Amphitheater -> Ampitheater

[Dennis R. Preston]

Andrea,

Good question. Best answer, yes. (Why would illiterates, for examples, pay
any attention to spelling?) But us linguists have got to be careful about
spelling. We used to be prettty snotty in ignoring it (except for reluctant
recognition of the odd "spelling pronunciation" (e.g., my mother pronounces
"raspberries" with a /p/)> But vastly greater literaacy in many of the
world's languages makes it hard to do so any longer.

Unfortunately, no "amf-" words appear in English (except for the unluckly
Amfortas of Parsifal, but that has primary stress on the "for" syllable
which would undo this assimilation). It's also the case that all the other
"amph-" words in English are also stressed in the "phV" sllable (amphibian)
and/or are so peculiarly learned that assimilation cannot (or would not)
take place.

dInIs



>What I want to know is, if it were written "amfitheater", would folks pronounce
>it with the initial "amp"?
>
>--
>Andrea Vine
>Sun Internet Mail Server i18n architect
>avine at eng.sun.com
>Romanes eunt domus.
>
>Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>>
>> Paul,
>>
>> Over my entire life I've noticed that people pronounce "amphitheater" this
>>way.
>>
>> The rule is simple; it's "progressive assimilation" - which means that an
>> "earlier" sound influences a "later" one.
>>
>> In this case, /m/ is an bilabial nasal stop. /f/, if it were to occur, is a
>> labiodental oral fricative (i.e., continuant). In short, three features
>> "mismatch" in two sounds which come very close together. Your phonetic
>> apparatus gets to work and says "Hey" I can't go from bilabial to
>> labiodental, nasal to oral, and stop to fricative so damn quick. How about
>> letting me keep the stop and bilabial part (and I'll give you the oral)."
>> The phonemic apparatus says, "I guess I'll still understand. Deal." The
>> phonetic apparatus gets back to work and takes /f/ and applies "stop" (in
>> place of "fricative") and "bilabial" (instead of "labiodental"). Voila! a
>> /p/.
>>
>> Of course, we seldom notice assimilation when it happens in our own speech
>> (particularly with "ordinary words), but when it happens in items which
>> have a "prescriptive" or learned historical ring (especially among groups
>> like "younger speakers"), we often latch on to it as part of our pervasive
>> language-is-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket ideology.
>>
>> dInIs (whose assimilationist positions are severly restricted to linguistics)
>>
>> PS: I complained to the Michigan State Theatre Department that they spelled
>> their department name "theatre." They told me (coldly) that that was the
>> "correct" spelling for "serious" drama. I asked them if they changed the
>> name when they did comedies. They hung up.
>>
>> PPS: Please don't write in and tell me that nasals aren't stops. I classify
>> "stops" as a feature based on closure of the oral passageway (as do most
>> these days).
>>
>> >We have a local venue called the "Molson Amphitheater." (It's actually
>> >spelled "Amphitheatre," but I'll ignore that Britishism for the purposes
>> >of this post.) It plays host to many concerts, so the word
>> >"amphitheater" is heard quite often on the radio and in conversations.
>> >Over the past few years, I've noticed that many people, particularly
>> >young people, pronounce this word as "ampitheater." That is, they ignore
>> >the first "h" so the initial syllable is pronounced as "amp" instead of
>> >"amf." Is this a widespread trend and is there any general linguistic
>> >rule that covers such a shift?
>> >
>> >Paul
>> >Books: http://www.mcfedries.com/books/
>> >Word Spy: http://www.logophilia.com/WordSpy/
>>
>> Dennis R. Preston
>> Professor of Linguistics
>> Department of Linguistics and Languages
>> Michigan State University
>> East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
>> preston at pilot.msu.edu
>> Office: (517)353-0740
>> Fax: (517)432-2736

Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736