"Norval" ... How do *you* pronounce it?

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sun Aug 30 18:56:23 UTC 2009


At 1:46 PM -0400 8/30/09, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>
>It wasn't until I discovered that there is no work known as [lI 'dEl]
>& Scott that I realised ;-) how it had come about that Klaus-Juergen
>had made such an egregious spelling error: he was using the "Liddell"
>of Liddell & Scott or something similar in Britspeak as his mental
>exemplar.
>

I always thought of the lexicographers as [li'dEl] and Scott, partly
(mis)guided by the double-Ls and partly because I went to high school
on Lindell [lIn'dEl] Boulevard.  But I found it easier to bear in
mind that he was in fact homophonous with "little" once I realized
his connection to Alice Liddell of Alice in Wonderland fame, and the
various puns Lewis Carroll played on the family name that wouldn't
have worked had it been stressed on the final syllable.

LH

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