ENGLISH TODAY. January 1989. ET 17 Vol 5 No 1.
Children's dictionaries: spelling and pronunciation
VALERIE YULE
Do pronunciation keys in dictionaries, especially those designed for children,
provide insights into problems of literacy and spelling reform?
LANGUAGE has two conflicting purposes to be public and to be arcane. One aim
is to communicate, and the other aim is to prevent communication. Language
identifies the ingroup and the out-group, and this is a factor in considering how
English national languages, dialects and accents should be represented in dictionary
pronunciations.
From East to West in the days of the British Empire, children were impressed with
the importance of speaking 'good standard English' in the classroom, whatever their
native tongue or accent in the playground. Today dialect and accent are aspects of
nationalism and local loyalties, and the ideal of a common standard conflicts with
the ideals of national and cultural identity, arousing even furious emotions. In this
Age of Communication with all its unifying technology of satellites, electronics and
broadcasting, there may now be more varieties of English spoken than since the
Norman Conquest. People who all 'speak English' may still be unable to understand
each other.
Australia shows the trend. Australians sometimes speak 'dictionary English', pronouncing according to the spelling of words more than the English do, because they
'do not know any better'. For example, schism, sceptic, Wednesday, and forehead
are often given 'spelling pronunciations. On the other hand, Australians are
rejoicing in their own version of English with all the enthusiasm of having just had
a Bicentenary, and 'cultural cringe' to any other country, particularly the Old
Country, is quickly spotted and condemned. The popular success of the Australian
Macquarie Dictionary is in no small part because, unlike other 'Australian'
dictionaries, it is not 'merely' an Australian edition of a British classic. It is enthusiastically Australian, and has a keen network of volunteer assistants collecting as
many new Australian words as possible. The Australian language is really alive look how it is changing.
However, from an international perspective, deviations from an original common
norm need some limits. There is a delightful flavour in the variety of different
accents the world over, varying even within the same township, as good ears can
pick up. Meeting local idioms and new words in different countries adds to tourists'
fun. It is part of the resistance to turning the world into one Cocacolaland. But the
trappings of local identity should not be so extreme as to prevent the primary
purpose of language, to communicate. Babelisation is a threat, not an aim.
English is the dominant language of the world, used by more people than any other.
It has potential to be the second language of the world, with all the tremendous
advantages that would provide. However, because it is like two languages - the
spoken and the written - those who speak it often cannot read it, and those who can
read it often cannot speak it. Although a Scots dictionary shows what a range of
versions of the same words can develop in a country before dictionaries and
standardised spelling set norms, English spelling is itself still so inconsistent in its
representation of the spoken language that it is less of a help to a stable common
intelligibility than more tidy conventions could make it.
Pronunciation guides in dictionaries are therefore important, because they can help
to make English speakers either less or more mutually intelligible. Dictionaries
may claim that they only represent what exists - but they still have major
sanctioning and definitive functions, and they make choices from what does exist.
What they say goes - and passes away less easily. What dictionaries present as
formal speech will be slurred when articulated more rapidly in informal speech; and
what is presented as slurred will be slurred still further.
What may be worse still is that children's dictionaries and word-books usually do
not give the pronunciations of words when the spelling gives false clues. This may
seem shocking, because it is children and immigrant learners of English who are
most likely not to know how to pronounce new words found in their reading, and so
be inhibited in using their full vocabulary. Yet an examination of more than forty
children's dictionaries and wordbooks in 1986 found that only four gave any guides
about pronouncing the most difficult words, and only two of these consistently gave
a pronunciation key. The reason for this state of affairs is partly the problem of
devising a key that children can follow. The International Phonetic Alphabet or
sets of diacritics are too difficult for them, and lexicographers appear reluctant to
descend to such indignities as yoo or wot.
Alternative spellings
One suggestion for a pronunciation key for dictionaries has been to use some
system that could also be used as acceptable alternative spellings, as a way in to
spelling reform. The guide itself might gradually come to be taken as an alternative
to co-existing spelling - and more than one spelling reformer has thought of this.
