Beautiful-sounding words float like gossamer

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | March 26, 2020 | Melissa Mohr, Correspondent

[Jagermonster]

It turns out that the words that English speakers find pleasing are more like papillon and less like Aschenputtel, according to phonaesthetics.

ome languages have beautiful words for “butterfly”: papillon (French), mariposa (Spanish), farfalla (Italian). In German, it’s Schmetterling. Cinderella gets names fit for a princess in these languages, too: Cendrillon (French), Cenerentola (Italian), Cenicienta (Spanish). In German, she’s Aschenputtel. I heard these examples recently in a series of viral videos: “How German Sounds Compared to Other Languages.” The videos imply that German sounds harsh compared with the Romance languages. This got me thinking, what are the most beautiful-sounding words in English?

It turns out that the words that English speakers find pleasing are more like papillon and less like Aschenputtel, according to phonaesthetics, the study of “the aesthetic properties of sound.” Ideally, phonaesthetics investigates sound irrespective of meaning, though of course in practice that is difficult to do. When classics professor Robert Wolverton surveys his students, he finds that they often rank mother highly, even though, as he says, “It’s not really a beautiful sound. But, it’s something that everyone has such a high regard for.”

So which patterns turn words into music to our ears? Linguist David Crystal has identified some characteristics. “Beautiful” words often have three or more syllables, with stress on the first syllable; they are dactylic, like Professor Crystal’s favorite, tremulous. They frequently have the consonant sounds “l,” “m,” “s,” and “n,” but almost never contain the “zh” from casual or the “th” from think, for example.

Professor Crystal provides an interesting thought experiment to test our preferences. If you were piloting a spaceship toward an alien planet, and you knew nothing about it except that it was populated by aliens known as […]

[Don W]

STIMMT SO!!

[Sirius Lee]

Thank you!

[dfwgator]

Hey, I know a little German, he's sitting over there!

[Savage Beast]

Nein, nicht deutscher, sondern amerikaner, aber ich habe mehrere Jahre in Deutschland gelebt.

Ich liebte es!

[glennaro]

We can turn to most any page in a Shakespeare portfolio and find spectacularly beautiful words and phrases. As I get older, I appreciate these works more and more (particularly in this Age of Text: LOL; GFY; WTH ....)

[xp38]

The pillars of the English language are the King James Bible and Shakespeare.

[glennaro]

So very true. I knew this about the Bible since I was able to read; Shakespeare took a bit longer! Cheers! & may God’s blessings be upon you, my FRiend.

[SaveFerris]

I wanted to do that one but was in too much of a hurry today.

So.....GOOD JOB!!!

[Alas Babylon!]

I hate it when words sound “tinny”!

[dfwgator]

I hate it when words sound “tinny”!

*SCREAM*