Everyman's English Pronouncing Dictionary [antikvár]

EDITOR'S PREFACE TO THE THIRTEENTH EDITION (1967) 1. Tms Dictionary, first published in 1917, retains in the present thirteenth edition the essential form developed by Daniel Jones over the last fifty years. However, 468 completely new words have been added in this edition, and 17 words, which appear to be no longer in common use, have been deleted. Moreover I have thought it correct to introduce certain changes which take into account the type of reader who nowadays makes use of the Dictionary and which reflect the present state of the kind of English described (Received Pronunciation: see Introduction, sections 3-9). 2. It has become increasingly clear that a very high percentage of those who consult this Dictionary do not have English as their first language. For such readers, a somewhat simplified account of RP would seem to be called for, containing a minimum of allophonic and other variants as are of interest and utility mainly to the minority of users having English as a mother tongue. I have concentrated, therefore, on indicating those variants which are of a phonemic, i.e. distinctive, kind, and have excluded many allophonic, i.e. non-distinctive, variants previously shown. 3. I have also taken into account the evolution of RP.i There seems little doubt that this type of English speech has evolved considerably since this Dictionary was first conceived. Since the turn of the century, RP has become less and less the property of an exclusive social class. Its extension throughout a wider section of the population has doubtless led to some dilution of the earlier form. As a result of this and the natural evolution of a phonological system, the quality' of some sounds and the accentual patterns of some words appeax to have changed sufficiently in the last half-century for the fact to be noted. Many changes, which formerly were only incipient, are now generally established. When several pronunciations of a word exist, the ordering of their usage has often changed. In order to discover how far such changes had become established and to provide some statistical basis for an assessment, a questionnaire containing nearly 300 crucial words was sent out to some 100 colleagues engaged in linguistic work who were likely to be able to make an objective judgment on the present state of RP. As a result important amendments were made to many entries, e.g. those under actual, bai±rupt, Biarritz, frontier, issue, retch, etc. 4. A dictionary of this kind is largely descriptive in intent, but it also fulfils for a majority of its readers a prescriptive function. It has, therefore, to be cautious and not seek to anticipate events and recommend pronunciations which may not become thoroughly established and general for the span of another generation. Thus, the word controversy, given in most dictionaries with a recommended accentual pattern '—, emerges from the questionnaire as having -'— (given as a less common variant in previous editions of this Dictionary) for some 40 per cent of the replies. But more than 90 per cent of some ' A.C. Gimson, Introduction to the Pronunciation of English, 2nd ed. 1970 (Arnold), §6.32. vii