Some adult dictionaries have in fact come close to an 'improved spelling' in their
pronunciation keys. For example, Chambers' Twentieth Century Dictionary,
(1901), used a consistent system of consonants, macrons over 'long' vowels, and
other vowels represented as in lad led lid lot but far her fair saw cow coil boy, with
Scots gude spelt with ii. In practice, Chambers' spelling represented formal Scottish
speech, which indeed is closer to English spelling than is the formal speech of
England. The key also used hyphens to divide syllables, and apostrophes to
indicate stress - that great problem for English language learners. Vowels that are
slurred and weak in everyday speech were usually represented as in formal speech,
but sometimes they were omitted, and, more rarely, were shown by a more slurred
vowel. Suffixes -tion, -sion, -ssion were often represented by -shun, tyun or zhun.
How knowledge of spelling influences the literate person's perception of
pronunciation is shown by the pronunciation guides for table and label, given as
ta'bl and la'bel. Spelling reformers such as Rondthaler and Lais tend to make
similar 'auditory' distinctions that are in fact based on present spelling.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary (2nd edition, 1929), gave less guidance to
pronunciation, assuming that readers would know how to pronounce the more
common spelling constructions. It used more special characters such as accents and
italics, so that it was a more complex guide, and unstressed vowels were more likely
to be omitted, as in la.bl. However, editors of both dictionaries were favorable to
gradual spelling reform, which was supported in the preface of Chambers', and in
H. W. Fowler's notes in English Usage - and whether deliberately or not, both
provided through their pronunciation guides some grounds for a spelling reform
that could broadly represent current speech and yet retain close links with the
orthodox spelling.
Unfortunately, perhaps, some American dictionaries have set precedents for a colloquial style in pronunciation keys, departing from representation of 'formal'
speech. One dictionary for children, the Macquarie Junior Dictionary, has
followed this, using uh liberally to show every slurred vowel, and showing 'long'
vowels as in bay bee/fear buy boht booht pah. As Australian speech is already very
slurred, the consequences may be to increase the distance between pronunciation
and conventional spelling, while also reducing the chances of English spelling
reform, because the 'visible speech' of the guide looks so irreconcilably
incompatible with our present spelling system.
Australian speech as represented in the excerpts from the junior Dictionary looks
very different from the accepted British spoken language of 50-80 years ago. However, if accurate representation of spoken language is the goal, the junior Dictionary
still falls short. Compare its entries with the 'classic' lexicon on spoken Strine,
compiled by the legendary Afferbeck Lauder.
The importance of pronunciation guides for children and learners
The General Editor of the Macquarie junior Dictionary (1985) was most aware of
the prescriptive significance of style norms in dictionaries for children, in the
choice of words, headword priorities, syntactic values, spelling and forms of usage
(Blair, 1987). It is easy to overlook the prescriptive significance of 'spelling cribs'
to help with pronunciation. However, the pronunciation guide of a children's
dictionary could have consequences for the learners' mastery of the English
language, and so for the development of the language in future.
How pronunciation guides can differ
Chambers
ab’a-kus abdõmen ak-sel-er-ãt-or ak'sid-ent eks-tror'di-nar-i e-pis'l for'mi-da-bl
min-üt' spes-if-icã'tion vac'uum vãri-e-gãted
Oxford guides, using the Oxford system, ran parallel, with only occasional
exceptions, such as va.cuum.
Macquatie,7unior Dictionary
ab-uh-kuhs ab-duh-muhn uhk-sel-uh-ray-tuh ak-suh-duhnt muy-nyooht uhkstraw-duhn-ree uh-pis-uhl faw-muh-duhb-I spes-uh-fuh-kay-shuhn vak-yoohm
vair-ree-uh-gayt-uhd
Examples of 'reformed' spellings. Rondthaler and Lais’ ‘American Spelling' with
a second alternative in brackets that retains the 'silent e' convention:
abacus abdomen acseleraetor (acselirater) acsident extraordinerry
(extraordinari) mienuct (minute) episl formidabl spesificaeshun (spesificasion)
vacueum (vakume) vairigaeted (vairigated)
_7unior Macquarie 1985, pronunciation with 'genuine' Strine speech in brackets.
