November 25th, 2004

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Words
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Mother What?

Last month I discussed Habseligkeiten, voted the most beautiful German word (and later, Roland pronounced it for me). Cultural imperialism being what it is, it was only a matter of time before this meme moved past the borders of Deutschland. Just as Pop Idol became American and Canadian Idol, and just as The Greatest Briton became The Greatest Canadian and The Greatest South African, now we have the most beautiful word in the English language:

Mother is the most beautiful word in the English language, according to a survey of non-English speakers. More than 40,000 people in 102 countries were polled by the British Council to mark its 70th anniversary.

Why’d they ask a bunch of non-English speakers? What’s the use of that? The rest of the top five are passion, smile, love and eternity. Clearly they’re depending upon definition more than sound or feel. Why not, say, ‘patio’ or ‘absinthe’ or ‘cuspidor’ (thanks, James Joyce)?

Comments: 3 Responses so far

udge
November 25th, 2004
9:39 pm

I presume they are rating the meanings of words not how they sound, or the way they feel on your tongue. Somebody should organize a similar poll for native english speakers, he said while pointing at DB.

[Reply]

Andrea
November 26th, 2004
11:49 am

Hmmmm. I knew a girl named Hara. Her parents, whose parents or grandparents were Japanese, thought “hara” was the prettiest name in the Japanese language. “Hara” means stomach, although there are some less common uses that mean “wilderness”.

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donna
November 26th, 2004
11:51 am

Many years ago, when I was in grade 12, I had an English teacher who claimed that the nicest sounding word (although it’s two words, so I’m not sure how that worked…) was “cellar door”. I have no idea where she got that from, but I thought I’d throw it out.

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