Re: The beautifulest phonology

Christian Thalmann:
> If anything, this survey shows us how freaky some people's sense of
> aesthetics is.  /tT/?  /t_j/?  /1/?  How could anyone possibly like
> that?  ;-)
>
> Next thing you know, someone mentions uvulars and retroflexes...  ::shudder::
>
> On the other hand, disliking /Z/, /n/, /m/, /l/ or /a/, /e/, /i/
> should count as a crime against humanity.  =P
>
> Just listen to them... /Zinamel/... doesn't that sound like an
> angel's soothing whisper?
Yes; I agree. To my in-this-respect-ordinary ears, [E], [m], [l],
[Z], [T], [dD] and [F] (voiced palatal plosive, IPA inverted <f>)
sound, in their various different ways, pleasantest. I do not
accept that these judgements are arbitrary or not subject to
intersubjective agreement; there is a fairly clear correlation
between the acoustics of the sounds and our aesthetic response to
them.

But while beautiful words are beautiful, the idea of a beautiful
phonology is itself rather ugly.

--And.