Words you love because of their sounds

Discussion of natural languages, or language in general.
Acid Badger
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Acid Badger »

German:
mannigfaltig
ebenerdig
Ehrfurcht
vehement
Augenlicht
ebenbürtig
Vogelflug
zischen
Kreppel
Ebenholz
Erzherzog

Italian:
orma
sbranare
strapieno
strano
svuotare
folla
lievito
guancia
baffi
ovvio
aglio
avarizia
industrializzazione
angoscia

Icelandic:
þægindi
sólalagi
tungl
vægð
ógnandi
hverju
hlut
viðbúinn

Catalan:
encara
cirera
raó
viu
occident
lleig
malalt
països
cadascú

Albanian:
kopsht
përparim
hënë
kthetër
mjegull
atdhe
bashkuar
ftohtë
pakuptueshëm
fjalë
gjakmarrje



...ok these are a lot of words. Sorry, just couldn't stop.

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Qwynegold
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Qwynegold »

Jetboy wrote:"Dubrovnik"
faiuwle wrote:suiyōbi "Wednesday"
Fanu wrote:Ebenholz
I love these too! (But isn't it Ebenholtz?)

Others that I like:
hanafuda
handakuten (but I don't like the Swedish pronunciation/meaning of this: the hand ER)
happyaku - eight hundred
hatsuon - pronunciation
kyūketsuki - vampire
roppyaku - six hundred
ryokō - travel
subarashii - splendid
tekisuto - text
yuki - snow
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Torco
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Torco »

Berber
Adrar [mountain]

pretty!

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Qwynegold
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Qwynegold »

Torco wrote:Berber
Adrar [mountain]

pretty!
What?? Sound completely plane, although I don't really what it's pronunced like. What about all those words with unusual clusters?
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Torco
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Torco »

well english has a lot of wacky clusters, a la springstroll [that a word?], and it still has stuff like 'cow'

still, take with a bit of salt; that word and its meaning were reported to me by a bilingual arabic-spanish teacher in morocco, so maybe its kind of mangled.

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faiuwle
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by faiuwle »

Torco wrote:springstroll [that a word?]
I don't think so, but you could have also used Angstrom, which is. (Well, I guess that's a name. Blame the Swedes.)
It's (broadly) [faɪ.ˈjuw.lɛ]
#define FEMALE

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Jipí
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Jipí »

Qwynegold wrote:(But isn't it Ebenholtz?)
No.

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Sevly
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Sevly »

valiums wrote:And the phrase "I edited it." [ aiɛdɪtɪdɪt̚ ]
Amazing. The more I say it, the more I love it. Now, let's just borrow a line from the phrasal reduplication thread, and we have
  • I edited it edited it.
    [aɪ ˈɛɾɪɾɪɾɪt ̩ɛɾɪɾɪɾɪt̚]
Quite the tongue twister, even more so in dialects that don't flap intervocal alveolar plosives. How fun!

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ná'oolkiłí
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by ná'oolkiłí »

I like "Dead-headed Ed had edited it" [dɛɾɛɾɨɾɛɾɨɾɛɾɨɾɨɾɨt̚] (or something)

----
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by ---- »

I edited it: [aɪ ʔɛðːˑɨʔ]

Hooray for excessive reduction!

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äreo
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by äreo »

Okay, a few more:
English:
thrift
box


French:
pruneau
saveur
lointain

Ascima mresa óscsma sáca psta numar cemea.
Cemea tae neasc ctá ms co ísbas Ascima.
Carho. Carho. Carho. Carho. Carho. Carho. Carho.

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Skomakar'n
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Skomakar'n »

ná'oolkiłí wrote:I like "Dead-headed Ed had edited it" [dɛɾɛɾɨɾɛɾɨɾɛɾɨɾɨɾɨt̚] (or something)
Ew. [ɾ]. Silly Americans.
Theta wrote:I edited it: [aɪ ʔɛðːˑɨʔ]

Hooray for excessive reduction!
Better, but would any native speaker really use [ð] here? Funky. Where are you from?
faiuwle wrote:
Torco wrote:springstroll [that a word?]
I don't think so, but you could have also used Angstrom, which is. (Well, I guess that's a name. Blame the Swedes.)
No! Stop butchering our words and names! Ångström is a name! Also, he would have eaten at a smörgåsbord.
Online dictionary for my conlang Vanga: http://royalrailway.com/tungumaalMiin/Vanga/

#undef FEMALE

I'd love for you to try my game out! Here's the forum thread about it:
http://zbb.spinnwebe.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=36688

Of an Ernst'ian one.

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faiuwle
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by faiuwle »

Well, if you guys didn't insist on using funky characters like å all the time we wouldn't. :P (Besides, you know they're probably just going to turn into /æŋstɹəm/ and /smɔ˞gəsbɔ˞d/ no matter how you spell them.)

