This morning as I was driving I was saying to myself, over and over, for whatever reason, the word "amplitude," in a Massachusetts accent. Which is something like "eeamplitude" - an "ee" sound precedes the word. But from there you have to back off a bit - split the difference between the "eeamp" and the regular "amp". There's also a bit of spring in the "li" syllable, and a deep "oo" in the "tude". A few weeks ago Ben and I spent several hours talking about the Boahston Stryangala, and this may have been residual.

���� After "amplitude" I started saying "amplifiya," which I meant to be spelled "AmpliFIRE" - a hot new brand name I was inventing that's totally not hot UNLESS it's pronounced "ampliFIYA," in which case - like all things fiya - it's hot. An interesting thing that happens here with "amplifiya," is that typically the speaker slightly alters the expected pronunciation: while "amplitude" is pronounced "eeamplitude," "amplifier" is not exactly pronounced "eeamplifiya." The "ee" remains, but it's more of a grace note than an actual prefix. It's as if the speaker senses that there's a "y" sound coming up at the end, and then cuts it back at the beginning. There may actually be a limit to the amount of ee-tweak that can be applied to a given word and if you're going to spend some at the end, you have to save some at the beginning. Now I know what you're thinking: I told you that "amplitude" has the longer prefix "ee"; however, as I described it the difference between the massachusettsed version and the natural version gets split... well, how's the result of that split any different than the "grace note" application of "ee" to the front of "amplifiya"? Well, I'll just let you know it's perceptible. You don't want to sound whiny do you?

���� As I was speaking these languages this morning, I was passing the really nice scene that I pass each morning in which geese and swans paddle around an oval meltedness in an otherwise snow-covered pond, as the pale sun shoots rays out of the horizon.


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