Do Certain Phonetic Patterns Sound Better?

Hello, Tropers. Let me lay down some bits of information first. I can't say I'm an accomplished linguist, but I do know quite a few things about the field of linguistics. There's a question that has always bugged me about the way certain sounds used in different languages are perceived.

Now then...

The question is basically whether or not beauty is universal when it comes to phonology. The main reason I have a hard time believing this is because there are so many sounds humans can make which can be arranged in such a way that they can express thoughts, emotions, and a whole slew of things we can potentially say but never will. I don't think for a second that any ethnic group huddled together with the purpose of concocting the most revoltingly cacophonous language man would ever hear, which would require the language to consist of every phoneme which is horrid-sounding.

Many people would try to argue their point without taking into account the tone of voice of the speaker (angry, sad, joyous...omnicidal) or the speaker's voice itself.

Are there specific sounds or phonetic constructions that no one likes to hear? For instance, do the glottal stop or voiceless velar fricative just sound ugly compared to a trill? Maybe it's different at the beginning of a word than at the end of a word?

This question intrigues me because it also relates to musical theory especially concerning consonance and dissonance.

So...what do you guys think?

edited 11th Jan '13 8:25:15 PM by DigaagWaRiz

Dental frictives are delicious sounding. It's a shame they're only present in English and (I believe) Icelandic.

I'm sorry. I didn't realize that I made multiple versions of this thread. This one should be deleted but I'm not sure if only a moderator can do that.

Ah, but this is the one with replies.

I made an incorrect pothole where the word "omnicidal" is and I think it brings shame to me, with my "Grammar Nazi" tendencies. And there was more that I had added to my original post.

AN EDIT HAS BEEN MADE BY THE TROPER: Sorry, I forgot I could just go fix it. But those pesky clones...they must be done away with.

ADDITIONAL EDIT: Use this one...

edited 11th Jan '13 8:27:42 PM by DigaagWaRiz

DENTAL FRICTIVES.

That. Thing. The. They. Thigh.

It's also one of the sounds that make you instantly know whether or not someone has English as their native language.

I culled the duplicate threads.

Compy: Thinking then that thou enjoys lisps?

I heard from English as Foreign Language students that English speakers (especially Americans) sound like lisping snakes with all the thes and esses.

I remember having the way certain words sound when pronounced discouraging me from learning Arabic. For instance, I don't like the way the letters ayn (voiced pharyngeal fricative) and qaaf (voiceless uvular stop) sound together. I also don't like how ayn sounds when it is preceded by a long "ah" vowel.

I wonder what those Foreign-Language students think of Parseltongue...I'd speak it if J.K.Rowling would kindly supply some resources for learners.

edited 11th Jan '13 9:05:56 PM by DigaagWaRiz

Rowling is no Tolkein; she didn't actually make a language.

One thing I've noticed in music- the I and the long E are seldom showcased. If a word or syllable in a song is stressed, especially if the note is held out, chances are it's not an I or a long E. (There are exceptions, but most of the time...) A, sometimes a certain E, and the O as in "home" seem to be favoured for drawn-out notes.

edited 12th Jan '13 4:32:59 AM by Exelixi

I find some words to sound delicious, if that makes sense. Some can even make me feel hungry.

Exe: Singing tends to have its own neutral pronunciation for clarity. French, for example, has very rigid traditional singing pronunciation. English is a little more vague, but still noticeable since a trained Scottish singer and a trained American singer will sound roughly the same when singing.

I think phonetic aesthetics must be entirely personal and subjective. I've read enough of Tolkien's musings about phonetic aesthetics to know that while I think Quenya is a beautiful-sounding language, I still prefer aesthetics closer to, well, Black Speech, which JRRT built out of the combinations that sounded the most utterly horrible to his ears.

My favorite phoneme is probably GH (voiced velar fricative) and/or the uvular equivalent. Especially when followed by a lateral. Also, I like the uvular R. And I'm really fond of nonsense words like Spung, Spack, Ploob, Ghlop, Ghleeb, Spoob, Sping.

Eh, nothing wrong with a good voiced velar fricative.