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speculation

Games
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Speculation is a card game of the late eighteenth century involving the buying and selling of cards to complete sets.

Detailed Definition
Speculation features in poetry as an emblem of financial and social risk-taking. In period literature it parallels the stock-market fever of the age. Poets use its buying and selling to explore themes of inflated value, the chase of fortune, and the crashes that follow speculative excess in both games and life.
Example
Example in poetry:
Speculation’s buying and selling of cards supply poets with images of inflated value and sudden collapse; Historical verse uses the game for the fever of the financial and social gamble; “They played speculation until the paper fortunes of the evening had all blown away” illustrates empty elevation; Educational poetry shows the sport as a mirror of market excess; Poets return to speculation when the rise must be shown as inseparable from the fall.
Additional Notes
Speculation’s buying and selling of cards to complete sets made it a late-eighteenth-century emblem of inflated value and sudden collapse. The game’s commercial language maps cleanly onto the financial fever of the period. Classroom discussion can usefully place speculation among the mirrors of market excess. Related trading games include the various forms of the set-collecting contest. The image is effective when the rise must be shown as inseparable from the fall.
Other Meanings of “speculation”
Also Known As
Risky Venture Speculative Play Gamble
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