Dictionary

A dictionary is a list of words with their definitions, a list of characters with their glyphs, or a list of words with corresponding words in other languages. In some languages, words can appear in many different forms, but only the lemma form appears as the main word or headword in most dictionaries. Many dictionaries also provide pronunciation information; grammatical information; word derivations, histories, or etymologies; illustrations; usage guidance; and examples in phrases or sentences. Dictionaries are most commonly found in the form of a book.

Pronunciation

Dictionaries have had a variety of means of expressing the means of pronouncing words in those languages that are not entirely phonetic. Three different methods are common.

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The earliest was simply to indicate the syllables that have greater stress using accent marks, such as in Samuel Johnson's eighteenth century dictionary. Here the accent mark followed the stressed syllable. This is analogous to the tonal marks for Chinese or the accent nucleus for Japanese. Regular languages such as Spanish do not need any special marking for this purpose.

Related Topics:
Samuel Johnson - Accent nucleus

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For unphonetic languages that have no official standard pronunciation, like English or German, a system of respelling was introduced with the letters given accent marks (e.g., macrons, tildes, breves, circumflexes) that do not occur in ordinary writing to assist the reader in pronouncing the words. These had the additional capacity for accepting regional differences, especially in a federal society. For example, most Americans pronounce the first vowel in one group of words such as "ask" and "dance" in one manner, while it is a standard for the English to pronounce them in a consistenly different manner. Some dictionaries before 1970 added an accent mark of one dot atop the letter "a," which specifies this choice, rather than either one definitively.

Related Topics:
Respelling - Macron - Tilde - Breve - Circumflex

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Finally, totally new phonetic alphabets such as IPA were devised, especially for those languages like French which have an official pronunciation. These use an accent mark that precedes a stressed syllable. It is also used to indicate only one preferred pronunciation, such as RP or General American, for foreigners to learn the language or for domestic people to alter their dialect. Currently this system has prestige, but it cannot easily interrelate dialectic variations.

Related Topics:
Phonetic alphabet - IPA - RP - General American

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