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Re:Which Language Uses the Most Sounds? by jpatokal on Saturday November 26, 2016 @04:17PM (#13045914)
Since English is (largely) not tonal, you're not used to the rapid pitch changes required by tonal languages, hence the "alien" feel. For what it's worth, I find Thai quite euphoneous compared to Vietnamese or Cantonese, both of which have even more tones.

Question for HN: if your first language is tonal, what do non-tonal languages sound like to you? I've frequently heard Finnish described as boring/mumbling, because it's both non-tonal and has a very predictable stress pattern (emphasis always on the first syllable).

Re:Which Language Uses the Most Sounds? by johansch on Saturday November 26, 2016 @04:55PM (#13046100)
My native language is Swedish, not English. They are both quite closely related though.

I'm really curious to that Swedish sounds like to tonal-language people. It's often described as "sing-songy" by "non-tonal" people from e.g. UK/US.

Re:Which Language Uses the Most Sounds? by laylomo on Saturday November 26, 2016 @05:36PM (#13046338)
It's because of words like anden and andEN. That second version is sing-songy because it has two stresses.