Superior Languages - "Pretty" Italian vs. "Ugly" German
Have you ever heard someone praise the beauty of the Italian language? Or complain about the harshness of German? Maybe you have even said these things yourself. Have you ever asked yourself however why some languages are perceived as being prettier or uglier than others? Why do we perceive Spanish to be beautiful whilst we perceive Russian to be harsh? Why is it that some languages are seen as being superior to others?
CC Image courtesy of Russel Deasly on Flickr
Why are some languages seen as superior in their beauty to others?
When thinking about Italy what are the first things that come to your mind? Pizza, wine, beautiful scenery, Tuscany, gelato, Rome… All of these things have a positive connotation to them, they are linked to perhaps an experience you h
ad whilst having been on holiday in Tuscany or a sense of happiness, warmth and bliss. Now do the same thing for Germany, what comes to your mind now? Maybe a certain leader that lived in the 1940s and wanted to eradicate an entire group of people? I think it’s safe to say that this has more of a negative almost horrendous connotation to it. The same thing happens when we hear their respective languages being spoken. We don’t perceive Italian as more beautiful because of the sounds but rather because we have a positive emotional connection to hearing the sounds within the spoken language.
Once again the phrase the beauty lies in the eye of the beholder applies, just with the slight alteration that this time it in fact lies in the ear of the beholder. For example, say you went on holiday in France and had a truly traumatic experience that left you never wanting to relive this moment. The assumption that these feelings would come back the second you heard French is a pretty plausible one. The connection to the language would now be one of a bad nature and it would most likely not be perceived as beautiful anymore by this individual. Therefore, the relationship we have to certain languages and whether they are beautiful are solely based on connotations, past experience and stereotypes typical for a certain culture.
Why does this matter?
Not only does this kind of classification in terms of superiority happen in different languages but also different dialects and accents which can create real and serious disadvantages for the speakers of a dialect or accent that is seen as “lower”. In the UK with its vast majority of differently sounding accents employers recently have admitted that 80% of them make discriminating decisions based on accents. Thus, the fact that we as a society are still judging an entire group of people on one experience or simple prejudice is alarming as it’s creating disadvantaging for the people part of this group. Discrimination in terms of skin colour and sexual orientation is still a highly discussed topic and rightly so, as it as well is creating major and unfair disadvantages based on nothing more than prejudice. Why don’t we also discuss the discrimination that is happening with languages and accents though? It is a topic that matters, it does create unfair disadvantages to groups of people and it does need to be changed and the only way to set off this change is by discussing it.
Think about it, when was the last time you judged someone’s intelligence, skills and capabilities based solely on the way they speak? If you want to read more on this topic, visit this article published by the guardian.
References:
Jenkin, M. (July 17th 2014). What makes a language attractive – its sound, national identity or familiarity? Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jul/17/what-makes-a-language-attractive
28% of Britons feel discriminated against due to accent. (25th September 2013). Retrieved from http://www.itv.com/news/2013-09-25/28-of-britons-feel-discriminated-against-due-to-accent/