Websters dictionary mandates no "r" at the end of words

[Joel S. Berson]

OK, but Tom Zurinskas wrote that Barnes and Noble described its
Webster's, the dictionary in question here, as an American edition.

Joel

At 9/30/2008 09:33 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
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>The name "Webster" on a dictionary means nothing by itself.
>Merriam-Webster is a respectable publisher of dictionaries, and Noah
>Webster of course created the first (first well-known?) US dictionary,
>but the name "Webster" is public domain. I don't remember proper
>sources for this, but the Wikipedia article
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster%27s#The_name_.E2.80.9CWebster.E2.80.9D_used_by_others
>or use http://tinyurl.com/3s29c3 ) seems to have good citations.
>
>m a m
>
>On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 8:17 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
> > At 9/29/2008 01:45 PM, Paul Johnston wrote:
> > >I don't know whether Noah Webster was non-rhotic (I don't think so),
> > >but tons of Americans born in his home state and YOURS are, Tom.
> > >They still can get an American passport if they come from, say,
> > >Putnam, CT.
> >
> > But what about the zillions of Americans who are rhotic?  How can an
> > American edition of a dictionary say "-r is never pronounced at the
> > end of words but when a word ending in -r is followed by a vowel the
> > -r can be pronounced."?  I'm being given permission to pronounce r in
> > certain places, but not in others?
> >
> > (For me, pa:k is a Korean politician; a dork is not a dock, etc.)
> >
> > Joel
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org