>Foreign languages aren't, as a rule, inherently super fucked up just because you don't speak them
No, but German kinda is. It almost always sounds like someone in authority is screaming at you :)
No, but German kinda is. It almost always sounds like someone in authority is screaming at you :)
Not to mention that the supposedly German in that video looks like a Bavarian and believe me here, Bavarians are not Germans and they're not representative of Germany as a whole. Officially and geographically they are, but in reality the Free State of Bavaria is more like its own nation with its own language and culture. They even have their own political party, the CSU, that only campaigns in Bavaria.
I lived in Germany for about 5 years (still go back at least once a year) but mostly always spoke English for the job, though obviously I was surrounded by the language. Germanic languages (English included) do contain quite a lot more 'sharp' sounds and generally are spoken in a deeper register than romantic languages.
Mongrel languages like English contain characteristics of both, though I'd say English sounds way more like Low German to me.
Going from memory - in 'High German' sharper sounds like 'echt', 'icht', gutteral 'um', 'zee', ' tzim', gutteral 'uct', 'acht', gutteral 'tur', gutteral 'ch' and 'schmeh' are just a few common examples that are often spoken with emphasised or strong pronunciation even in northern Germany (where I worked but actually now spend more time in Bavaria) and can easily given an impression of a 'harsher' tone to the language to us outsiders. I certainly remember them standing out enough to recall them now.
I guess this comes from the strong pronunciation of each syllable in German, which certainly seems to be more common than something like French or Italian where sounds can be rolled together.
I do agree with you though that emphasis can change the characteristic of the language. To use an example from English, a Glaswegian accent sounds very aggressive. Yet, listen to someone from Aberdeenshire or parts of Wales and English becomes quite mellifluous. Talk to someone from Northern Ireland and you might become concerned they're suicidal such is the cadence and tone of the language.
I find that same careful enunciation means German spoken by natives often has a slightly sharper sound than English, but that could just be because many everyday German words use sounds like ch, ck, b, d and z, and as a native English speaker and non-native German speaker I notice those more. As you say, this has nothing to do with shouting, though.
Not for us non-Germans listening to it (though the video exaggerates of course). There's a reason behind the stereotype, and that's not WWII.
Even the mere written form of the words is more somber and threatening looking: schmetterling vs butterfly or farfala for example, or Wissenschaft vs science.
Can't compare with something like Italian or French.
I disagree, I find German very clear and as Silhouette explains "They also tend to enunciate more carefully than many native English speakers, so they are usually very easy to understand"
I find the Dutch I deal with always seem to be firmly instructing you. It's not shouting but more their translation where they say thing like "you will do ?????". Hard for me to describe, personally I'm fine with it but I know some people find it difficult. I've not found this with Germans.
Besides, "only to Americans and some Englishmen"? Ask a frenchman, an Italian, or a spaniard about how German sound to them...