The current study is the first to attempt to perform a sound-symbolic analysis of the spells featured in the Harry Potter series. The present research analysed 171 spells in terms of syllable lengths and the number of voiced obstruents and stressed low vowels. The results showed that the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra , which is known as one of the most powerful and sinister spells, has the most voiced obstruents and stressed low vowels. The study then experimentally examined whether three factors – syllable lengths, voiced obstruents and low vowels – evoked the imagery of powerful spells using nonce words. The results suggested that voiced obstruents and stressed low vowels are sound-symbolically associated with powerful imagery, which aligns with the studies in Pokémonastics concerning strong character names (Kawahara et al. 2018; Shih et al. 2019). Moreover, names containing more syllables were favoured as powerful spells by those who are unfamiliar with the Harry Potter series, which is evidence of the iconicity of quantity in general English speakers.

中文翻译：

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分析哈利波特系列中的咒语：音节长度、浊塞音和低元音的声音符号效应

目前的研究首次尝试对哈利波特系列中的咒语进行声音符号分析。本研究分析了 171 个拼写的音节长度以及浊塞音和重读低元音的数量。结果表明，被称为最强大和最险恶的咒语之一的杀戮诅咒 Avada Kedavra 具有最多的浊音和重音低元音。然后，该研究通过实验检查了三个因素——音节长度、浊阻音和低元音——是否使用随机词唤起了强大法术的意象。结果表明，浊音阻塞音和重读低元音在声音符号上与强大的意象相关联，这与 Pokémonastics 中关于强大角色名称的研究一致（Kawahara et al. 2018; Shih et al. 2018）。2019）。此外，不熟悉哈利波特系列的人更喜欢包含更多音节的名字作为强大的咒语，这证明了一般英语使用者中数量的象似性。