Article published In:
Historiographia LinguisticaVol. 34:2/3 (2007) ► pp.257–280
Pronouncing the “P”
Prescription or description in 19th- and 20th-century English dictionaries?
During the course of the 19th century, many English dictionaries carrying information on pronunciation directed that Greek-derived words beginning ps- should be pronounced with a silent initial p. In the relevant section of the OED, however (published 1909), the editor J. A. H. Murray (1837–1915) advised that, contrary to general practice, pronouncing the p was preferable, since it made clear the etymology of such words thus enhancing their intelligibility. Dictionaries after the OED have reported p as an optional pronunciation for many years subsequently — even as late as the 1970s — though their conflicting evidence supports the hypothesis that pronouncing the p was a dictionary chimaera never adopted by more than a handful of pedantic philologists. The article concludes that claims to descriptivism rather than prescriptivism, even by the most reputable dictionaries, should be taken with a pinch of salt.
References
A.Dictionaries consulted for survey (p. 260 above) published up to c.1890
1819
: Enfield, William. A General Pronouncing Dictionary. 6th ed. London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy.
1828
: Webster, Noah. Noah Webster’s First Edition of an American Dictionary of the English Language. (Repr. American Christian History Education Series. San Francisco, Calif.: Foundation for American Christian Education 2002.)
1850–1855
: Ogilvie, John. The Imperial Dictionary, on the Basis of Webster’s English Dictionary. 21 vols and suppl. Glasgow, Edinburgh and London: Blackie & Son.
1852
: Webster, Noah & Chauncey Allen Goodrich. A Dictionary of the English Language. London: Office of the Illustrated London Library.
1861
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1864
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1864
: Ogilvie, John & Richard Cull. The Comprehensive English Dictionary, the Pronunciation Adapted to the Best Modern Usage by R. Cull. London-Edinburgh-Glasgow: Blackie & Son.
1865
: Ogilvie, John & Richard Cull. The Student’s English Dictionary, the Pronunciation Adapted to the Best Modern Usage by R. Cull. London: Blackie.
1867
: Nuttall, P. Austin. Routledge’s Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language. London: Routledge & Sons.
1868
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1870
: Webster, Noah & Charles Robson. Improved Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language. London: Ward, Lock and Tyler.
1871
: Stormonth, James. Etymological and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons.
1882
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1886
: Annandale, Charles & John Ogilvie. A Concise Dictionary of the English Language (Based on Ogilvie’s Imperial Dictionary). London etc.: Blackie & Son.
1889
: Worcester, Joseph Emerson. A Dictionary of the English Language. New ed., with suppl. & an appendix. London: J. B. Lippincott.
1889–1891
: Whitney, William Dwight, ed-in-chief. The Century Dictionary: An encyclopedic lexicon of the English language. 61 vols. New York: Century Co.
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Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Brewer, Charlotte
2008. The Oxford Quarto Dictionary. Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas Bulletin 51:1 ► pp. 25 ff. 
Klein, Thomas
2012. Traditional Approaches to Monolingual Lexicography. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,
Queiroz de Barros, Rita
2020. In search of “the lexicographic stamp”. In Late Modern English [Studies in Language Companion Series, 214], ► pp. 168 ff.
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