actually (egg jelly)
kom-pluh-muhnts (garble mince)
duh-tear-ree-uh-rayt (deteriate)
hul-uh-buh-loo (hala blu)
Ion-zhuh-ray (londger ray)
sandwich (semn-iitch)
Australian (Strine)
decimal (dismal)
flowers (flares)
railway (rye wye)
students (stewnce)
handbag (hem bairg)
bottle (boll)
chance (jans)
film (fillum)
A reader's first reaction to the Junior Dictionary's pronunciation guide may be
concern for its effect on children's appreciation of the 'beauty' of the English
language. The esthetic argument is dodgy, since it often boils down to 'what you
are used to'. When too and not are acceptable, why do yoo and wot seem hideous? I
suspect the answer may be the long tradition of using that sort of 'simplified
spelling' to indicate the speech of vulgar and low types of people. Nevertheless,
there is a sort of visual onomatopoeia; a Hindu has dignity, while a Hindoo seems
slightly ridiculous. And the Macquarie style for giving form to the pronunciations
of words so often seems so visually clumsy and gauche that it could deflate rather
than inspire a child's intrinsic love of words.
A second question is how learners can remember the spellings of words, if their
auditory memories are given pronunciation guides so consistently distant visually
from orthodox spelling. Poor readers do not seem to use auditory memory as an
ally to visual memory in spelling, but most very good spellers do. I know myself
that I have always sounded out spellings in remembering new vocabulary - for
example, daughter was remembered as dauter with a gh in the middle.
Remembering the formal pronunciation of words prevented the muddle that poor
spellers get into - for example, celebration. My childhood strategy would have
been in trouble if my school dictionary had not given a 'correct' spelling
representation to the weak unstressed vowels. It might be worth comparing the
spelling achievement of students working with a dictionary like the Macquarie
Junior, and those with a more formal pronunciation guide or even none - if the
contaminating effects of other variables such as teaching and ability can be
parcelled out.
A further question is how students can recognise units of meaning in words or even
find many words in a dictionary if they have 'Junior Macquarie' ideas of the
pronunciation and 'form of the word'? It might be very difficult to search for words
that begin with unstressed weak vowels if they are all thought of as beginning with
'uh'. Even vowels in the second syllable could cause a location problem. Moseley's
Aurally Coded English Dictionary of 17,000 words (1986) is the best and most
ingenious spelling dictionary for young students that I know. It has an index chart
from which the page number for any word can be found immediately, if you know
merely the first consonant sound and the first vowel sound, regardless of their
spelling. If you know how to say ephemeral or pneumatic, then you can find their
spellings within 30 seconds.
If your mind has picked up only slurred
pronunciations, such as 'uh-fem-uhruhl' or 'uh-fish-uhl', it could be difficult.
A further question is whether it is at all necessary to shy off from encouraging even
mental links of pronunciation with the visible printed spelling, by interposing
distractions such as uhk-sel, ukhspawt, puh-lay-shuhl, and Buy-suhn-teen-uh-ree.
Our everyday speech needs no pushing to slur words - we naturally slur our
pronunciation even when it is taken from the most formal of pronunciation guides.
Say picture, specially, action, passion, million as printed, faster and faster, and the
words become articulated in our normal everyday way. There is no need to print
the words pre-slurred in a pronunciation guide.
Literate people tend to imagine that they speak rather like they spell - and can even
be surprised if told that they do not say the t in nation, because they imagine that
they do. People who think they say only may be surprised to hear themselves on
tape saying oney. But the link to spelling, whether it is real or imagined, does give
literate people hold on our language and its word that is lacked by the illiterate who may not be sure of what a particular word may really be, and so will use
different versions of it even during a single conversation - for example, subbatin
and sundarine and sue dareen, all used because of ignorance that the word is
submarine.
