SIBILANT

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
mahadea
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SIBILANT

Postby mahadea » Wed Jan 15, 2020 10:13 am

This is such a lovely word, almost onomatopoeic. I am too lazy to look it up but I think it was used to describe Passeltongue in the Harry Potter books. I have seen in almost exclusively used as an adjective for "whisper".

gwray
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Re: SIBILANT

Postby gwray » Wed Jan 15, 2020 11:23 am

I associate this word with "susurrous", which I think is one of the most beautiful words in the English language. In my mind, sibilant is the more strident of the two words; I would not use "susurrous" to describe the spitting of an alarmed cat or the steam released from a steam engine.

I recommend that people notice the use of sibilant sounds in the lyrics of "The Music of the Night" from "Phantom of the Opera". It sounds like someone hushing or soothing another and creates an amazing hypnotic mood. What masterful lyrics!
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver Proverbs 25:11

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Dr. Goodword
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Re: SIBILANT

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Jan 17, 2020 12:53 pm

The sounds [s], [z], [sh], [zh], [ch] (= [tsh]) and [j] (= [dzh]) are sibilants or sibilant consonants. However, the word itself simply meaning "hissing". I'll do it.
• The Good Dr. Goodword

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Slava
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Re: SIBILANT

Postby Slava » Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:45 pm

He done did it here.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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