The Norman Lewis Dictionary of Pronunciation can help you whether you speak in public or private, before large groups or simply with friends. Based on General American Speech, It features over 21000 entries, difficult Words, current and historical personalities, unfamiliar places around the world. New names and terms relating to recent world events. A simple pronunciation system using letters of the alphabet, not symbols. The standard reference work on pronunciation in General American Speech. A ll through these many years, this dictionary has served as the standard reference work on pronunciation in general American speech.
In preparing this new edition, the editors have striven to maintain the quality of the earlier editions and, in the tradition of the editors who preceded them, have once again expanded the scope of the volume. A s a result, the total number of entries now exceeds 21,000 commonly used Words and proper names as well as perennially difficult names from history and the arts.
one significant departure from the third edition is the modified pronunciation scheme employed. Because modern readers may lack thorough Understanding of the International Phonetic Alphabet, the fourth edition offers a readily understandable respelling system to indicate pronunciation. in addition, the fourth edition supplies indication of secondary stresses as well as primary stresses with in words needless to say many, proper names included in past edition are no longer in current use, so they have been removed to make room for names of greater value for today's speakers. Finally, pronunciations preferred in the past but no longer commonly heard have been replaced.
Despite the many changes made in the work of the previous editors, this dictionary still adheres to the fundamental principle that guided the earlier efforts: to record "The pronunciations used by educated persons in the greater part of the United States, rather than to insist upon arbitrary standards of pronunciation unrelated to those commonly heard." True to this principle, the editors of the fourth edition supply American pronunciations of foreign names that have gained widespread use in our country. Where foreign names have not yet been Americanized, the pronunciations that are given approximate the pronunciations heard in the countries in which the names originate. A gain in adherence to the practices of the earlier editors, the present editors supply a single pronunciation for each entry rather than a bewildering variety of acceptable pronunciations. This reflects the belief held by all the editors of this Dictionary that those who consult the book want assistance in pronunciation rather than justification for particular pronunciation.
