I
recently wrote a piece about how Oxford Dictionary was distorting and
bastardizing the English language by letting too many new words into its collection,
especially given some of these words have not been around for very long nor
have they been adopted widely by the masses.
A few angry linguists and word-lovers didn’t seem to take kindly to my
insights. Some of them believe that our dictionaries should, as a matter of
obligation, introduce words to the public.
Others, like myself, believe the dictionary should reflect actual usage
of words. What do you think?
Does
the dictionary merely reflect the words out there, or does it lobby for
the widespread adoption of such words:? Does a dictionary hope that by having a new word by itself will lead to society's use of the word?
Dictionaries
introduce new words on a regular basis.
However, the dictionary is usually playong catch-up, inserting words
that may have been used for years, even decades. Now, some dictionaries are increasing the
frequency in which they update their collection, and they are greatly expanding
the number of words that make the cut.
Is our language really changing that quickly?
Look
how long it took mainstream dictionaries to finally include words like ain’t or
fuck? Some would say the dictionary
failed us in not letting them in sooner, while others would say obscenities or
crooked contractions have little place in a Bible of words, the dictionary.
I decided
to research dictionaries. What I found
was this: There are so many dictionaries
floating around!
You
have some of the more legitimate, long-standing, well-established ones such as: Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Oxford English
Dictionary, Cambridge English Dictionary, American Heritage Dictionary, and
Random House Dictionary of the English
Language.
Then
there are specialty dictionaries, such as The
Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, Crossword Dictionary (www.oneacross.com), The People’s Law Dictionary (www.dictionary.law.com), and Investor Words (www.investorwords.com).
Wordnet, UrbanDictionary, Dictionary.com,
The FreeDictionary.com, Definitions.net, Wordnik, and Vocabulary.com are some of the many online dictionaries that have
become popular.
Do you want
a dictionary edited by the public? Try Wiktionary.
We have more dictionaries than ever available.
Do people even look up words anymore?
They rely on technology to edit and spell-check for them. With an increased use of dictation software, users no longer have to type or read what they write, or look up words.
When
I grew up, in the 1970’s and 80’s, a dictionary was big, heavy and a solid tome whose oversized dimensions gave it some gravitas. It had yellowed pages
filled with black and white illustrations, tabs, and charts. It looked official, because it was. It didn’t change words overnight nor did it
compete with so many other versions. If
dictionaries reflected our language, they now hope to create it.
Dictionaries
became activists. They will change with
every newly-minted phrase uttered by a booze-fueled, tech-happy teen-ager. 321 million Americans will soon lose their
ability to communicate clearly with one another.
Which
dictionary should get to define the meaning of dictionary? What should a dictionary even do?
At
the very least, a dictionary shows us which words are available for use, what
they mean, examples of usage, proper spelling, pronunciation, and related
things such as etymology (word origin), proper conjugation and tense
application, synonyms, and antonyms. But
now they show us something else, revealing a new society that a few
lexicographers want to push upon the masses.
Dictionaries are moving away from being descriptive to prescriptive.
The
history of the dictionary is fairly lengthy.
Over
4,700 years ago word lists were created by the Akkadian Empire. They were preserved in the form of cuneiform
tablets with bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian words.
However, it wasn’t until four centuries ago – in 1611 – that the first
monolingual dictionary was written in Europe.
Spain published the Spanish dictionary written by Sebastian
Covarrubias. A year later, the first
Italian dictionary was published. It served as a model for similar English
works.
The
word “dictionary” was invented by Englishman Jolon of Garland in 1220. He penned a book, Dictionarius, to help with
Latin diction.
In
1582 a non-alphabetized list of 8000 English words was created, Elementarie, by
Richard Mulcaster in 1582.
In
1604 the first English dictionary, alphabetized, A Table Alphabetical, was
published by Robert Cawdrey, an English schoolteacher.
It
wasn’t until another 150 years – in 1755 – that a more reliable and
comprehensive English dictionary was published, Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language. He didn’t write the first English dictionary,
but it was accepted as a leading authority upon its arrival.
The
17th century saw numerous attempts to create English dictionaries,
including these:
1616
– John Bullokar – English Expositor
1656
– Thomas Blount – Glossographia
1658
– Edward Phillips – The New World of
English Words
1676
– Elisha Coles – English Dictionary
But
it wasn’t until Noah Webster arrived on the scene that the great American
English dictionary came to be.
In
1806 he published his first dictionary, A
Compendium Dictionary of the English Language.
A
year later he began a two-decade long quest to compile and expand a fully
comprehensive dictionary, An American
Dictionary of the English Language.
In order for him to understand and evaluate the etymology of words,
Webster learned 26 languages, including Old English, Greek, Latin, Italian, German, Hebrew, Spanish, French,
Arabic, and Sanskrit.
His
book set the gold standard for dictionaries and is still widely used
today. His book included 70,000 words,
including 12,000 that had never appeared in any dictionary. He also reformed the spelling of words,
introducing American English spellings. He replaced colour with color and made
theatre read as theater. He put in
American words that had not appeared in British dictionaries, such as squash
and skunk. In his bid to capture
language accurately he was also a reforming force who forever altered our language.
Although
I’m thankful to Mr. Webster today, I don’t know that I would have applauded all
of his efforts back then. He
singlehandedly altered the way people communicated and their ability to
exchange ideas and thoughts. What if someone
came in today and messed with our spellings and suddenly added tens of thousands of
words never before found in a dictionary?
Of
course, language is not static. It moves with the changing world around us.
The questions that need to be addressed are:
·
Who
or what determines what’s a word -- and what it means?
·
On
what criteria is such a decision made?
·
How
will having multiple dictionaries – over a dozen large ones – help or hurt us?
·
Does
expanding our language help us communicate better?
Maybe
the biggest change yet is to come. Will
we move to some kind of numerical alphabet?
Will we add letters and sounds to our language? Will we combine words with images or emojis, the way 14-year-olds text each other?
I
wonder what the dictionary of 2057 will look like. It surely will define itself.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2017©. Born and raised in Brooklyn, now resides in Westchester. Named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby
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