The Curious Incident of the SatNav ...

... well, any time really. Here are the remaining notes for the *AR* chapter including a SatNav reference that I thought long and hard over (with vanity in the end overcoming common-sense :-)).

Notes for /æ/

1. aristocrat
   The traditional British English pronunciation has the /æ/ vowel and stress on the first syllable). Probably because of the Disney film The Aristocats, the American English pronunciation (with /ə/ in the first syllable and stress on the second) is steadily growing in popularity.
2. arriviste
   The Macmillan English Dictionary transcription has primary stress on the last syllable (as in French) and secondary stress on the first. But audio puts primary stress on the first.
3. barbaric
   This sound is in the second syllable. See also under /ɑ:/.
4. Caribbean
   A pronunciation with stress on the second syllable and initial /ə/ is becoming common.
5. garage
   A pronunciation with stress on the second syllable, given by many dictionaries as American, is increasingly common in British English.
6. harakiri
   The Macmillan English Dictionary transcription has this vowel but - as is commonly the case with foreign borrowings - a range of vowel sounds is possible (ranging from /ʌ/ to /ɑ:/ ). The Macmillan English Dictionary does have /æ/ , but has /i:/ in the second syllable (that is, the one written "ra").
7. harassed and harassment
   This - more readily than the bare infinitive - often has stress on the second syllable and /ə/ in the first. For more about this alternation, see this blog.
8. maraschino
   Note that the Macmillan English Dictionary transcribes this (accurately, in an Italian word) with /k/, but the audio has /ʃ/ The Macmillan English Dictionary gives no transcription for the collocation "maraschino cherry", but again the audio sample has /ʃ/. This rogue /ʃ/ is not uncommon in other Italian borrowings – for example, bruschetta.
9. paragliding
   This is the sole representative of the many sports that combine a parachute with another pursuit.

Notes for /eə/

1. Aryan
   The Macmillan English Dictionary transcription has this vowel sound but the audio sample has /æ/.
2. barbarian
   The second "ar" has this sound. See also /ɑ:/.
3. bridgeware
   This evades the usual no-compounds rule (which excludes for example, chinaware) because it refers to an intangible sort of -ware. This is the sole representative of other such words (software, wetware, etc.)
4. carefree
   This is the sole representative of words that use care (both as a prefix and as a suffix)
5. cheeseparing
   Students of English for Speakers of Other Languages may want to note that the source of the verb is paring (a small amount cut off) and not sparing.
6. contrary and contrariwise
   This pronunciation marks a particular usage. A more common meaning (but quite distinct) has primary stress on the first syllable, and /ə/. The Macmillan English Dictionary  gives only the /eə/ pronunciation for the word "contrariwise", which might seem a little perverse (some might say contrary). But the Collins English Dictionary gives "contrariwise" with primary stress on the first syllable and /ə/ in the second; the /eə/ pronunciation (strictly speaking, following the phonemic scheme always used in that dictionary, /ɛə/) is also given – with the sense "in a contrary way" (but their link does not make it clear which sense they mean). The adverb is rare enough for this lack of clarity not to have a serious impact for the student.
7. harum-scarum
   This pronunciation occurs in both words.
8. parliamentarian
   This sound is in the third syllable from last. See also above, /ɑ:/.
9. prepared and preparedness
   Students of English for Speakers of Other Languages should note that while the adjective has two syllables the abstract noun has four.
10. rarefied
    Students of English for Speakers of Other Languages should note that, unlike many other words with the spelling "*are+<suffix>" (such as barely, daresay  etc.), the written "e" represents a separate sound – /ɪ/. That is, the word has three syllables.
11. veterinarian
    Note that although this word has six syllables (with the -ter- being fully enunciated the word veterinary (see under /ə/) may have either four or five (and sometimes even three: /vetənri:/).

