Words you love because of their sounds

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Gulliver
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Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Gulliver »

Bring the love.

English:
Masala /məsɑːlə/
Soliloquy /səˈlɪləkwi/
Hawthorn /ˈhɔː.θɔːn/

German:
Leiche /ˈlaɪ̯çə/ (means corpse, but is a pretty-sounding word)

French:
écureuil /e.ky.ʁœj/
hibou /ibu/ but a special French kind of /i/ that you know is really a <hi>

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maıráí
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by maıráí »

Cloves, which I think I say [kʰloʊvz] (But I'm not too grand with the IPA.)

All French words ending in -re, inclunding mundane things like attendre or prendre.

And the phrase "I edited it." [ aiɛdɪtɪdɪt̚ ]

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by linguoboy »

* Any Catalan word ending in [ʧ] like vaig or boig.

* Outrageous German slang verbs like bramarbasieren and ausbalodoweren and nouns denoting disorder and bother like Fisimatenten, Kuddelmuddel, and Tohuwabohu.

* Irish words ending in -óg like piseog or taespúnóg. When I first got a little garden plot you couldn't stop me from saying ceapóg cearbhais ([cə'po:g cə'ɾˠu:ʃ] ) for days.
valiums wrote:All French words ending in -re, inclunding mundane things like attendre or prendre.
I normally drop /r/ in these words; pronouncing it makes me feel like a character in a Balzac novel.

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Astraios »

Hebrew:
סירה /si.ʀa/ boat
ליל /le(i)l/ poetic word for night
תשקע /ti.'ʃka/ (the sun) will set
מעינים /ma.a.ja.'nim/ springs (of water)

Maltese:
qmis /ʔmis/ shirt
qlub /ʔlup/ hearts
qtates /ʔta.tes/ cats
wisq /wisʔ/ too (much)
(basically any word with (C+)/ʔ/(+C))

Lakota:
ȟliȟlíla /χli.'χli.la/ be muddy
ȟ'uŋúŋt'e /χʔʊ̃.'ʔʊ̃.tˀeʔ/ you and I are overworked
gnugnúška /gə.nu.gə.'nu.ʃka/ grasshopper
(I'll leave it there because I could go on forever with Lakota words I love the sound of)

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by dunomapuka »

Greek:
panepistimio "university"

Spanish:
cosecha "harvest"
delgado "skinny"
césped "lawn"
puño "fist"

Japanese
oyoida "swam"

English:
sponge
spackle
raffle
waffle
punch
oyster

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äreo
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by äreo »

erythrophobe. that is all.

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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Matt
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Matt »

ostensibly
Kuku-kuku kaki kakak kakekku kaku kaku.
'the toenails of my grandfather's elder brother are stiff'

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Nortaneous »

fucker
Siöö jandeng raiglin zåbei tandiüłåd;
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by ná'oolkiłí »

English
bathymetry
milk
collar

Spanish
cuales "which.PL"
desigual "unequal, uneven"
desaparezco "I disappear"

Georgian
წყვდიადი /ts'q'vdiadi/ "deep darkness"
გყავს /gq'avs/ [ʁχ'aβs] "you have him"
ჩაიშალა /tʃʰaiʃala/ "it fell apart"

Russian
обязательно [əbʲɪzatʲɪlʲnə] "necessarily, without fail"
шишка [ʂɨʂkə] "pinecone"
хвост [xvost] "tail"

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Jetboy »

I can probably think of more if I try, but the first thing that comes to mind is and enthusiastically said "Dubrovnik", with a rolled [r] and no reduced vowels: /du'brov,nIk/. It's just very fun to say.

And the first Ancient Greek ones that comes to mind are ζῃτέω /zdɛ(i).'te.ɔː/, ζεῦγμα /'zdeug.ma/, εὔχομαι /'eu.kʰo.mai/, and πορεύομαι /po.'reu.o.mai/. ‹ζ ευ θ χ ψ› are all awesome.

And Arabic, I like زوج, if that's spelled right, especially as my teacher pronounced it: /zeudʒ/, or even better, /zeug/. The feminine with the first person singular possessive suffix is even better: /'zeug.a.tiː/ (I'm sure that's missyllabified, but that's how it sounded to my poor Anglophone ears).
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Risla »

I fucking love the Spanish word mezcla. That is all I can think of at the moment.

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Rui »

月,云 in Chinese (yuè and yún, [ɥœ] and [yn*] respectively), both for their aesthetic sounds, but also because they sound, to me, exactly like what they mean: moon and cloud. Also any syllable beginning with xu- ([ɕy]), so xu, xue, xuan, xun ([ɕy ɕɥœ ɕɥɛn ɕyn*])

*This is what Wikipedia lists as the IPA for the -ün sound, but I don't like it...it doesn't capture the slight dipthongization that occurs (which is specifically what I love about the sound), but I can't for the life of me figure out what vowel follows the [y]...

In German, I love combinations, like in trügen, zurück, etc. I also really love the word Streichholz. I also love how the i in immer frequently becomes rounded...probably occurs in many words that I can't think of right now, when i is right before a labial.

In English, I love the word mead. I also agree with whoever said oyster above.

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by faiuwle »

English:
dairy
synecdoche
pillow
splendid
shy

Spanish:
murciélago "bat"
aldea "village"
abogado (with [β ɣ ð]) "lawyer"
hueso "bone"
muebles "furniture"

In both:
plantain / plátano

Japanese:
suiyōbi "Wednesday"
byōin "hospital"
It's (broadly) [faɪ.ˈjuw.lɛ]
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Ser »

Arabic: quadriliterals coming from a reduplicated biliteral root hands down.

