beautiful words

[jenni_blog]

A friend and I were discussing writing and the use of beautiful words. Not in the sense of what they mean but how they sound, how they roll off the tongue and perhaps invoke some feeling that goes beyond their meaning. We were talking about the English language specifically. She mentioned a quote from JRR Tolkien in which he had stated that the word 'cellar door' (which is actually two words) was the most beautiful word in the English language. My first reaction was "Huh?"

First, I didn't know about this quote and because I tend to associate meaning with how beautiful I believe a word to be rather than the sound of the word, and maybe because I don't tend to read out loud, but in my mind only, I wouldn't even think about how a word sounded when I was writing. I wasn't feeling too partial to 'cellar door', which, of course, means 'basement door' and is actually two words, like front door, back door, side door, open door, closed door, etc., etc. All pretty mundane words as far as meaning goes. For me meaning is more important than sound.

However, since thinking about the beauty of the sound of words, I began to think of a few that I thought were beautiful in both sound and meaning. I went a bit farther than English, and included some Spanish, French, Basque and one German name in the mix. This is because I don't think English is a beautiful language at all. (I'm including meanings as well.) I'd really like to know how others in my flist view words. What are your favourite words in any languages? Is sound or meaning more important to you, or do you believe both are important?

My favourite English words (meanings in brackets):

allusion (reference)
illusion (dream)
crystalline (formed of crystal)
echoes (reverberating sounds)
glimmering (twinkling)
overdrive (an intense state of activity)
resonance (the sound of something left behind after it is finished making a sound, or vibration) (this also has many more meanings in chemistry, physics, electronics, etc.)
spellbound (enchanted)
wanderer (traveler)

And a favourite line from a poem:

'Fret of the chain-mail sea'

(From 'An Irish Monk on Lindisfarne, about 650 AD' by Gael Turnbull)

That line invokes something wonderfully ancient and far-seeing for me, with some menacing overtones which makes it all the more attractive.

Favourite Spanish words:

Libertad (freedom)
Merendero (cafe)
Mirame (look at me)
Paraiso (heaven)
Redondel (ring)

And a wonderful expression: Lo que viene (that which comes, or what comes--a most wonderful way to say 'up next' with reference to something coming up on TV for instance. 'Up next' is so abrupt, but 'lo que viene' just rolls off the tongue.)

Favourite French words:

Chemin de fer (railway)
Farine (flour)
Longchamps (this is a name, not a word, but I love it)
Soleil (sun)

And the title of a favourite opera: La Boheme

Favourite Basque words and expressions:

For me everything is beautiful when spoken in Basque. I came away with the following after being in Bilbao. They are names of places I adored, as well as the way they roll off the tongue. (Okay, some of them are Spanish, but the places are in Bilbao!)

Casco viejo (old town)
Museo de Bellas Artes (museum of beautiful art)
Puente Colgante (drawbridge)
Zubizurri (I know this one is Basque and means 'white bridge')
Txakoli y pintxos (white wine and little sandwiches)

(In Basque 'tx' is pronounced like 'ch' in Spanish.)

And a wonderful German name:

Fortuna Dusseldorf

It's the name of a football team that I was watching last night, and I thought "What a beautiful name." The name 'Dusseldorf' is beautiful by itself, but when combined with 'Fortuna' makes it all the more so.

Now please give me your words! :)

Comments

[aglaiya.livejournal.com]

Düsseldorf has NO accent! ü ( the u with two point above) is a different letter not used in English. You can also write Duesseldorf but it is not really correct because it is a proper noun of a town.
I know in English nobody cares about different letters in other languages and that's very sad! It seems to be in common in Germany now too and that's sad too.
*lol* TV! Do you think they do everything in the right way???
Other languages have also other letter we don't use in German. Danish or Swedish are such languages.

I try to use the accent when I write a Spanish word. I feel comfortable with it and can use shortcuts.

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

Spanish has those 'extra' letters as well. I can't type them because I don't use the accents (as added by using certain keys on the computer, I guess, but I don't know where they are and don't care). The English alphabet has 26 letters, and the Spanish one 4 extra, for a total of 30. One of the 4 extra is the other 'n' with the accent tilde over it and is pronounced differently. Otherwise all Spanish accents are only to denote where the emphasis is to be on the word, according to my second Spanish teacher, the Peruvian guy.

Or so I was taught. But it seems everything one is taught will be disputed by somebody else anyway. So what the fuck.

That's not what I meant by on the TV. The TV in an English-speaking country will use the English alphabet and nobody gives a fuck about it. In a country speaking a different language they will use words in their own alphabet and ditto about nobody giving it a second thought.

This brings up an interesting point about the internet. Since people all over the world are using it there is bound to be complete disregard for the rules of a particular language. It's to be expected, I guess, and who gives a fuck anyway for rules anymore? There is incorrect spelling and grammar all over the place and disputes over what is right and what is wrong are rampant.

The problem with trying to write things in another language is that so many mistakes are made. But if nobody really gives a fuck about mistakes, then I suppose none of it matters one bit.

[aglaiya.livejournal.com]

Who gives a fuck!