Notes for /ᴐ:/

1. That is [the text has averred that /wᴐ:/ CAN be represented by "w|wh|qu+ar"]  the condition is necessary, but not sufficient  – there are several counterexamples: square, wary, quarry, warrant....
2. lukewarm
   This escapes the usual exclusion of compound words because the fossil "luke" that appears in it has no current life as a free-standing word.
3. toward and towards
   Students of English for Speakers of Other Languages should note that, unlike all other words of the form <direction-or-destination>+"ward[s]" (for example backward, downward, forward, homeward, onward, upward, <compass-point>+"ward" or any other such word) this word has stress on the second syllable. Moreover, the first syllable, given by the Macmillan English Dictionary as /tə/, is sometimes heard as /tʊ/ and is sometimes dropped entirely. The Macmillan English Dictionary recognizes this reduced variant with a separate transcription and audio sample, but only for the first of the two words: /tɔ:(r)d/ but not  /tɔ:(r)dz/. It's not clear to me whether this has any basis in observed fact; I don't believe I've heard a person say /tɔ:(r)dz/, but my SatNav says it, and I have no reason to believe that the voiceover artist who recorded it was being intentionally perverse.

Notes for other sounds

1. /ɒ/ – unwarranted
   Rarely used in the positive, unless the context is negative: example - "His intrusion was not warranted". (Note that a negative context need not involve a negative particle; consider, for example, "Such heavy-handed intervention was hardly warranted.")
2. /ʌ/ – Bharat
   This escapes the general exclusion of loanwords used primarily in a non-UK English-speaking country as it offers an occasion to show two things: that the Macmillan English Dictionary contains many such words, and that the pronunciation of such words is always problematic - the Macmillan English Dictionary's transcription has this vowel but the audio example has /ɑ:/.
3. Null (no sound) – secretary
   The Macmillan English Dictionary gives this three-syllable version as British English, and the American English version (with primary stress on the *AR* syllable) having the sound /e/. (In many other cases, a null pronunciation of an *AR* syllable is given as an alternative to  /ə/, but this is the only case I have found where no /ə/ option is given). The four-syllable version is becoming common in British English; indeed, many speakers of British English regard the three-syllable version as quaint and/or amusingly old-fashioned.

b

The notes for words with *AR* representing /ə/

Here are the notes for *AR* => /ə/. Further to what I said previously about the greater need for notes when a vowel meets a sonorant, I've done some checking: there are 25  here and by comparison, in the digraphs book (which in due course will be relaunched as WVGT with Other Vowels) there are a total of 27 notes for all vowel sounds represented by all digraphs beginning with "a".

