Tuned to language: the influence of musicality on phonaesthetic judgments

Aesthetic perception is a cross-modal phenomenon that integrates sensory, emotional, and cognitive processes. While traditionally focused on visual arts and music, recent research has extended this framework to phonaesthetics, which explores affective judgments of language sounds. This study investigates the intersection of musicality and phonaesthetic judgments, particularly focusing on the dimension of eros (eroticity) in language perception. Musicality, encompassing sensitivity to pitch, rhythm, and timbre, has been linked to language aptitude, prosodic sensitivity, and emotional processing in speech. However, its role in shaping affective-aesthetic evaluations of language remains underexplored.

The study involved 203 participants, who were asked to give affective-aesthetic judgements of 24 languages (48 recordings). Musicality was assessed through self-reported general aptitude, singing skills, and instrumental skills. Familiarity with the languages was controlled to isolate the effects of musicality.

Results revealed that general musicality showed a trend in predicting eros ratings, but singing skills emerged as a significant predictor. Participants with higher singing abilities rated languages as more erotic, suggesting a shared vocal and prosodic foundation between singing and speech. Instrumental skills, in contrast, did not significantly influence eros ratings. Interestingly, the effect of singing skills on eros ratings was higher than the effect of familiarity, which was assumed to play a bigger role due to the mere-exposure effect.

The findings highlight the nuanced role of musicality in language perception, with singing skills offering a unique lens into the affective-aesthetic resonance of speech. This supports the notion of a vocal aptitude that bridges music and language, aligning with theories of a musilinguistic continuum. Additionally, the study suggests that singers may possess refined auditory and proprioceptive awareness, enabling more nuanced evaluations of unfamiliar languages. The results also raise questions about the influence of "exoticity", as the sample consisted of rarer languages. This research contributes to interdisciplinary discussions on the interplay between music, language, and aesthetics, emphasizing the need for further exploration of sub-dimensions of musicality, or creativity in general. By bridging linguistics, musicology, and aesthetic psychology, the study opens new avenues for understanding how musicality shapes the emotional processing of language.