What is the most beautiful language? What makes it so?
Chauvinistically speaking, the structure of English accidentally makes it the most beautiful language for all my endlessly pleasurable and time-wasting word games. But any surviving spoken language is beautiful, compressing and distilling as it does a vast river of thoughts and metaphors from many generations past.
Stephen Saunders, Canberra, Australia
• Bengali language, or Bangla, was once voted the most beautiful language in the world by a group of linguists. It sounds sweet and melodic. It is also the only language that people have fought and died for the right to use. (Wikipedia: “In 1999, Unesco declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the people who sacrificed their lives for their right to use the Bengali language,”)
Probably, however, some will say that the most beautiful language is the one that works best at seduction, as in the film A Fish Called Wanda.
Laura Miner, New York, US
• Bauan, lingua franca of the Fiji Islands. A range of colourful adjectives, no harsh consonants, enunciated softly & gently, lilting intonation – finer than Italian in singing.
Helen Florence Black, Sydney, Australia
• That would be in the ear of the listener.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• The onomatopoeia within the Khoisan languages is marvellous. But the greatest beauty of human languages is their diversity; one great tragedy of our day is the rate at which they are being lost.
Stuart Williams, Kampala, Uganda
• The most beautiful language is sign language; it eliminates yelling and shouting, including battle cries.
Dickran Malatjalian, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
A contradiction in terms
Is mankind an oxymoron?
A carboxymoron more like.
In his book Sapiens, Yuval Harari describes that, since the agricultural revolution some 10,000 years ago, Homo sapiens (“man-wise”) has been the most destructive influence on fauna and flora in the world’s history. Only climate change comes close, and we’re working on that too, with deforestation and industrialisation.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• Absolutely. As history and current politics both indicate, there is all too often nothing kind about the human race.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• No, but it could explain why man, who can often be kind, can also be a stubborn ox and act like a moron
Richard Orland, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• History says Yes. Time says it could be much worse.
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
• Yes, but you’re being a bit too gender specific.
Terence Rowell, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
Look forward to meeting you
Isn’t it time we met some of the regular N&Q contributors in the Good to Meet You feature?
I would love to know more about: Richard Orlando in Quebec, Philip Stigger in British Columbia, Joan Dawson in Nova Scotia, Pat Phillips in Adelaide, Margaret Wilkes in Perth, and David Isaacs in Sydney...all those Australians... I feel as if I know these folks in a way. I’ve been to some of these places and it’s interesting that our paths have crossed in the Guardian Weekly.
Doreen Forney Pownal, Vermont, US
• To meet them, just go to Australia where most of the N&Q regular contributors live.
Reiner Jaakson, Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Any answers?
What does the crack of dawn sound like?
Rhonda Ross, Brookline, Massachusetts, US
If you could be credited/remembered for a famous quote, what would it be and why?
Elliott Willis, Sussex, UK
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com? or Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK
