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Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 34:2/3 (2007) ► pp.257–280

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Pronouncing the “P”

Prescription or description in 19th- and 20th-century English dictionaries?

 | Hertford College, Oxford
Published online: 13 November 2007
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.34.2.04bre
Summary
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.
Résumé
Au cours du XIXe siècle, les renseignements sur la prononciation dans beaucoup de dictionnaires anglais indiquaient que les mots d’origine grècque qui commençaient par ps- devaient se prononcer avec le p initial muet. Cependant, dans l’article qui traitait ce sujet dans le Oxford English Dictionary (publié en 1909), le rédacteur J. A. H. Murray (1837–1915) conseillait qu’il était préférable de prononcer le p, contrairement à l’usage habituel, afin de mettre en évidence l’étymologie de ces mots et ainsi de les rendre plus intelligibles. Les dictionnaires qui suivaient le OED ont pendant longtemps — même aussi récemment que dans les années soixante-dix — indiqué une prononciation facultative du p, mais les contradictions entre leurs preuves soutiennent l’hypothèse que le p prononcé n’était qu’une chimère de dictionnaire acceptée uniquement par certains philologues pédants. On concluera qu’il faut toujours se méfier quand les dictionnaires, même les plus réputés, prétendent à décrire au lieu simplement de prescrire.
Zusammenfassung
Im Verlauf des 19. Jahrhunderts empfahlen viele englische Wörterbücher, die Informationen zur Aussprache enthielten, bei griechischstämmigen Wörtern, die mit ps- beginnen, das führende p nicht auszusprechen. Im entsprechenden Abschnitt des 1909 erschienenen Oxford English Dictionary riet Herausgeber J. A. H. Murray (1837–1915) jedoch — entgegen der allgemeinen Praxis — an, das p auszusprechen, da so die Etymologie solcher Wörter klarer werde und die Verständlichkeit erhöht würde. Nach dem OED erschienene Wörterbücher haben viele Jahre lang — bis in die 1970er Jahre — das p als optionale Aussprachemöglichkeit angegeben, obwohl es Beweise für die Hypothese gibt, dass die Aussprache des p eine Wörterbuch-Schimäre war, die nur von einer Handvoll pedantischer Philologen befolgt wurde. Der Artikel schließt mit der Empfehlung, dass die Behauptung, man gehe deskriptiv statt präskriptiv vor, selbst bei den reputierlichsten Wörterbüchern mit Vorsicht zu genießen ist.
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