1. arbitrary
   This sound is in the third syllable. For the sound in the first, see above (/ɑ:/).
2. bastardized, militarized and notarized
   The Macmillan English Dictionary has no -ised version, though other dictionaries (for example, Collins English Dictionary) have.
3. budgetary
   The Macmillan English Dictionary has this vowel, with the option of nothing, and the audio exemplifies this three-syllable version.
4. carotid artery
   The Macmillan English Dictionary transcription has this vowel sound but the audio sample has /æ/ (in the first word).
5. charisma
   Students of English for Speakers of Other Languages should note the variation in charismatic - the second "a" becomes /æ/.
6. comparable and comparably
   With this sound, primary stress is on the first syllable. But an increasiingly common version with stress on the second syllable has the sound /æ/.
7. contemporary
   Both the -or- and the -ar- have this sound, and in colloquial speech they are often elided into a single /ər/.
8. contrary
   See also under /eə/ (with a distinct meaning).
9. corollary and coronary
   Note that these two have distinct stress patterns (although there is a tendency for the two to coalesce). The first has primary stress on the second syllable. The second has primary stress on the first syllable, and this is shown unequivocally in the Macmillan English Dictionary. But in many speakers of British English primary stress is on the first syllable in both.
10. dullard
    The Macmillan English Dictionary has this vowel sound, but a version with /ɑ:/ is common.
11. harassed and harassment
    The Macmillan English Dictionary recognizes this (increasingly common) as an alternative to the /æ/ pronunciation. For more about this alternation, see this blog
12. kaross
    This borrowing from South African English is transcribed like this (with stress on the second syllable) in the Macmillan English Dictionary, but the audio sample has /æ/ and stress on the first).
13. lanyard
    This escapes the usual exclusion for compond words, as the second syllable is not pronounced /jɑ:d/ and has nothing to do with boatyards or shipyards.
14. margarine and margarita
    The second syllable has this sound. See also under /ɑ:/.
15. necessarily
    The Macmillan English Dictionary has this, with stress on the first syllable, but a pronunciation with /e/ in the third syllable (also recognized by the Macmillan English Dictionary) is becoming increasingly common.
16. ordinarily
    The Macmillan English Dictionary has this, with stress on the first syllable, but a pronunciation with /e/ in the third syllable (also recognized by the Macmillan English Dictionary) is becoming increasingly common. Sometimes, when stress is on this syllable, the sound is /æ/.
17. parliamentary
    This sound is in the penultimate syllable. See also /ɑ:/.
18. primarily and summarily
    With this vowel sound, primary stress is on the first syllable. A pronunciation with stress on the second syllable, which becomes /e/, is increasingly common.
19. salaryman
    This escapes the usual exclusion of compound words as a salaryman is not just someone who earns a salary.
20. sarsaparilla
    This sound is in the third syllable. See also under /ə/.
21. scimitar
    The Macmillan English Dictionary transcription has this vowel sound but the audio sample has /ɑ:/ (which is common - in my experience, more common).
22. tartar
    This sound is in the second syllable. See also under /ɑ:/.
23. unparliamentary
    This sound is in the penultimate syllable. See also under /ɑ:/.
24. veterinary
    Note that although this word may have either four or five (and sometimes even three: /vetənri:/ ) the word veterinarian (see under /eə/) has six syllables (with the letters -ter- being fully enunciated).
25. vineyard
    This escapes the general exclusion of -yard compounds as it does not have the /ɑ:/ pronunciation.

AR, that be right

Here are the notes for words where the letters "AR" represent the sound /ɑ:/. In the first volume of the series (already published as When Vowels Get Together, but which will in due course become the first volume in the WVGT series, being WVGT ... with other vowels) it was not necessary to break the notes down according to vowel sound (there were, for example, only seven notes in the AE section, for all sounds). But sonorants are turning out to be much more ... erm ...notiferous? notigerent? trivibunda?

