Re: Detested sounds, was: Work in progress - Phonology

Mm. Kind of see where you're going with the sound symbolism-sort-of-stuff,
but I'm not sure "loudness" is quite right. I think it's significant,
though, that all the consonants in "psst" are
1)Voiceless, and 2)High-frequency.
These sounds are common in certain situations, such as names for cats
("puss", Katze, cica /ci:ca/ (Hungarian) and others). Maybe a phonaesthetic
link between smallness and high-frequency? Conversely, the larger dog is
called with lower-frequency consonants and back vowels ("Hund",
"Txakurra"(Basque) and so on.) Obviously there are exceptions, but I think
there may be a woolly sort of tendency here. So - any evidence in your
various conlangs for small and large animal names following these rigorous
(ha!) tendencies?
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "John-Emmanuel" <jokerhand@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
> I am not to fond of the [s] phoneme myself.  It is loud, vulgar, and
hisses
> (duh!).  However since it is so common in languages in general, and often
> pronounced in non-language utterances, I have had to relent.
> (Why is it so common?  Because it is one of the loudest consonants
produced
> by the human voice.  Why else do you say 'psst' to get someones
attention?)
> : Basilius
>
> John.
>
> Schrödinger's Cat - Wanted Dead and Alive
>