I should mention that I know not a thing about the compilation of dictionaries, or what the editorial process is like. (While I’m on the subject, another question about (foreign language)-English dictionaries: Why are there never, or very rarely, IPA transcriptions for words in Asian languages?)īut back to English. For the Latin American languages, why do many dictionaries go with the language typical of the colonies and not the original imperial power? One thing I found most interesting is that Portuguese-English dictionaries typically use the Brazilian variety of the language for their pronunciation guides. I used to spend hours at the foreign language dictionary shelf of Barnes & Noble, because, well, I have a rather unusual sense of fun. This is true of more than one Romance language. They opt for the Latin American variety of the language, as shown by the pronunciation of ‘cierto’ as sjeɾto (in much of Spain, this would be θjeɾto, with the ‘c’ pronounced the same as English ‘th’). But note that the pronunciations of words in their online English- Spanish dictionary, by contrast, are typical of this side of the world. So how does a dictionary compiler choose which accent to feature as the ‘standard’ pronunciation?Ĭollins is a British dictionary, so they use Received Pronunciation (more on this in a moment).

This actor is going to have an accent, of course. Most online dictionaries have pronunciation guides featuring IPA characters and a recording of an actor reading the word aloud. I recommend checking it out here.Īnyway, this got me thinking. It’s in beta, but looks to be an excellent addition to a growing body of online word tools. The fine folks over at Collins contacted me recently about their online dictionary.

Phonetics dictionary longman