ETA: I see that å apparently isn't even the right character. My keyboard can't even do it right.
It's (broadly) [faɪ.ˈjuw.lɛ]
#define FEMALE

ConlangDictionary 0.3 3/15/14 (ZBB thread)

Quis vult in terra stare,
Cum possit volitare?

Astraios
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Astraios »

Skomakar'n wrote:Ew. [ɾ]. Silly Americans.
No, silly everybody.

Skomakar'n wrote:Better, but would any native speaker really use [ð] here? Funky. Where are you from?
Yes, but the approximant, not the fricative.

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Viktor77
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Viktor77 »

Deslizarse, Spanish for to slither.

Also to slither.

Any word where <ci> is realised as [S]
Thracian, etc.

French Vérité and Vraiment and Vrai and Spanish Verdad.

Spanish Wéa and Wéon.

French Tuyau

Finally, I love Ransom (the ugliest prettiest word). And Gaillard which is Gaulish IIRC.

Oh, how could I forget Fjord, Forge, Foreman, Fore and Farce.

Oh, and Zrce, a beach in Croatia.
Falgwian and Falgwia!!

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Skomakar'n
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Skomakar'n »

Viktor77 wrote:Deslizarse, Spanish for to slither.

Also to slither.

Any word where <ci> is realised as [S]
Thracian, etc.

French Vérité and Vraiment and Vrai and Spanish Verdad.

Spanish Wéa and Wéon.

French Tuyau

Finally, I love Ransom (the ugliest prettiest word). And Gaillard which is Gaulish IIRC.

Oh, how could I forget Fjord, Forge, Foreman, Fore and Farce.

Oh, and Zrce, a beach in Croatia.
And sr(d)ce is 'heart' in most Slavic languages I know of. Awesome word.
Online dictionary for my conlang Vanga: http://royalrailway.com/tungumaalMiin/Vanga/

#undef FEMALE

I'd love for you to try my game out! Here's the forum thread about it:
http://zbb.spinnwebe.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=36688

Of an Ernst'ian one.

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Qwynegold
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Qwynegold »

Torco wrote:well english has a lot of wacky clusters, a la springstroll [that a word?], and it still has stuff like 'cow'
That's a medial cluster. ಠ_ಠ
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Qwynegold
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Qwynegold »

Guitarplayer wrote:
Qwynegold wrote:(But isn't it Ebenholtz?)
No.
Aw. I thought it was ebenholtz at least in Swedish, but apparently it's just ebenholts. :/
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Izambri
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Izambri »

linguoboy wrote:* Any Catalan word ending in [ʧ] like vaig or boig.
Esquitx [əs'kiʧ] and enuig [ə'nuʧ] are among my favorites with final [ʧ].

Other Catalan words: resiliència, caragol, maduixa, enginyer, melic, esgavell, matxucar... and the list continues. Also, words ending with -erol (camperol, mitgerol, reguerol...) and -ívol (menjívol, altívol, fresquívol...).
Un llapis mai dibuixa sense una mà.

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sarcasmo
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by sarcasmo »

Italian:
anything with initial [zv] or [zb], especially svegliarsi (to wake up) and sbagliarsi (to make a mistake)
pomodoro (tomato)
dimmi (tell me!)
aiutare (to help)
arrabbiata (angry)

French:
most anything ending in -elle, especially -chelle
équipe (team)
possible [posi:b]
répareras (will repair)
étoile (star)

English:
cellar door (with the British [sɛlə: dɔ:])
peaceably
slices
trough
Native speaker of the Philadelphia variety of the Mid-Atlantic dialect. Jawn, yo, yous, hoagie, etc.

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con quesa
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by con quesa »

I'm rather fond of German Ewigkeit, "eternity".
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Skomakar'n
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Skomakar'n »

sarcasmo wrote:French:
possible [posi:b]
What? There's definitely a very clear [l] in the word, and even a slight vowel at the end.
Online dictionary for my conlang Vanga: http://royalrailway.com/tungumaalMiin/Vanga/

#undef FEMALE

I'd love for you to try my game out! Here's the forum thread about it:
http://zbb.spinnwebe.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=36688

Of an Ernst'ian one.

Ouagadougou
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Ouagadougou »

I don't know why, but rubric [ɹubɹɪk] has such a full, complete sound to me.
I also like [skwid͡ʒi] :mrgreen:

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Astraios »

Skomakar'n wrote:What? There's definitely a very clear [l] in the word, and even a slight vowel at the end.
Only if you're speaking /kQrEktli:/ as opposed to /k@rE?li/.

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Qwynegold
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Qwynegold »

nocturnal
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