phonaesthetic

comparative more phonaesthetic · superlative most phonaesthetic · alternative phonesthetic

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).

   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

   1 more example

   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