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And as an Spanish speaker, I've found that, oddly, Greek people "sound" exactly like Spaniards. In the sense that you would swear they are Spanish and yet you don't understand a word, it's uncanny! Is it the same for you guys, the other way around?


Yep, nobody in Spain ever believes that I can't really speak good Spanish, because I sound like a native. I had a friend pronounce Greek words transliterated to Spanish, and he sounded like a native as well.

There are a few minute differences, like the "s" sound being a bit farther forward in Spanish, or the "rr" in Spanish being rolled twice (in Greek it's only rolled once), or Greek having a "z" sound (which Castillan accents don't have), but largely it's more or less identical.


Langfocus: Why Does Greek Sound Like Spanish?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPMqoHPJzac


He also has one about Portuguese vs. Russian/Polish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pik2R46xobA

And extreme syllable-timed language family (opposite of these) are languages Tagalog, Malay, Indonesian. EVERY syllable is pronounced and it becomes a mouthful but there's a strict cadence that comes from it. Foreign words break it a bit but native words are "ma-ka-ba-la-bu-sa-ng-ah-ga-ta-na..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6BtThH53PQ


In the same way, Brazilian Portuguese sounds eerily like a made-up language pronounced in Russian, for a Russian ear. Many Indo-European languages are very similar phonetically, despite being completely different in every other way.


It is exactly the same for me (native spanish). I hear greek and it takes me a second to be sure it is not Spanish.

Even talking to greeks in English sometimes a random Spanish word pops out in Spanish (rarely happens in general).


It's nice how similar our pronunciation is. Even if you don't understand the words, you feel like you could write them and make few mistakes.




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