Playing alert sounds from terminal Is there a way to play OSX alert sounds from terminal? The alert sounds that are listed in System Preferences > Sound > Sound Effect Tab
If you have "audible bell" enabled in your Terminal Settings under Advanced, BEL control characters will sound the default alert sound.

To try this, issue the echo command followed by control+v control+g.  If you type it right, it will look like this:

$ echo ^G


and when you press return, the alert will sound.

(control+v is a shell escape for the immediately-following control character.)

The afplay command can also be used to play a specific sound file:

$ afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Funk.aiff