Re: What's your favorite sounding word in any language?

On Wednesday, December 17, 2003, at 10:58  AM, Gary Shannon wrote:

> Poe is said to have been partial to "cellar door".
> Myself, I think "Mogadishu" is just a very cool
> sounding word, although I'm not sure how it is
> actually pronounced in Somali.
>
> In general I think Swahili (yes, I know it's not
> related to Somali) has some of the neatest word sounds
> in the world.  What's your favorite sounding word?
Several come to mind:

_tepa_ ["t1Ba] 'pine nut' (Shoshoni)

Not so much for the sound (which *is* lovely), but for the mini-lesson
it provides in Shoshoni phonology, grammar, and culture. If any word
can be said to "summarize" a language, it's this one for Shoshoni.

_pavonokwitc_ [pa"BOnOk_WItS] 'watermelon' (Chemehuevi)

This just sounds cool in a typically Southern Numic way.

_fráistubnjái_ 'temptation' (Gothic)

I came across this word as a teenager while browsing through my
father's old History of the German Language textbook. It made quite an
impression on me.

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga
Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so
simple we couldn't.
- Lyall Watson

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