Cacophony

Cacophony is an unpleasant, ear-jarring sound of speech, caused by a heavy cluster of consonants, an unfortunate coincidence of sounds, monotonous repetition or a disharmonious combination of sound elements. Most often cacophony is a consequence of carelessness or a low culture of language and is considered a stylistic flaw to be removed by editing the text. However, in literature discordance may be used deliberately as an expressive means: harsh, "heavy" sound combinations reproduce the disharmony of the depicted world, convey tension, anxiety, ugliness or the coarseness of a phenomenon. Such purposeful sound-writing is subordinated to the artistic design. Cacophony is opposed to euphony and is studied by phonostylistics in the aspect of the aesthetic evaluation of the sound organisation of speech and its correspondence to the content and mood of a work.