[Lexicog] Spelling variants vs. synonyms

[Kenneth C. Hill]

In lexicography, things are almost always a little more complicated than they seem at first. It looks as though spellings in "-or" vs "-our", as in "honor" and "honour", are simple variants (US vs. the rest of the world, lamentably a situation that has gone beyond orthography these days), and in the US, when a UK book is reissued, such words are normally respelled in accord with US norms, and vice versa. The British even "correct" American spellings in direct quotes from  US printed material. I have even received mail originating in the UK addressed to "Ann Arbour, Michigan". But then notice that in US usage there is a distinction between "savior" (secular) and "Saviour" (liturgical) and that Australia has a "Labor" party while the electorate the party represents includes "labour". Such examples show that a subtle contrast between words with these two spellings is possible.

--Ken

David Tuggy <david_tuggy at sil.org> wrote:                                   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.
 
 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.
 
 ("Lexemes" or "lexical entries" are analytically useful fictions, not naturally occurring phenomena.)
 
 --David Tuggy
 
 Andrew Dunbar wrote: 
   
On 6/21/06, David Tuggy <david_tuggy at sil.org> wrote:
  
        
Spelling variants? Do you mean they aren't pronounced differently?
    
      
 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)     
        
--David T

Andrew Dunbar wrote:
    
            
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".
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/pejibaye.html 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)          
          
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