Why is the English language so melodious?

[Medeya2012]

HI all members of forum!

I have a strange question, why is the English language so melodious? What are the main causes of its melodiousness?
Could anyone help me, please?

Thanks in advance

[Pamela]

Abundance of vowel sounds, I guess 8)

[Alan]

Hi,

Melodious I wouldn’t call it - imaginative, versatile, poetic yes. I think the Romance languages are the ones with melody, including Welsh. You only have to listen to opera sung in English to realise it isn’t melodious.

Alan

[Medeya2012]

Thanks a lot Pamela

Is it possible if I say:" words in English language are not too long as in other languages and in the sentence they are connected with each other by the help of prepositions and in this way appears that melodiosness" What could you say about this version?

[Conchita]

@Alan

Hi,

Melodious I wouldn’t call it - imaginative, versatile, poetic yes. I think the Romance languages are the ones with melody, including Welsh. You only have to listen to opera sung in English to realise it isn’t melodious.

Alan

You probably think this way because English is your language – we often don’t appreciate the things we take for granted.

I must say I agree with Medeya, as I’ve always found English (both spoken and sung) quite melodious (or should we say ‘melodic’), in the sense of ‘pleasant to listen to’ – not necessarily in a musical sense (unless we’re talking about specific accents, like the Scottish).

This is only a very personal and humble opinion, naturally.

[Medeya2012]

Hi Conchita,thanks for support.

Yes,Alan, I guess if I listen to opera sung in English,it will not sound as melodic as in Italian ,but English language is also melodic, I could say, for example, almost all pop music is sung in English,why?I must say they sound very melodic in English.

[Sls]

@medeya2012

Hi Conchita,thanks for support.

Yes,Alan, I guess if I listen to opera sung in English,it will not sound as melodic as in Italian ,but English language is also melodic, I could say, for example, almost all pop music is sung in English,why?I must say they sound very melodic in English.

I feel the same way. It’s like English developed with modern music in mind. It sounds so great and at least for me it’s easier to learn than most languages. I mostly get to listen to American accent but British is just as nice. No offence to Germans, but in comparison to English, German has a bit too ‘rough’ sounds.

Why English pleases my ear that much remains unknown, it’s just words like ‘lullaby’ or ‘omnipotent’. Well, these are not exactly everyday words but perhaps it’s the way thoughts link together… Now I’m not even sure what I want to say. Maybe it’s things like tough/though/thought/through/thorough/
/trough/throughout…

Maybe there’s some information on what makes a language sound good in Internet, I’ll look into it tomorrow.

[Medeya2012]

HI SLS, I agree with you.It will be great if you can find some information about my question.

Have a nice day!

[Sls]

Hi Medeya,
Most of the results on Google are forum discussions like this one or lists of favourite words.
Some material of value:

@http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9033238/euphony-and-cacophony

Euphony is achieved through the use of vowel sounds in words of generally serene imagery. Vowel sounds, which are more easily pronounced than consonants, are more euphonious; the longer vowels are the most melodious.

It seems Pamela is right about the abundance of vowel sounds playing a big part.

Euphony@Wikipedia
Sentence Euphony - constructing pleasant sounding sentences
Euphony in names
“The Awful German Language” by Mark Twain
French euphony

And here’s a quote I found and liked:
“The definition of a dull person is one who can go to the dictionary, look up one word, and walk away.”

Still no scientific paper about euphony though. If I stumble across one I’ll post it here.

Stanislav

[Medeya2012]

HI Stanislav,

Thank you for searches. I knew that vowel sounds give melodiousness to a language because my native language, the Azerbaijanian language, is one of the Turkish languages and vowel sounds in my language make it more melodic.So, euphony is seen more in turkish languages, for abundance of vowels in it.I can say when we speak, foreigners think we read a poem.I thought if there maybe some other additions.
OK if you can find something, post it here

[Foah]

Hi all!

Interesting topic with lots of different points of view, I think. I mean, listening to the sung English, particularly in the modern music, the words seem to flow and be melodious but when I listen to BFBS I often feel needed to be a hard-rocker. :roll: :lol:

Michael

[Tamara]

Hi

Just two subjective points.

To me, unknown language can sound more melodious than when you know it. You just hear and your consciousness doesn’t interfere with it.

The second aspect: any language has ‘more melodious’ and ‘less melodious’ words and phrases. For example, Russian isn’t generally the most melodious language in the world, but with it fairly melodious (not just rhythmic/poetic) things can be said.
In my view, English makes very clear melodious distinction between bad/unpleasant/etc and good/pleasant/loving/etc
In many cases you can make a guess about ‘positivity/negativity’ of English words just by the their melody, having know idea about their meaning. And have the guess right.

[Pamela]

Medeya, just out of curiosity, are you doing any kind of research?

[Medeya2012]

@Tamara

For example, Russian isn’t generally the most melodious language in the world, but with it fairly melodious (not just rhythmic/poetic) things can be said.

HI Tamara,I think Russian is melodious

HI Pmela, I didn’t exactly understand your question,sorry, but if you meant scientific searches, no, I don’t do suchu searches, I’m just a curious student

Thank you all for your thoughts,it’s very pleasant to see your all posts about my topic