French leads preferences but Spanish dominates on Duolingo
French or Spanish: Duolingo data reveal preferences. Spanish leads in users, French in elegance. An analysis of the debate over Romance languages.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
French vs Spanish: the battle of the Romance languages according to the data
A discussion on a current affairs forum has reignited the aesthetic rivalry between the Romance languages. While some defend the elegance of French, others praise the solidity of Spanish. What seems like a subjective question, however, has objective backing: Duolingo data.
According to the figures cited in the debate, French is the third most studied language on the platform, with 50.56 million users (9.81% of the total), behind only English and Spanish, which has 70.91 million (12.8%). Italian, with 27.99 million, ranks sixth, and Portuguese ninth, with 14.31 million.
Personal preferences go another way. French is praised for its phonetics: "by far the most elegant". Spanish is defended as "musical thanks to its vowels and solid thanks to its rolled r's". Italian is described as "theatrical" or "funny but inconsequential", although some prefer it in its fourteenth-century literary form. Portuguese polarizes: "melodic but too drawn-out" or, outright, "it sounds like badly spoken Russian".
A curiosity: Dalmatian, an extinct Romance language, received one nostalgic vote. And Catalan, mentioned in passing, drew criticism over its accent.
Is there an objectively more beautiful Romance language? The data show that Spanish wins in learner numbers, but French remains the favorite for aesthetics. The answer, as almost always, depends on whom you ask.
A discussion on a current affairs forum has reignited the aesthetic rivalry between the Romance languages. While some defend the elegance of French, others praise the solidity of Spanish. What seems like a subjective question, however, has objective backing: Duolingo data.
According to the figures cited in the debate, French is the third most studied language on the platform, with 50.56 million users (9.81% of the total), behind only English and Spanish, which has 70.91 million (12.8%). Italian, with 27.99 million, ranks sixth, and Portuguese ninth, with 14.31 million.
Personal preferences go another way. French is praised for its phonetics: "by far the most elegant". Spanish is defended as "musical thanks to its vowels and solid thanks to its rolled r's". Italian is described as "theatrical" or "funny but inconsequential", although some prefer it in its fourteenth-century literary form. Portuguese polarizes: "melodic but too drawn-out" or, outright, "it sounds like badly spoken Russian".
A curiosity: Dalmatian, an extinct Romance language, received one nostalgic vote. And Catalan, mentioned in passing, drew criticism over its accent.
Is there an objectively more beautiful Romance language? The data show that Spanish wins in learner numbers, but French remains the favorite for aesthetics. The answer, as almost always, depends on whom you ask.
Also available in: Deutsch
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (10 replies).
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