تمتم tamtama "to stammer"
جمجمة jumjumatun "skull"
حمحم ḥamḥama "to neigh"
رفرف rafrafa "to flutter"
تزلزل tazalzala "to shake" (the earth)
سقسق saqsaqa "to tweet"
زلزل zalzala "to shake sb./sth."
غرغر ġarġara "to gargle"
فرفر farfara "to squirm, to twitch"
قهقه qahqaha "to laugh loudly"
وسوس waswasa "to whisper"

Spanish: words that somehow have [ɲɟʝ, ndʒ].

panyabí 'Punjabi, Panjabi'
enyesar 'to put (e.g. an arm) in plaster'
inyectar 'inject', inyección 'shot'

Also hoyuelo, for actually having [ɥ]: [oɥelo].
Chibi wrote:月,云 in Chinese (yuè and yún, [ɥœ] and [yn*] respectively), both for their aesthetic sounds, but also because they sound, to me, exactly like what they mean: moon and cloud. Also any syllable beginning with xu- ([ɕy]), so xu, xue, xuan, xun ([ɕy ɕɥœ ɕɥɛn ɕyn*])

*This is what Wikipedia lists as the IPA for the -ün sound, but I don't like it...it doesn't capture the slight dipthongization that occurs (which is specifically what I love about the sound), but I can't for the life of me figure out what vowel follows the [y]...
I hate how scholars of Mandarin insist on transcribing that as "[yn]" (and -in as [in]), it's so obviously not. More like [yə̯n] (and [iə̯n]), or something pretty similar.

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Bristel »

Japanese:
永遠 えいえん eien "forever"
再び ふたたび futatabi "again"
春 はる haru "summer"

English:
maroon
celestial
celadon

Catalan:
soroll "noise"
ferestec "wild" (forgetting an accent mark here somewhere)
llegint "reading"
tomaquet "tomato"
[bɹ̠ˤʷɪs.təɫ]
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by finlay »

I have to say, I do quite like trying to pronounce Dutch words like Scheveningen.

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Torco »

SPA
rinconada
[riN.kO."na.Da]

MANDARIN
<何>
Hé, a family name, I dunno why but I like it

OLD ENGLISH
þegn

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by linguoboy »

Bristel wrote:feréstec "wild" (forgetting an accent mark here somewhere)
tomàquet "tomato"
I'm not a fan of the word by itself but I love the way it gets run together in pam amb tomàquet. Also, I love saying botifarra and popets in Catalan and pulpo a la plancha in Spanish, but that could just be because I love these foods SO MUCH.

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Mr. Z »

"perhaps", especially in a posh British accent.
Tons of Japanese and Spanish words, some German and Arabic too.
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Skomakar'n »

Torco wrote:SPA
rinconada
[riN.kO."na.Da]

MANDARIN
<何>
Hé, a family name, I dunno why but I like it

OLD ENGLISH
þegn
It's þegn in modern Icelandic. :D (same meaning!)

There's also þögn, meaning 'silence'.
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I'd love for you to try my game out! Here's the forum thread about it:
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Of an Ernst'ian one.

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Skomakar'n »

(sorry for double posting; accidentally quoted my previous message instead of editing, and didn't notice until now)
Bristel wrote:English:
maroon
celestial
celadon
I'm not sure if you love all of these merely because of their sounds, though! Would you have liked 'celestial' as much, were it spelled <selescholle>?
Last edited by Skomakar'n on Sat Oct 01, 2011 12:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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#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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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by treskro »

Serafín wrote:
Chibi wrote:月,云 in Chinese (yuè and yún, [ɥœ] and [yn*] respectively), both for their aesthetic sounds, but also because they sound, to me, exactly like what they mean: moon and cloud. Also any syllable beginning with xu- ([ɕy]), so xu, xue, xuan, xun ([ɕy ɕɥœ ɕɥɛn ɕyn*])

*This is what Wikipedia lists as the IPA for the -ün sound, but I don't like it...it doesn't capture the slight dipthongization that occurs (which is specifically what I love about the sound), but I can't for the life of me figure out what vowel follows the [y]...
I hate how scholars of Mandarin insist on transcribing that as "[yn]" (and -in as [in]), it's so obviously not. More like [yə̯n] (and [iə̯n]), or something pretty similar.

Really? Maybe it's a difference in accent, but I've never heard or spoken anything other than -ün [-yn] and -in [-in].


Also
Japanese:
最近 さいきん saikin 'recently'
将来 しょうらい shōrai 'future'
axhiuk.

看蝦米

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Bristel »

Skomakar'n wrote:
Bristel wrote:English:
maroon
celestial
celadon
I'm not sure if you love all of these merely because of their sounds, though! Would you have liked 'celestial' as much, were it spelled <selescholle>?
Maybe not... But I would spell it <seleschel> if you pronounce it that way... (which I think is a nice spelling)

But I would write it <selestièl> the way I pronounce it.

<marún> and <seladán> :D
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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Jipí »

German:

andernfalls [ˈandɐnfals] 'otherwise'
eigentlich [ˈaegŋ̩klɪç] 'actually'
einander [aeˈnandɐ] 'one another'
darum [ˈdaːʁʊm] 'for that reason'

I guess? Usually I don't care too much about the nice sound of words.

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Re: Words you love because of their sounds

Post by Rui »

Guitarplayer wrote:German:

andernfalls [ˈandɐnfals] 'otherwise'
eigentlich [ˈaegŋ̩klɪç] 'actually'
einander [aeˈnandɐ] 'one another'
darum [ˈdaːʁʊm] 'for that reason'

I guess? Usually I don't care too much about the nice sound of words.
Ooh, darum reminds me of two others one that I forgot: wobei and dabei...no idea what I like about them, but I love them

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