Cellar Door....?

Question

In Donnie Darko (the movie) the english teacher played by Drew Barrymore says that the words " Cellar Door" are the most beautiful 2 words (when put together) in the English Language.

I've heard this before... why? What's so fantastic about the words " Cellar Door"

Answer 1

Wikipedia will explain it to you completely:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellar_door
(here is the information if you didn't want to click on the link)

Cellar door is a combination of words in the English language once characterized by J. R. R. Tolkien to have an especially beautiful sound. In his 1955 essay "English and Welsh", commenting on his affection towards the Welsh language, Tolkien wrote:

"Most English-speaking people...will admit that cellar door is 'beautiful', especially if dissociated from its sense (and from its spelling). More beautiful than, say, sky, and far more beautiful than beautiful. Well then, in Welsh for me cellar doors are extraordinarily frequent, and moving to the higher dimension, the words in which there is pleasure in the contemplation of the association of form and sense are abundant."
Tolkien's discourse is the most likely origin of this concept and the only documented one. Nonetheless, this phrase has been subject to a legendary degree of misattribution. In common circulation, this pronouncement is commonly attributed to "a famous linguist". [1] It has also been mistakenly attributed to Edgar Allan Poe, Dorothy Parker[2], and Robert Frost although no such texts have surfaced. The most detailed account alludes to a survey, possibly conducted around the 1940s, probing the word in the English language generally thought to be the most beautiful. Contributing to this survey, American writer H. L. Mencken supposedly claimed that a Chinese student, who knew little or no English, especially liked the phrase cellar door — not for what it meant, but rather for how it sounded. Some accounts describe the immigrant as Italian rather than Chinese. Another account suggests that it is a mispronunciation of the French words C'est de l'or, which can be translated as "It is gold".

Tolkien also once used the phrase to illustrate a point about his writing process during an interview:

"Supposing you say some quite ordinary words to me - 'cellar door', say. From that, I might think of a name, 'Cellardoor', and from that a character, a situation begins to grow."[3]
The phrase is also introduced in the 2001 film Donnie Darko, in which the character Karen Pomeroy (played by Drew Barrymore), a literature teacher, states: "This famous linguist once said that of all the phrases in the English language, of all the endless combinations of words, that cellar door is the most beautiful." In the DVD commentary, director Richard Kelly vaguely (and mistakenly) attributes this remark to Edgar Allan Poe.


It seems to me that it's purely opinion based.

Answer 2

"Cellar door is a combination of words in the English language once characterized by J. R. R. Tolkien to have an especially beautiful sound. In his 1955 essay "English and Welsh", commenting on his affection towards the Welsh language, Tolkien wrote:

"Most English-speaking people...will admit that cellar door is 'beautiful', especially if dissociated from its sense (and from its spelling)...."

The phrase is also introduced in the 2001 film Donnie Darko, in which the character Karen Pomeroy (played by Drew Barrymore), a literature teacher, states: "This famous linguist once said that of all the phrases in the English language, of all the endless combinations of words, that cellar door is the most beautiful." In the DVD commentary, director Richard Kelly vaguely (and mistakenly) attributes this remark to Edgar Allan Poe."

Answer 3

The vowel sounds are unusual, the two words flow together with no chance of misunderstanding (e.g., six sheep vs. sick sheep) and the L and R sounds trill beautifully. In addition, if the phrase has meaning for you, it probably elicits a rustic or pastoral scene.

Answer 4

Oh..I am not sure I agree. D. Darko is such a strange movie that a strange statement like this is just part and parcell to the mood of this movie.

Personally..I love "Green grass" because it just rolls off your tongue and brings smells from childhood to my memory like nothing else does!

Answer 5

Mmm, I think that's subjective. I cannot see where "cellar door" are so beautiful.

Answer 6

I don't know, and I'm an English teacher... I'll have to do some research on this one.

Answer 7

it sounds better than toilet seat.

Answer 8

hmmm...