Bernd Brunner, a native German speaker, contemplates the relative beauty of different languages:
As far as I can tell, many people – including not only many Germans, but Americans – consider Italian to be the most beautiful language. Nasal French earns mixed reviews; some people find it elegant and sophisticated, while it sounds somehow stilted to others’ ears. Those who see fit to praise English – at least, if they’re from Europe – usually add in the same breath that “of course” they mean British English; specifically, the Oxford kind. …
Some people have tried to formulate rules for judging languages, but they are trapped in a dilemma:
because they have to define certain criteria in order to evaluate their findings, they can never escape their own cultural programming. One example is the author Robert Beard, who dared to write a book called The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English (including, maybe not too surprisingly, words like “love,” “eloquence” and “glamour”). For Beard, “beautiful” sounds are “pleasing”: as he explains, “soft sounds are considered more beautiful than hard ones.” But … [c]an only a “harmonious” language be beautiful? What’s wrong with aggressive talk? Some people can say very sweet things while having to use harsh sounds. Who wants a steady diet of romance, without the occasional crime novel?
Dreher’s two cents:
I find that I don’t much like the sound of East Asian languages, but Indian dialects sound nice. I don’t have enough experience with African languages to say. Slavic tongues sound dense and knotted to my ear. Arabic sounds so staccato and aspirated, like its syllables get caught in the throat of its speakers. Dutch sounds like slurred German to me. I don’t like Latin American Spanish, but the Castilian way of speaking it sounds lovely to me. On the other hand, Brazilian Portuguese sounds sexy, but the spoken language of Portugal sounds like Russians trying to speak Spanish.
The most beautiful languages are Italian and French — Italian, because it’s so musical and vivid, and French because it is pure silk on the tongue and in the ear.
The Dish 