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

Thu Oct 2 07:16:22 UTC 2008

To be fair the Webster's Student Dictionary by Barnes and Noble (an American Co.) though printed in USA does not say it's an American dictionary (but it does say "American edition copyright 1992,1999") .  Copyright shifted from Harrap Publishing (a UK Co.) in 1992.  It's phonetic notation looks like SAMPA.  Every ending "r" is written with an upside-down "e", because "-r is never pronounced at the end of words" it says.  Also "farm" is fa:m.  I suppose the "Webster" part is that US spelling is given first then British.  But it's clearly UK pronunciation written in European SAMPA.

I bought an older "Webster's Dictionary" (copyrights 1939 first to 1975 last) by Modern Promotions, NY.  It says "This dictionary is not published by the original publishers of Webster's Dictionary, nor by their ancestors."  So what makes it Websters?  I suppose the spelling.  The pronunciation guide is different than above, with a long line macron over the long vowels and the short vowels having no diacritics.  This is much more English like.  But the use is not good.  For short a it gives example words at, map, fat, afford, elephant, vocal.  Not consistent.  In truespel ~at, ~map, ~fat, ~ufford, ~elufint, ~voekool.(where oo is as in wool).

Both phonetic notations are substandard to truespel because they are computer (email,filename,spreadsheet) unfriendly.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.

> Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 09:54:00 +0800
> From: strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: Websters dictionary mandates no "r" at the end of words
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: LanDi Liu
> Subject: Re: Websters dictionary mandates no "r" at the end of words
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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  wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Mark Mandel
>> 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  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  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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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