"cellar door"

[Wilson Gray]

IIRC, in the Mario Pei's The Story of English, _murmur_ was  chosen by
Americans as the most beautiful word in English, whereas some other
word was chosen by speakers in the UK. Or, perhaps, it was the other
way around. IAC, Pei's argument was that there is no such thing as a
"beautiful" word or a "beautiful" language, except in the perception
of the individual speaker.

-Wilson

On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 5:48 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "cellar door"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> And Woody Allen in "Deconstructing Harry" said the most beautiful words in the English language were "it's benign."
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Charles Doyle [cdoyle at UGA.EDU]
> Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 3:42 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "cellar door"
>
> And while we're on the subject (sort of), does anyone know the history of (or the history of the attribution of) the not-infrequently-recounted anecdote about the wit who declared that the most beautiful word in the English language is "syphilis"? I've heard it credited to Samuel Johnson and perhaps one or two other "quote magnets."
>
> --Charlie
>
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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