Dictionary

phonaesthetic en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˌfəʊnɪsˈθɛtɪk/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From phon- + aesthetic.

Meanings

1. Exhibiting phonaesthesia (correspondence between sound and meaning of a word).
   • Phonaesthetic motivation, as we said, arises either from crude imitation or from sound association, which can be regarded respectively as (1) onomatopoeic; and (2) symbolic. 2000, Yip Po-Ching, The Chinese Lexicon: A Comprehensive Survey, Routledge, →ISBN, page 179:
2. Euphonious.
3. Of or relating to phonaesthetics (aesthetics of phonology).
   • In addition to the history of cultural stereotyping, which certainly plays a role, it’s the comparison of entire sound systems that produces a phonaesthetic character in the mind of the listener: the sounds present, the way they’re combined, the intonational phrasing, and the rate of speech—plus a number of sociological factors. 2015, David J. Peterson, The Art of Language Invention […] , Penguin, →ISBN, page 26:
   • Indeed, if there is anything at all to phonaesthetics, there must be some nonarbitariness to phonetic structure -- at least to people who have some phonaesthetic perceptions (as people on this list have admitted they have), if not to everyone. 1999 December 3, Ed Heil <edheil@postmark.net>, “Re: The Conlang Instinct”, in Conlang mailing list, via listserv.brown.edu:

Forms