Re: "Tubist" or "Tubaist"?


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Posted by js on November 16, 2001 at 11:52:41:

In Reply to: "Tubist" or "Tubaist"? posted by Steve Inman on November 16, 2001 at 09:47:51:

Here is a post that I submitted yesterday on tubaeuph that made one well-known tubaist cheer and a well-known tubist (??) growl....


another person wrote:

-viola
-'cello
-piccolo (doesn't really count--practitioners of this instrument are called
"flutists" or "flautists"--a whole other can of worms)
-piano
-tympani
-tuba

*******************

Joe S. wrote:

I understand the fact that several other instrumentalist
nouns drop the last vowel of the instrument and add "ist". However, there
is no such thing as a "pian", " piccol", a "cell" [as pronounced "chel"),
and a "viol" is almost exactly the same thing as a "viola".

One of the problems is that there indeed IS such a thing as a "tub" and
there is also such a thing as the (pronounced) "tube". Again, I play the
TUBA, not a tub nor a tube. Further, one or two thousand people might have
heard the [attempting to become a] word "tubist", but millions and millions
of people are familiar with pianist, cellist, and would immediately
recognize "tympanist", etc.

The purpose of language is to communicate efficiently and accurately. If I
am going to try and tell a gas station attendent what I "do", "tubist" ain't
gonna cut it. They won't know what the hell I'm talkin' about (just to lay
a little gas station lingo on you). On the other hand, if I tell them that
I am a tubaist, chances are that they will immediately know that I play the
tuba, and not that I bend tubes - nor (if written) install or fabricate
tubs.

It is often quite nice to follow patterns and rules for the sake of
consistency and organization, but rules should be set aside when they cause
the confusion that their creators have attempted to avoid. I think as tuba
players, we get enough automatic jokes without addition unnecessary teasing
about "tubs" and "tubes". Further, I wonder if subconciously (because of
the societal teasing) the new-word "tubist" was created just so
tease-sensitive tubaists could somehow create confusion and delay the
expected jokes and teasing by throwing off the "timing" of the anticipated
tease by the requirement of an additional sentence (rather than one word) of
identification.

-Joe Sellmansberger, tubaist


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