You can achieve softness with both languages, if you so choose. Harshness as well.
Finnish in itself is about almost as varied as UK-accents. The very northern dialects do sound sing-songier to me than average German, I do admit that.
However I’m from the southern end of Finland, our dialect is kinda harsh. And some 100km NW it’s even shorter and harder.
Here’s a video titled “Can you recognise the Finnish accents?” in Finnish, displaying a few of the various dialects.
That’s funny, because that’s how I would describe spoken Finnish. I guess it’s all in the eye of beholder.
It’s every much contextual as well.
You can achieve softness with both languages, if you so choose. Harshness as well.
Finnish in itself is about almost as varied as UK-accents. The very northern dialects do sound sing-songier to me than average German, I do admit that.
However I’m from the southern end of Finland, our dialect is kinda harsh. And some 100km NW it’s even shorter and harder.
Here’s a video titled “Can you recognise the Finnish accents?” in Finnish, displaying a few of the various dialects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfReKFBfu0A