Six Naughty Sounds in English

The other day I learned the term ‘bouba-kiki effect’, which is about how we pair certain sounds with certain shapes (look it up, it’s very interesting!). I learned this aspect of phono-semantics from the lexicographer Julie Moore, whose LinkedIn posts and newsletter Jules Words I follow regularly.

Anyway, it made me remember something I had come across in terms of the sounds of swearing in English. In his Encylopedia of English, David Crystal goes over the particlar nature of phonology as it relates to invective. Here are six sound groups that are particularly associated with swearing and obscenity. I originally included sample words, but substack would not allow me to publish the post like that so I had to just give clues!

The voiceless velar consonants, especially the final plosive sounds of /k/ and /g/ are the most important. This would include the most famous swear word of all, the f- word!

This also works for the same sounds in the initial position. And even more if you have it both starting and finishing the word. Think of swear words beginning with ‘c’.

The bilabial plosives work in the same way, but aren’t quite as harsh. With the sound at the end, these don’t feel quite as filthy. Like ‘slob’.

Same thing when these plosives start a word. Like a bad word that begins with ‘b’.

A short, sharp /t/ or /d/ at the end of a word also is common. Like the word that begins with ‘s’ and ends with ‘t’!

Finally, you’ll notice that most if not all of the examples I gave are short vowels. As Crystal drily notes, ‘try calling someone a meem or a rahl as viciously as you can – then compare the result with calling them a gack or a krot’.

Sources: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, David Crystal, CUP 1995