*WEBSTER'S New AMERICAN DICTIONARY 1959 BOOKS, INC. NEW YORK

VII Pronunciation, the Personal Magnet

   A detailed KEY TO PRONUNCIATION appears in the front of this book.

   "Pronunciation," as the eminent American lexicographer Dr. Joseph Emerson

Worcester once noted, "is in a great measure arbitrary."  It changes with changing

times, and it varies with locality.  "Tea" was once quite generally pronounced "tay."

"Bath" has different a values in New England and in the Midwest.  In Dr. Worces-

ter's time the best British usage was considered standard.  Today we of America

have standards of our own.

What Is Standard?

   New England, the south, the Middle West, and the Far West have regional char-

acteristics in speech as in custom.  But RADIO is increasingly a factor of standardiza-

tion.  It promotes an unplanned movement toward uniformity, and thus tends,

slowly but effectively, to establish a national standard.

   No dictionary can set an imperative standard.  The function of the dictionary is

not to dictate, but to reflect the best usage.  Whether you shall say secreta'ry or sec'retry

is for none but yourself to decide.  But the dictionary is the best and most important

medium for attaining correct knowledge of the principles and practice of good

pronunciation.

   Correct pronunciation is important in just about the same way that good clothes

are.  You can get along without it, but you will get along much better with it.  Indi-

cation of correct pronunciation is one of the principal services rendered by the

dictionaries.

Mechanics of Speech

   Consider, first, these general underlying principles of pronunciation :

   A vowel sound may be continued at leisure, or it may be terminated either by

discontinuing the vocal effort, in which case it is not articulated by an consonant,

as in pronouncing the vowel o, or by changing the conformation of the mouth or

relative position of the organs of speech, so that the vowel sound is lost by aticula-

tion, as in pronouncing the syllable on.

   In pronouncing consonants there are five distinguishable positions of the speech

organs.

   The FIRST is the application of the lips to each other, so as to close the mouth.

Thus are formed the consonants p, b, and m.

   In the SECOND position the under lip is applied to the fore teeth of the upper jaw,

and in this manner we pronounce the consonants f and v.

   The THIRD position is used when the tongue is applied to the fore teeth, and thus

we pronounce th.  (Th in thin is voiceless; th in this is slightly voiced.)

    In the FOURTH position we apply the fore part of the tongue to the fore part of

the palate, and by this application we pronounce the letters t, d, s, z, r, l, n.

   The FIFTH position is taken when the middle part of the tongue is applied to the

palate, and thus we pronounce k, the hard sound of g (as in go), sh, j, and ng. 

Consonants, Perfect and Imperfect

 In the first position we have three letters, of which the most simple, and indeed

the only articulative one, being absolutely mute is p.  In the formation of this letter

nothing is required but the sudden closing of the mouth and stopping the vowel sound.

  

 B, though justly considered as a mute is not a perfect mute.  The mouth being

kept in the same position, and the breadth being emitted through the nostrils, the

letter m  is produced.

 In the first position, therefore, we have a perfect mute p, having no audible

value; a labial and liquid consonant m, capable of a continued sound, and between

these two extremes the letter b, somewhat audible though different from any vocal

sound.

   In the second position we have the letters f and v, neither of which is a perfect

mute.

   The letter f is formed by having the aspiration not altogether interrupted, but

emitted forcibly between the fore teeth and the under lip.  If to this we join the

guttural sound we shall have the letter v, a letter standing in nearly the same rela-

tion to f as b and m in the first position stand to p.

   Thus we have four distinctions of consonants in our alphabet, namely of perfect

and imperfect consonants, perfect and imperfect mutes--p being a perfect mute,

having no sound; b an imperfect mute, having proper sound, but limited; m a per-

fect consonant, having sound and continuance, and f an imperfect consonant, having

audible quality.

   These elementary observations on the mechanics of speech should be useful to 

the dictionary user in indicating the NATURE of the studies on which dictionary aid

to pronunciation is based.

The American Way

   The scientific analysis of speech sounds on which dictionary editors expend much

tedious but useful effort has to be translated into simplest terms to meet the Amer-

ican dictionary user's reasonable demand for simplicity plus accuracy plus speed.

The plain person may, and often does, pronounce the g in orgy as he pronounces

the same letter in organ.  It is not necessary to expatiate for his benefit on the whole

puzzling field of sounds of g.  All the necessary or desired is to indicate that the

word is pronounced with soft g ; that is, the sound of j : as it it were spelled orjy.

So in this book (see Key to Pronunciation) g is used, in pronunciations, only where

it has the hard sound, as in go, and j is used to represent the soft sound, as of the g

in general.

26 Letters, 40 Sounds

   The method of indicating pronunciations in this book is faster than that followed

in most dictionaries, because the system is LESS ELABORATE.

   In common everday speech forty or more different sounds are used.  As we have 

only twenty-six letters in the alphabet, some letters have to do extra duty.

Pronunciation

____________________________________________________________________

   B, m, v, for example, do not vary ; but consider com cat and cent, g in gun and

ginger, s in sing and runs.

   As for the vowels, some systems of pronunciation employ as many as fifteen dif-

ferent characters to represent the varying sounds of a.  This is an embarrassment

of riches.  For the ordinary student of English, these marks may be positively

confusing.

   The system used in this dictionary is STREAMLINED.

Virtue of Simplicity

   The Key to Pronunciation in this dictionary has been simplified to the utmost.

The symbols used do not differ in meaning from those of other dictionaries.  The

only difference is that there are fewer of them.

   Short vowels are not marked, and the difference between stressed and unstressed

vowels (that is, between those in accented and unaccented syllables) is not marked,

for this distinction takes care of itself in pronunciation.  For example, the short

unstressed a in fi'nal is naturally given its correct value if the first syllable is stressed.

Similarly the a in afford' is given its correct value as a short unstressed vowel if the

last syllable is stressed.

   The following examples show the difference between stressed and unstressed

vowels :

           a in absolute and in absurd        o in historical and in history

           e in even and in event                 u in mule and in emulate

           i in unite and in unity

   Stress in a sentence makes similar differences, as the student will see by pro-

nouncing the following sentences and noting the pronunciation of the vowel in

question :

     In the word has : He has the book.  He has found the book.

     In the word could : How could you?  I could have gone.

     

   These differences in vowel values are learned by hearing English sentences and

phrases, not by looking up a single word in the dictionary.

   A detailed Key to Pronunciation appears in the front of this book.

*WEBSTER'S

New   AMERICAN

DICTIONARY

COMPLETELY NEW AND UP TO DATE.  PLANNED AND

WRITTEN BY MODERN EDUCATORS AND LEXICOGRAPHERS

ESPECIALLY TO SERVE THE ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS

OF SCHOOL, COLLEGE, AND SELF-EDUCATION AT HOME

Managing Editor

LEWIS M. ADAMS

Editor-in-chief

EDWARD N. TEALL, A.M.

C. RALPH TAYLOR, A.M.,

Author of Self-Education Department and Associate Editor;

Editor "The Home University Encyclopedia," "New American Encyclopedia,"

author of "Vital English"

Simplified Self-Education Treatises on:

GRAMMAR           PUNCTUATION           VOCABULARY TESTS    

          WRITING               PRONUNCIATION       WORDS MISPRONOUNCED    

 SPEAKING             CAPITALIZATION       DANGER FLAGS              

Illustrated -- Self-pronouncing -- Synonyms -- Antonyms

This Dictionary is not published by the original pub-

lishers of Webster's Dictionary, or by their successors

1959

B O O K S ,   I N C .

NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1947
BY BOOKS,   INC.





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