Erasmus period in Paris and the similaries are striking. It's like they were trying to speak European Spanish with a strong Italian accent. Vowels are so clear that a Spanish speaker needs no time to learn the pronunciation.
 
Spanish? Italian? Really? I thought it would sound like russian seeing as people abroad regularly confuse me for russian.

But turkish-like sounds absurd to me. I'm confident it doesn't sound like turkish, which is just so... bulky buldozah something...

Dragona how come you study attic greek? Is it difficult to learn Greek from the start? We did ancient greek all throughout highscool, it seemed very difficult especially since I wasn't much interested, but to a native greek a big amount of words is understandable by default, but grammar, intonation and general sentence structure make it a pain to fully grasp the meaning. Definetely can't write it though without proper study.
 
I've always thought Greek sounded like Italian, but a little less "vowelly" and less "singy". But definitely not like Russian or Slavic languages.
 
Instigator said:
I'd say it sounds like a mix of Spanish and Italian, in tempo and pure vowels, yet with no word I can understand.
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pretty much this, I've always liked greek lettering looks awesome.
 
Mato said:
Spanish? Italian? Really? I thought it would sound like russian seeing as people abroad regularly confuse me for russian.

But turkish-like sounds absurd to me. I'm confident it doesn't sound like turkish, which is just so... bulky buldozah something...

Dragona how come you study attic greek? Is it difficult to learn Greek from the start? We did ancient greek all throughout highscool, it seemed very difficult especially since I wasn't much interested, but to a native greek a big amount of words is understandable by default, but grammar, intonation and general sentence structure make it a pain to fully grasp the meaning. Definetely can't write it though without proper study.
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Well, those people in video have exactly the same intonations as all Turkish people I know :lol
And it's nothing like Russian.
 
Mato said:
Spanish? Italian? Really? I thought it would sound like russian seeing as people abroad regularly confuse me for russian.

But turkish-like sounds absurd to me. I'm confident it doesn't sound like turkish, which is just so... bulky buldozah something...

Dragona how come you study attic greek? Is it difficult to learn Greek from the start? We did ancient greek all throughout highscool, it seemed very difficult especially since I wasn't much interested, but to a native greek a big amount of words is understandable by default, but grammar, intonation and general sentence structure make it a pain to fully grasp the meaning. Definetely can't write it though without proper study.
Click to expand...

Russian sounds very distinctive, muffled like speakers keep their words in their mouths. Russian also sounds like it's filled with consonants with a few scarttered, half-pronounced vowels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp03sIe1Puw&feature=related

Greek sounds more outward and clearly spoken, like many Romance languages.
 
It has a hint of several languages to me, like Italian and Eastern European.

Sounds absolutely nothing like Turkish, which I speak.
 
Sounds good. I've had a hankerin' for some lamb souvlaki with a side of haloumi and salad for a while now.

It's very distinctive in that it has a lot of Latin phonemes, but doesn't sound like any of the Romance languages at all. It's also very blunt in its pronunciation.
 
Lich_King said:
I took a year of Ancient Greek and it sounds awesome when spoken by specialists, but modern Greek sounds way too like Turkish.
Click to expand...

I speak Turkish and work for a Greek family. They sound nothing alike apart from the occasional shared word here and there, but that's probably due to my Turkish being Cypriot Turkish, or Farmer's Turkish -_-
 
It sorta reminds me of english, but with a little more flow to it. Everything is very distinct, not so flowy like spanish or italian. I don't speak greek (dropped out of greek school when I was 8), but just listening to it is easier than most other languages.
 
I am Greek and a member of the Greek Orthodox church. I used to read the Epistle in Greek,and also sing along when the Divine Liturgy lapsed into Greek. Ancient Greek is really beautiful. I am finally going to visit my family this summer for the first time in 3-4 years.

But what does Greek sound like. To be honest, I have no idea... Greek? :lol I really need to get fluent in Greek though, thanks for the reminder.
 
The_Inquisitor said:
I am Greek and a member of the Greek Orthodox church. I used to read the Epistle in Greek,and also sing along when the Divine Liturgy lapsed into Greek. Ancient Greek is really beautiful. I am finally going to visit my family this summer for the first time in 3-4 years.

But what does Greek sound like. To be honest, I have no idea... Greek? :lol I really need to get fluent in Greek though, thanks for the reminder.
Click to expand...
Here's a fun game for English-only speakers. Try to listen to someone speaking English and listen only to the sounds they make - not the words they're saying.

It's nearly impossible for languages you understand.
 
It's always just sounded like they're saying "bar-bar" over and over again to me.
 
viciouskillersquirrel said:
Here's a fun game for English-only speakers. Try to listen to someone speaking English and listen only to the sounds they make - not the words they're saying.

It's nearly impossible for languages you understand.
Click to expand...

Bullshit. You just need to get drunk. Happens to me all the time.
 
ixix said:
It's always just sounded like they're saying "bar-bar" over and over again to me.
Click to expand...
:lol classic

yes, that too was a joke/pun

edit: Oh yeah, Greek sounds like Spanish that I can't understand. Which I guess means it sounds like Portuguese.

I took two semesters of attic greek last year, so it's crazy how far my "Greek" accent deviates from those of modern speakers.
 
Being around Spanish a lot I guess it sounds more like Italian but not.

I dunno, they're all Romanic languages so I guess to the untrained ear they all mix together in the brain.
 
kozmo7 said:
Being around Spanish a lot I guess it sounds more like Italian but not.

I dunno, they're all Romanic languages so I guess to the untrained ear they all mix together in the brain.
Click to expand...
Greek's not a romance language...unless you just meant spanish and italian?
 
Instigator said:
Otherwise, I'd say it sounds like a mix of Spanish and Italian, in tempo and pure vowels, yet with no word I can understand.
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I agree. As if an Italian spoke poor Spanish :p
 
you know, as a half greek (my father is from greece) i'm of course a little bit biased. but i think it's a wonderful language. it's something pretty unique. i also dig the modern greek music (except the hip hop artists :lol ).

bira mira mira mira bira mira malacca, bira bira bira malacca, hey malacca, bira bira mirra
Click to expand...

:lol
 
I think it has some similarities with Italian or Spanish in intonation, it also sounds like there's a little Russian mixed in.
 
being a Portuguese, French and English speaker with many Italian, Spanish and Greek speaking friends.

Greek to meet sounds....... Greek LOL. It is not a Romance/Latin based language even though they may share words like photographs and stuff but I am pretty sure that lots of words are share between Greeks and the rest of the Romance Languages just as English use French words and vice versa

the S sounds are clear S sounds, that is what stands out mostly for me
 
Mato said:
I refuse to believe that. No way.
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Hehe, this just reinforces my belief that the real reason Greeks and Turks don't get on is because they are so similar. They just hate the idea that they could be the same in any way, it's funny.

Back on topic, I don't think Greek sounds very Turkish or vice versa (probably because the roots of Turkish are altaic/arabic?), although they do share similar words. Greek sounds pretty unique with its abundance of "x" sounds in words.
 
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