Cellar Door

[carinbrat]

from the Wikipedia article:

The English compound cellar door plays a certain role in discussions of phonoaesthetics; a widely repeated claim first put forward by J. R. R. Tolkien in his essay English and Welsh (1955) holds that its sound is intrinsically beautiful.



Cellar door is a combination of words in the English language once characterized by J

Comments

I completely disagree

[livemarcus]

I will admit that my initial response to the phrase "cellar door" is revulsion at the absolute creepiness of its meaning. However, divorced from meaning, the aesthetics of it are still not beautiful to me. More beautiful than "sky", yes, and far more beautiful than "beautiful", yes certainly. Beauty is a word whose meaning is sadly divorced from its aesthetics

Re: I completely disagree

[carinbrat]

I knew you'd be one to comment on this.
:)

Personally, my favorite word is BREATHE. Not only for what it physically does to your mouth and throat while you say it (lifting and opening and creating a soft "kiss-blowing" structure), but also it's onomotopoetic quality and the fact that it's meaning is intrinsically tied to human existence.

My second favorite word is WAFFLE because it's fun to say.

Re: I completely disagree

[livemarcus]

BREATHE is a lovely word, but long E and I don't get along super well. It can get aggressive unless it's pretty tightly constrained, like in "Marquis de Sade" with the strong Q and D on either side to keep it in line. However, I definitely respond to BREATH just as you describe, when the long E isn't around to trouble me, although the move from noun to verb makes it a little less engaging initially.

I love the word WAFFLE! Other favorites in the fun-to-say category are dowager, bounce, marshmallow, banana, Olga, jamboree, Clarabelle, Dacko (the last name of some West African dictator, so it's sort of naughty to enjoy the sound of it while knowing that it's linked to pretty poor circumstances), Jabba, Vanja (I may have made this one up), giggly, tutti-frutti, Bora-Bora, coocoo, whack, & juju bean.

[aerie_queen]

I love how the Irish say words ending with "t". For example, "right". They give the hard consonant such a breathiness that we typically don't; almost a separate "h" after the word ends.

"Cellar Door" does not move me per se...but I would love to hear what Mr. J.R.R. hears when a Welsh person speaks it. I'm intrigued...

[livemarcus]

A breathy Irish R would improve the end of "cellar door" considerably.