1. afar
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not include this word. The link is to the Collins English Dictionary.
2. applecart
   This escapes the usual exclusion for compound words, because the word is only ever used in the collocation "upset the applecart" and is not necessarily a cart for apples (or, indeed, any kind of cart).
3. arbitrary
   This sound is in the first syllable. For the sound in the first, see below (/ə/).
4. archaeopteryx
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not have the American English spelling.
5. archangel
   When "arch-" is used as a prefix (in English - so archvillain, archrival etc. but not archetype), the letters "ch" usually represent /tʃ/. In this case, though, the consonant sound is /k/.
6. armchair
   This escapes the usual exclusions of compound words, because it is not a chair for arms - as in, for example, armrest.
7. barbarian, barbaric, barbarism , and barbarous
   This sound is in the first syllable. See also under /eə/, /æ/, and //ə.
8. cardio-
   This prefix is used in many medical and physiological terms.
9. cartwheel
   This escapes the usual exclusion of compound words because, in its most common (metaphorical) use, it refers to an acrobatic movement that involves neither a cart nor a wheel.
10. compartmentalize
    The Macmillan English Dictionary does not have either compartmental or compartmentalise – though it does have compartmentalize with an audio sample marked as "British" (not that -ize spellings are necessarily unBritish [see this post for more details]).
11. farthing
    Students of English for Speakers of Other Languages should note that – unlike in the words anything or something  – the fricative is voiced.
12. hardball
    This escapes the usual exclusion of compounds because (in British English) it is only used in the collocation "play hardball" (borrowed from American English).
13. hardline
    This escapes the usual exclusion of compounds because it is used metaphorically (to mean "strict").
14. lodestar
    This escapes the usual exclusion of compound words because the fossil "lode" that appears in it has no current life as a free-standing word.
15. margarine and margarita
    The first syllable has this sound. See also under /ə/.
16. marshmallow
    This escapes the usual exclusion of compound words because in it the word mallow has no relevance to the sweetmeat.
17. narc
    An American English usage, not to be confused with nark (who is on the opposite side of the law).
18. parliamentarian and parliamentary
    This sound is in the first syllable. See also /eə/.
19. pockmark
    This escapes the general exclusion of compounds, as the word "pock" is rarely if ever used as a standalone word. And when it is, it is probably understood as a back-formation from the "compound".
20. quark
    The Macmillan English Dictionary lists only the sub-atomic particle, and does not give the alternative pronunciation (with /ɔ:/). This may reflect the fact that when James Joyce used it in Finnegan's Wake the context suggested to Gell-Mann (discoverer of quarks) that it should rhyme with the name "Mark". However, apart from a name for a kind of cheese, this word is the only English word with the sound /wɑ:/ represented by  the /w/+"ar" spelling; in fact, the sound /wɑ:/ represented by any spelling, is not very common (discounting the dialectal twa, a few foreign borrowings such as bwana and suave, and the comic-book conventional representation of an unhappy baby – wah!) . This uniqueness might explain some peoples' (sub-conscious) preference for the alternative pronunciation.
21. sarsaparilla
    This sound is in the first syllable. See also below /ə/.
22. sidebar
    This escapes the usual exclusion for "-bar" compounds because of its metaphorical use to mean a separate channel of communication.
23. tartar
    This sound is in the first syllable. See also below /ə/.
24. Tartare Sauce
    This sound occurs in both syllables of the first word.
25. unparliamentary
    This sound is in the second syllable. See also below /ə/.

b

Update: 2018.04.13.13:45 – Added graphic, and added another neological candidate in red.

All is well

Before Easter, I met a kink (something which should reside in a Kink Port?) in the progress of #WVGTbk2. Suddenly, without precedent and without  (meaningful) warning, the Kindle Direct Publishing site started responding to my submissions with this:

 

There was "a problem" – pretty scarey. I went to the Help page, which of course didn't do what it said on the ti...tle. There was a tab marked Community, where  I thought I might at least find fellow-sufferers. I described my problem, hit Send, and got ... another meaningless error-message.

At this point I took a breath. Perhaps the two errors were related. Maybe KDP was running on a skeleton staff over Easter, and some critical function was down (as they say, if avoiding the odious IT-speak about experiencing an outage...

<autobiographical_note>

A kindred spirit, when I formed part of a three-man crack team with the task of [tasked with – "Oh Christ! That ever this should be" in the words of the Ancient Mariner] bringing English to the Digital Equipment Company) explained that Outage was a typo  for Outrage.

</autobiographical_note>

 ...). So I just had to wait for a day or two and try again.

Which I did, but to no avail; I got the same error.

But all is now well. There was an internal XHTML error in the cross-references, caused by my effort at ensuring consistency (by using a clone of my *AL* chapter as a "starter" for my *AR* chapter, and then deleting the text). I didn't delete the IDs (which was the point of the exercise – except that I forgot to update the IDs to point to new stuff). The poor compiler got its wires hopelessly tangled.

So all things have in a beautiful way, as the Ancient Greeks used to say when they meant everything was OK – παντα καλως έχει  (give or take a diacritic, which we didn't do). Now it's a simple matter of writing the thing.

