The 5 most romantic languages from Asia

There are up to 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, but only one is universally recognised as being the most romantic language — French.

In 2014, a Google Translate survey revealed that French was the most common European language to translate romantic phrases — 34 of the top 1,000 words translated into the language were about love or were romantic in nature, which was more than any other language.

However, French has been recently dethroned by Italian for “most romantic” and “most sexy” in language learning platform Babbel’s 2024 survey.

Nowhere on these lists — recent or not — will you even see a hint of an Asian language in the ranks.

The thing is, these lists often only pit European languages against each other. After all, when you already have some of the most romantic languages congregated in one region, there’s no need to look elsewhere, right?

Wrong.

People love to listen to Spanish, Italian, and French speakers as the softer, more rhythmic traits of these languages sound “romantic,” but there’s more behind that.

Studies have shown that languages are seen as more attractive for reasons far beyond musicality. It could depend on how you view the culture and those who speak it.

In today’s world, where people have more exposure to European languages through pop culture and extensive media coverage — this gives most languages from that region a boost in popularily.

But why don’t we immediately think of Asia, which accounts for approximately 2,300 languages alone?

What’s the deal with Romance languages?

Today, approximately 1.2 billion people speak the Romance languages.

While Ethnologue claims there are 44 different ones — as it’s never actually been decided how many there are — over 90% of them speak these exact five: French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Romanian. 

The roots of the Romance languages can be traced within its name: the Roman Empire.

Specifically, Vulgar Latin. Some sources do consider it a language, while others deem it more of an umbrella term that housed the many dialects that existed within Vulgar Latin.

It’s an informal, everyday spoken form of Latin used by middle- and lower-class people like farmers, workers, soldiers, and more. “Vulgar” here refers to the Roman word “vulgus,” which means “common people.”

On that same note, “Romance” refers to the word “rōmānicus,” which literally means Roman.

Get the gist?

Vulgar Latin in all of its forms was widely used throughout the Roman Empire until its collapse in the fifth century AD. When that happened, dialects across separate communities started to grow more and more distinct until they developed into their own languages.

It is a reason why certain Romance languages seem related to each other, like French and Spanish, for example.

Now, being a Romance language is different to being a romantic language — an expression of love; a set of words that sound sweet and tender when strung together, melting you into the ground with its poetic prowess and meaning.

So, the question is: what makes a language romantic?

What a ‘romantic language’ implies

Like music to your ears

Italian has long been considered one of the most beautiful languages in the world, and part of that is because of how it flows like water against your ears. It’s got a melody that glides to your hearing when you listen to it; a musicality that leaves you enchanted.

Well, fun fact: the Italian language was designed to sound more pleasant. There are few consonant clusters, softer phonetic sounds, and vowels a-plenty. It was also created and shaped by writers and poets, so it makes complete sense.

Meanings that can’t be translated

The most romantic languages in the world are considered as such because they hold meanings that are unique to their own; meanings that are hard to emulate the beauty of when translated to a universal language like English.

“I think ‘kilig’ in Tagalog is a nice one, it’s comparable to the feeling of falling in love/butterflies in the stomach,” a Reddit user writes. Another user highlighted the word “saudade” from Portuguese, saying, “There’s not a single word that can define it in English. The most common use for it is the ‘I miss you,’ but it’s a much more beautiful and powerful word than that.”

The more familiar, the better

According to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a language is seen as more beautiful to a particular person if it “phonetically overlaps” with their first spoken language. In other words, the attractiveness of a language, for many people, depends on how familiar it sounds in their ears.

Familiarity is also born through lots of exposure.

Just look at Sarah Jamil, for example. She grew up watching Korean dramas and movies since she was a child, so seeing such romantic heroes and heroines recite poetic confessions — without having the full context of the language itself — has shaped her perception of the Korean language.

Family, friends, and pookie bears

How we perceive a language can be affected by the people around us.

Let’s take Nicole Chin as an example. Having dated a Filipino in high school, she associates Tagalog as a romantic language.

“People would often learn a new language through curse words, but for me, it was through words of affection,” says Chin. “So you can say my relationship with Tagalog is a ‘loving’ one.”

