Can languages be considered pleasant-sounding , the one more or less than another?

[Robert]

Do you believe that there can be universal agreement , or one by a great majority , on how pleasant a language sounds to the human ear? --even a ranking scale, more or less agreed-upon?

To me the French language seems very mellifluous, even artful, more so than most. Some French speaking people will consider that comment pretty stupid, I know. But ...

What do y'all think?

[George Hunt]

I think it is relative  to what we are used to but yes people do seem to come to approximate agreements on these matters of taste. .

I like Italian best but I am sure there will be nicer sounding languages I have just never heard till now.

[Robert]

I suppose that's possible. I can only wish to see a large enough poll.
Including mine , Italian appears to have got 2 votes from this forum. (Though to be honest, I must disclose that I can not help associating the sound of Italian with the look of Sophia Loren.)

[Antoine Olivier]

Mind you french is full of exeptions to make it nice to look and to hear.

[Vedas]

Claude Hagège who is a French linguist and can speak fluently more than 10 languages and knows partially many more gave his opinion on this matter but obviously said that it was a just a subjective thought.

Among his best sounding languages were Russian, Italian, Arabic, German, Japanese...and said that it didn't find particularly pleasant to hear Portuguese, Chinese.

Now he has a special treatment for English and considers that its too many diphthongs don't make it sound good or harmonious but let's say that he's got a biased view against English accusing it to be too hegemonic.

To do justice to Claude Hagège one must say that listening him speak French is absolutely delightful and a big lesson for all.

[Robert]

Thanks. I do like how he sounds from the YouTube clips I found. But I do not get him **at all** regarding his top choices above: particularly unattractive to my ears (just being honest here) are the scratchy throat-consonants of the Middle Eastern languages.

Italian , yes, is somehow so full of colors and energies, though I wonder how much of that are from impressions I got from the Italian movies.

The answer to my question at top is most likely "no," for how deeply personal are our individual perceptions, if not hopelessly prejudiced. (A Spanish author once said that when it comes to romantic love, no language will do but Spanish. To that, 'each to his own' is all I can say.)

[Vedas]

As I said Hagège's position is very subjective all the more when you know that he considers French, Arabic and Italian like mother tongues so it seems natural that he likes them (as a matter of fact he doesn't include them when he says he can speak fluently 10 foreign languages) ...He graduated in Russian, Hebrew and Chinese although he said he finds this latter sounding ugly...

I for one loves the  British melody and intonation along with the educated Scottish accent.

I also like  German very much! a thing that everybody around me doesn't understand !

Italian obviously sounds great but it's too easy, who wouldn't agree with that?

On the other hand I find it hard to speak about one's own language, I assume that French may sound soft to foreign ears as there is no intonation or accentuation compared to  the majority of other languages, I wonder if it doesn't sound too monotonous by the way?. The only thing I can say is that grammatically French is subtle, precise and that it allows to easily express  abstractions and  even make  them sound elegant. 

[Adam Charles Hovey]

I do think that, but I find Italian to be much more on those lines.  French has a lot more guttural sounds than I initially thought, but I feel it is more airy than in Germanic languages.  I think Italian is one of the most beautiful languages, but I think French has some of the most beautiful expressions.  

[Yeli]

What about the Dutch language? :)

[George Hunt]

The football manager Steve McClaren was the object of derision  when  he went to Holland to manage a Dutch  football team and acquired something of a Dutch accept and it seemed like he was speaking English with a Dutch intonations .

So , to an English ear ,yes the Dutch language does sound a bit comical , as evidenced perhaps by the phrase "double Dutch" meaning "nonsense"  .

http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=18710#.Vi0iJLfhCM8

[Yeli]

hahaha :) I know I prefer French than Dutch. Though I love words such as paddestoel and boerderij.

[George Hunt]

From my time in that part of the world I also remember the Danish language being described as like someone speaking with an egg  in their throat .

I saw someone speaking the "click" language on the television(South African, I think) .It was beautifully harmonious.

[Yeli]

I met once some one from Denmark and he told me he could understand Dutch people eventhough he had never studied the language.

Some people say that Dutch is also spoken in South Africa :). The languages are very similar.

I had to learn Dutch and I try not to be negative about the language but it is not the same to say airline than luchvaartmaatschappij :)