What is the most beautiful word in the English language that you can think
of?  Choose the word based more on the way it sounds versus its actual
meaning.

50 responses total.

Based just on the way it sounds, melody is my favorite.

I think ``Genesee'' may be mine.  Actually, this fits a pattern many
people have noticed in a lot of beautiful words--3 syllables with the
accent on the first & third.

Yes, that's what I've read too.  Maybe Jennie can tell us whether
this is true for all languages.  Do we all prefer this pattern?

I have always been partial to the word "yum".

I happen to like the Russian word "Malchik" meaning boy.  For sheer 
challenge there is also bukinisticheski (transliteration is very 
rough) which means "used bookstore".  Accent is rising until "sti", 
then falling.

I read somewhere once that the two most beautiful words in
the language are "cellar door".  Henry James said they were
"summer afternoon".

I chose my favourite English word as my loginid.

Cumulous.
Clarity.
Crisp.

I like "banana" or "veranda".

I don't think that the idea that the most beautiful words in languages 
are 3 syllabled with accents on the 1st and 3rd applies to many 
languages besides english.  Reason for this is that many languages
only have accents one place in the word, even if it is more than two 
syllables.


I dunno what my favorite is but I do like the ring of "thankyouforthegift"
;)

re #10, come to think of it, that would be one of my favorites too.  That is,
if I'm the one saying it!

     Emerald.

Lamina

Philibuster.

(or is that with an 'f'?)

I like 'woody'.

onomatopoeia

mellifluous

fascitating (sort of sounds like fascinating- its Annespeak ; )

I hope it doesn't refer to the creation of fascism.  ;-)

Nope, it's just Annespeak.
I shall explain, Annespeak are words that I happen to say when my brain
is working ahead of my mouth.  Fascitating finishes the phrase-
Absatively posolutely fascitating.  ; ^}

That sounds like mouth working ahead of brain.

Could be that, but it happens when I type too- although in that case
I guess it would be fingers ahead of brain.

Placebo.  If we can use loan words, though, then my favorite-
sounding word is definitely "zeitgeist."

zeit geist ist kaput.

Ever notice that expletives are the only words you can stick inside another
word? eg absobloodylutely, polifuckingtician.

This is undoubtedly because in common usage these expletives have become
so commonly intersprersed between words that their linguistic significance
has been reduced to slightly below "umm" and "uh". Almost every other
word in our language has more meaning, and won't then fit well in the
middle of another word.

Not all expletives can be so inserted, and "bloody" is too uncommon in this 
country for that to explain "absobloodylutely, which is heard in this 
country.  Also, the expletives have predictable distribution.
Finally, there was a word -- guarengoodtee -- used in a tv ad.  It was
most likely derived from guarangoddamntee, but the fact remains that it
violates Steve's suggestion.  It is a good hypothesis (considering the pros 
don't have an explanation for the phenomenon of expletive infixing in English,
just a description of it), but I'd balk on the "undoubtably."

As far as meaning goes, I know what you mean, but it's a bit misleading.  
Articles (a, the) have little meaning, and there's a redundant verb in
"I have got a headache" -- either I have a headache or I got a headache
means the same thing.

I'll go so far as to admit that undoubtedly is an exaggeration, but I've
never heard of guarangoodtee or guarangoddamntee, and I'm not convinced.
Bloody doesn't fit in the middle of arbitrary words, but absobloodylutely
was coined by infixing in a country that has devaluated bloody the way we
have devaluated "fucking" in this country. I stand by my position on this.

Grant that.  Same for absobloominglutely, although I wonder if they
really say that in England, or if our charicature of Brits is that
they say "blooming" and "bloody" a lot, and so in imitating them we 
replaced "fucking" with "bloody".  

Whoever'd done the research that I'm referring to had never heard
"guarangoddamntee" either, apparently, because it violates the
rule he generates, but my father says it and "guarendamntee"
all the time.

Speaking of British expletives, I found it interesting when the
Brits on Usenet complained about the American broadcasts of
the TV show _Absolutely_Fabulous_.  Comedy Central, the American
cable netowrk who shows the series, bleeps out the frequent
occurences of "shit" and "tit", but leaves in words like
"bloody" and "buggery", which are considered far more obscene
by the British.  So if you visit the UK, and want to swear,
choose wisely.  >8)

I always wondered what a Brit who, upon visitng America and not being 
briefed appropriately, heard an American calling their children 
"little buggers" would think.

What Dribloodyfting!
(BTW wasn't absobloominglutely from _My Fair Lady_?)

Back to topic:  Tintinabulation.

re #33:  I *think* it's in the break of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly",
but can't remember enough to be certain.
        return drift=off

flibertygibbet

sorry...   flibbertigibbet: n,  a silly flighty person

more drifting, but in a different direction...My favorite word is
"verloren"--pronounced "fair-LOR-en" with much rolling of the r's,
which is German for "lost".  For some reason, i've always found 
German pronunciation more attractive...all the stereotypical saliva
notwithstanding ;0.
er, ;)  <one of the shift keys is broken>

tintinabulation is nice...also, regalia, paladin, Ezra, fandango, etc...

I like the word serendippity  (sp?) and also the word muskrat.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss