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I guess I would only call something a "spelling variant" if the
spelling were the only thing that changed. I pronounce "honour" and
"honor" the same, or "draught" and "draft", and mean the same thing(s)
by them, so for me those are spelling variants. But I would pronounce,
as well as spell, "pejibaye", "pejibay", and "pejibayo" differently, so
they would be something other than spelling variants for me. Probably
just "closely-related variants". "Pifa", "pisbao" and "pixbae" look
like less closely-related variants, and "corolo" is related only by the
shared meaning, not by similarities in the phonological shape at all.<br>
<br>
As to how to deal with the slippery slopes: live with them, deal with
them, pay your money and take your choice, etc. I.e. you will have to
decide whether to have separate entries for each with cross-reference
links, or list them in a single entry, for each case; but try to be
consistent in the ways you judge different cases. The categories we
invent for lexicography don't fit the realities all that well, but are
useful anyway and often the best we can do in a given situation is
apply them as consistently as we can and leave it at that.<br>
<br>
("Lexemes" or "lexical entries" are analytically useful fictions, not
naturally occurring phenomena.)<br>
<br>
--David Tuggy<br>
<br>
Andrew Dunbar wrote:
<blockquote
cite="midba1b6b9f0606241055v15c07ad2xe760c1ac4aa0d613@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On 6/21/06, David Tuggy <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:david_tuggy@sil.org"><david_tuggy@sil.org></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Spelling variants? Do you mean they aren't pronounced differently?
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
They may or may not be pronounce differently, as in
English. Also as in English, a word with only one spelling
may have more than one pronunciation. That is part of
the slippery slope that I'm wondering how you guys deal
with.
Andrew Dunbar (hippietrail)
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">--David T
Andrew Dunbar wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Most dictionaries treat spelling variants differently to synonyms.
Spelling variants
are often included in the headword, the OED has a special Spellings section.
Synonyms may have a cross-reference to a more common word rather than a full
definition.
Sometimes it turns out to be difficult to know where to draw the line. I am a
contributor to the English Wiktionary and I'm currently travelling through
Central America, collecting unusual Spanish words as I go. I'm particularly
interested in foods and regionalisms.
One word I've come across is a fruit called "pejibaye" which I saw in Costa
Rica. I also saw it often in Panama but without a sign. When I bought a
dictionary of Panamanianisms I found not this word but another entry, "pifa",
says it is also known as "pisbao", "pixbae", "pejibayo", and "corolo". The RAE
contains only "pejibaye" and "pijibay".
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/pejibaye.html">http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/pejibaye.html</a> lists a lot more.
It seems clear that these should be considered spelling variants:
pejibaye, pijibay, pejibayo
And equally clear that these should be considered synonyms:
pifa, corolo
But these could go either way:
pisbao, pixbae
My question is this: what do you guys, the real lexicographers, do when you
come across a situation like this?
Andrew Dunbar (hippietrail)
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
Yahoo! Groups Links
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
</pre>
</blockquote>
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