Too much insistence on invidious regional distinctions in colloquial representation
words will also raise psychological barriers further against any future improvement
English spelling that could be an advantage all. 'Spelling as you speak' can never
be viable international spelling, but nevertheless, the links to the spoken languages
English should be through clear and consistent conventions. As long as people
believe that their written language is something: completely different from spoken
English, with no structural connection, then they also believe that any reform to
bring the two closer must render obsolete everything now in print.
What sort of pronunciation guide, then, would be most useful for children and
language learners? It is not easy to find out whether there has been any research that
has evaluated different systems for them, apart from the common observation that
the International Phonetic Alphabet and diacritics are too confusing for their needs.
On the other hand, long words and strings of letters are also difficult for learners to
read - and those words in 'colloquial' pronunciation guides can go on and on. When
a single macron principle is used for 'long' vowels, however, words become even
shorter, (as, for example, mãt mët mït mõt müt for mate, mete, mite, mote, mute, and
this appears to be simple enough for five-year-olds in the initial learning spelling of
the American IBM-supported Writing to Read literacy program. In this program,
children were found to learn to read the 'simplified' words more easily than
conventional spelling, and used the spellings for their own writing on typewriters;
while their transition to normal spelling co-continued from the first day, unlike the
case with i.t.a. Perhaps pronunciation guides for children could use macrons for
long vowels as the single diacritic, while continuing the useful Macquarie practice
of separating syllables and underlining stressed syllables. And if the stressed
syllables are underlined, there would appear to be no need to turn all the other
vowels into uh. All those hhhs are not really necessary.
Conclusion
It is, I hope, not problems of copyright that would prevent one dictionary using the
same pronunciation key as another - for surely the community of scholarship is
more important than property rights in this instance.
A final question is that if pronunciation guides in the various English-speaking
countries stress slurring rather than formal pronunciation, they will strengthen the
tendencies to distinctiveness already fostered by national and local pride to the
degree that there is divisive Babel. Patriotism may emphasise a country's unique
distinctiveness, but also seeks national welfare, and takes pride in the value of the
contributions that country can make to the world. We contribute to and benefit
from an international English-speaking community. The living local English
language from any area in that community can make contributions of concepts and
ideas, colour, attitudes and style - but not if it becomes a thing apart.
References
Afferbeck Lauder. Let stalk Strine: a lexicon of modern Strine usage. Sydney: Ure
Smith, 1965. Blair, D. (General Ed.) The Macquarie Junior Dictionary.
Milton, Qld: Jacaranda Press. (11,000 words)
Blair, D. Style norms in junior dictionaries. The Macquarie Dictionary Society,
4.3.1987, pl-2,8.
Davidson, Thomas. (Ed.) Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English
Language, Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, 1901.
Fowler, H. W. & Fowler, F. G. (eds.) The Concise Oxford Dictionary. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 1929.
Martin, J. H. & Friedberg, A. Writing to Read. New York: Warner Books, 1986.
Moseley, D. & Nicol, C. Aurally Coded English Spelling Dictionary. Wisbech,
Cambridge, U K.: Learning Development Aids, 1986.
Rondthaler, E. and Lais, E. Dictionary of simplified American Spelling: an
alternative spelling for English. New York: The American Language Academy,
1986.
Warrack, A. and Grant, W. (compilers) Chambers Scots Dictionary. Edinburgh: W.
R. Chambers, 1911.
VALERIE YULE's research on spelling factors in reading includes cross-cultural
interests. She is a clinical child psychologist, remedial teacher and schools
psychologist who has worked in disadvantaged Australian schools and Australian
and British hospitals, taught in Psychology, Education and Special Education
Departments at Melbourne and Monash Universities and Victoria State College,
and studied the development of children's imagination and literacy as honorary
research fellow at Aberdeen University. She graduated in English and History
before restarting in Psychology. She writes on education and social issues, has
written a series of three ABC books for parents and teachers on primary education,
co-written spelling books, and edited 'What happens to children', an anthology of
stories told (not written) by disadvantaged children.