Why Some Words Sound Beautiful — and Stay in Our Memory
By Research Correspondent
Study finds pleasant-sounding words are easier to learn and recall
Why do words like harmony, melody or lullaby sound pleasing, while others feel harsh or uncomfortable? A new study from the University of Vienna suggests the answer lies not just in meaning, but in the sounds themselves.
The research, led by linguist Theresa Matzinger and published in the journal PLOS One, shows that words people find beautiful-sounding are also easier to remember.
For a long time, scientists have debated whether we like certain words because of what they mean, or because of how they sound.
To separate sound from meaning, Matzinger and her team used made-up words with no meaning, such as clisious, smanious and drikious.
One hundred English-speaking participants were asked to learn and memorise these words. Later, they were tested on how many they could recall and asked to rate how beautiful each word sounded.
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The results were clear: participants remembered the words they rated as most beautiful better than those they found unpleasant. Surprisingly, these were not always the words the researchers had originally designed to sound appealing.
“This suggests that earlier research may have been strongly influenced by word meaning,” Matzinger said. “By using meaningless words, we could focus on sound alone.”
The study also raises an interesting question: do we remember words better because they sound nice, or do we find them beautiful because they are easier to remember?
The answer is still unclear. One possible explanation is familiarity — certain sound patterns may feel pleasant because they occur often in our native language, much like familiar tunes in music.
The findings could have practical implications for language learning, advertising and marketing, where memorable words matter.
They may also help explain how languages change over time, as pleasant-sounding words are more likely to survive across generations.
