queen
“to be is to be the value of a variable”
And yet, like that subcontinental autodidact, who finally found his
Hardy, so too has this paladin of the ontological quest found … “The World of Doctor Justice”,
where all shall become clear!
So much for the pronunciation of the basic name: “O Quine,
be mine, so fair and fine!” Now for the advanced class, about its problematic
derived adjective.
~ ~ [Original
post] ~ ~
We have had frequent occasion, on this blog, to make use of a
fine and seasoned adjective, to wit:
Quinean; meaning, ‘of, like, relating to,
scented with the essence of, or singing hymns of eulogy to, Quine. Now:
Quine rhymes with spline, or sine, or affine; but Quinean
-- ahh, that is another case entirely.
The vowel is -- let us not be curt, and say “short”, but rather: trim, and crisp, with the
stressed vowel of those splendid very syllables. To form the word,
you pout the lips just slightly, as though sampling and evaluating a
particularly fine dry sherry at a soirée of the Harvard philosophy department; you do not open your mouth wi-i-i-de
the way they do over at Sociology or Athletic Medicine, when attempting to swallow a corn-dog. It rhymes, thus, with Augustinian, and with very little
else; it is itself, in fact, an
eminently Augustinian vocable, and ill-inclined to participate in any vulgar
limericks or advertising jingles.
~
Certain English suffixes shorten the quantity of the
immediately preceding vowel.
Thus: finite (long i) - infinity
(short). bibliophile (long i) - bibliophilic
(short).
Whether -ean be
numbered among these, I have not bothered to investigate; but simply decree, ex cathedra, en tant que Editor of Pronunciation
emeritus (thus with awe-inspiring authority), that it shall be thus: KWINN-ee-an.
So there.
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