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

[LanDi Liu]

This kind of thing is the norm in the major British English learner's
dictionaries.  It describes the RP non-rhotic accent and the so-called
"intrusive r".  So it looks like what Tom said initially: it's a BrE
dictionary that someone slapped the word "American" on to see if they
could make a few bucks across the pond with.

As far as "misleading" goes, though, the "American" pronunciation
given in major BrE learner's dictionaries (Oxford, Longman, etc.) is
often way off the mark anyway (this is when two pronunciations are
given; one BrE and one AmE).

Randy

On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 9:19 AM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Websters dictionary mandates no "r" at the end of words
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> That IS misleading.
>
> On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 10:39 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>>
>> 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:
>> >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>> >Content-Disposition: inline
>> >
>> >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
>> >
>> >------------------------------------------------------------
>> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>
> --
> Mark Mandel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China
My Manchu studies blog:
http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu

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