5 most romantic languages in Asia

Korean

Every year, the Hallyu Wave seeps into more corners of the world, and as a result, so does the Korean language, 한글 (Hangul).

This is a language created out of love. More precisely, it is the outcome of a king’s love for the people of his nation.

Centuries ago, Koreans would use Chinese characters, 한자 (Hanja), to write. It was something only the elite could do, and upon this realisation, King Sejong, the fourth monarch of the Joseon Dynasty, had his scholars create the Korean alphabet so education was equal for all. 

Due to the structure of the language, including its limited vowel sounds, grammatical patterns, and ending consonants, some find the Korean language melodic and flowy, making it one of the most romantic languages in Asia. 

Japanese

Here’s why Japanese is one of the most romantic languages in Asia: unlike other languages, it almost always ends in a vowel and lacks harsh consonant endings, making it sound smooth and romantic.

The language also has distinctive intonation patterns and rhythms — also known as a pitch accent system — so some may find it appealing.

The word “hashi” can mean either “bridge (橋)” or “chopsticks (箸),” depending on the pitch. Meanwhile, the word “kami”, if said with a high pitch, means “paper (紙),” but with a low pitch, it means “god (神).”

Though as lovely as Japanese sounds, it can be a little tricky picking it up as it has three different types of alphabet systems: ひらがな (hiragana), カタカナ (katakana), and kanji. 

 

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Thai

Thanks to its tonal structure, the Thai language is one of Asia’s most romantic languages.

When pronouncing a word in the language, the tones of the word can change its meaning entirely. The five pitches (low, mid, high, falling, and rising) create a pleasant and musical quality in how it is spoken. It’s also a soft-spoken language; this is partly due to the frequent use of low tones and vowels, making it a romantic language.

That’s not all; the tongue-vibrating “r” sound, found in the Thai language, is also featured in Spanish and Italian, the official romantic languages in the world.

 

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Bengali

Bengali was once rumoured to be the world’s sweetest language for over a decade, according to a UNESCO survey; however, it was debunked in 2024.

That doesn’t mean it can’t be listed as one of the most romantic languages in Asia.

Bengali is melodious and lyrical, with expressive vowels and soft consonants. Its romantic structure can be seen in Bengali poetry, primarily through Rabindranath Tagore, a Bangladeshi Noble Prize winner in Literature’s work. One of his works is the national anthem, আমার সোনার বাংলা (Amar Sonar Bangla), also known as “My Golden Bengal.”

Despite its expressive and soft features, in the early 1950s, Bangladeshis had to fight for the existence of the language — leading to a dozen deaths of those who were protesting for the right to speak their mother tongue.

 

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Mongolian

While the perception of Mongolian as a romantic language is subjective, some find its unique soundscape tuneful or poetic. Certain sounds and tones in the language often emphasise the “ai” and “ei” at the end of words, making them beautiful and expressive. 

Better yet, Mongolian is one of the few languages closely tied to the natural world, meaning that the words often bring to mind imagery of wind, fire, and water. 

For example, “baigali” in Mongolian translates to nature, but the word’s origin might sound familiar. “Baigali” comes from Lake Baikal in Siberia, the world’s largest freshwater lake — also linked to the god of heaven, Tengri.

The language is agglutinative, meaning it uses suffixes to add meaning to words. This is similar to the two other most romantic Asian languages, Japanese and Korean.

According to research on KU ScholarWorks, some suffixes mean “of, to, by, with, and from.” For example: “Eej means mother, eejiin means of mother or mother’s; eejid means to mother; eejeer means by mother; eejtei means with mother and eejees means from mother.”

How to learn these languages

Learning a new language isn’t always easy, but that does not mean you should not try.

If you want to learn Korean, check out these nine Korean language courses. For those looking to learn Japanese, these six language apps will be great for beginners to learn the language from scratch.

There are a couple of apps to learn Bengali, such as Ling-Learn Bengali Language and Simply Learn Bengali. For Thai, you can consider apps like Pocket Thai Master, Ling App, ThaiPod101, and Nemo Thai.

Memrise is best for those looking to learn Mongolian. You can also consider using Ling Learn Mongolian Language or Simply Learn Mongolian.