 

b

Ah, so that's it

After a good four months' interval (not that it marks a break – swan-like (cygnesque?) my legs were thrashing about below the surface) I now have something new to show: the Notes for the /ɑ:/ bit of the AR section

1. applecart
   This escapes the usual exclusion for compound words, because the word is only ever used in the collocation "upset the applecart" and is not necessarily a cart for apples (or, indeed, any kind of cart).
2. archaeopteryx
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not have the American English spelling.
3. archangel
   When "arch-" is used as a prefix (in English - so archvillain, archrival etc. but not archetype), the letters "ch" usually represent /tʃ/. In this case, though, the consonant sound is /k/.
4. archway
   "Arch", in this case, is not a prefix - if that were the case , one could expect to find statements like *"The M1 is the archway to drive from London to Edinburgh.
5. armchair
   This escapes the usual exclusions of compound words, because it is not a chair for arms - as in, for example, armrest.
6. barbarian, barbaric, barbarism , and barbarous
   This sound is in the first syllable. See also under /eə/, /æ/, and /ə/.
7. cardio-
   This prefix is used in many medical and physiological terms.
8. cartwheel
   This escapes the usual exclusion of compound wordshttps://harmlessdrudgery.blogspot.com/2012/11/but-nobody-says-potahto.html because, in its most common (metaphorical) use, it refers to an acrobatic movement that involves neither a cart nor a wheel.
9. compartmentalize
   The Macmillan English Dictionary does not have either compartmental or compartmentalise – though it does have compartmentalize with an audio sample marked as "British" (not that -ize spellings are necessarily unBritish [see this post for more details]).
10. farthing
    Students of English for Speakers of Other Languages should note that unlike in other nouns called "-thing" the fricative is voiced.
11. hardball
    This escapes the usual exclusion of compounds because (in British English) it is only used in the collocation "play hardball" (borrowed from American English).
12. hardline
    This escapes the usual exclusion of compounds because it is used metaphorically (to mean "strict").
13. lodestar
    This escapes the usual exclusion of compound words because the fossil "lode" that appears in it has no current life as a free-standing word.
14. margarine and margarita
    The first syllable has this sound. See also under /ə/.
15. marshmallow
    This escapes the usual exclusion of compound words because in it the word mallow has no relevance to the sweetmeat.
16. narc
    An American English usage, not to be confused with nark (who is on the opposite side of the law).
17. parliamentarian and parliamentary
    This sound is in the first syllable. See also /eə/.
18. pockmark
    This escapes the general exclusion of compounds, as the word "pock" is rarely if ever used as a standalone word. And when it is, it is probably understood as a back-formation from the "compound".
19. [See PS]
20. sarsaparilla
    This sound is in the first syllable. See also /ə/.
21. sidebar
    This escapes the usual exclusion for "-bar" compounds because of its metaphorical use to mean a separate channel of communication.
22. tartar
    This sound is in the first syllable. See also under /ə/.
23. Tartare Sauce
    This sound occurs in both syllables.
24. unparliamentary
    This sound is in the second syllable. See also under /ə/.

PS – I initially discounted quark as too specialized, but this thought is quite pleasing.

1. quark
   The Macmillan English Dictionary lists only the sub-atomic particle, and does not give the alternative pronunciation (with /ɔ:/). This may reflect the fact that when James Joyce used it in Finnegan's Wake the context suggested to Gell-Mann (namer of quarks) that it should rhyme with the name "Mark". However, apart from a name for a kind of cheese, this word is the only English word  with the sound /wɑ:/ represented by  the "ar" spelling; in fact, the sound /wɑ:/ represented by any spelling, is not very common (discounting the dialectal twa, a few foreign borrowings such as bwana and suave, and the comic-book conventional representation of an unhappy baby – wah!) (discounting the dialectal twa and a few foreign borrowings such as bwana) . This uniqueness might explain some peoples' (sub-conscious) preference for the alternative pronunciation.

Update: 2018.03.13.16:00 – Added to PS in red.

Triumph of hope over experience

Tales from the word front

A while ago I published  

Words & Music: a Taster 

with the intention of testing the water – seeing if anyone was interested in such a book and inviting comments/reviews. It was met by great waves of apathy (apart from some welcoming [and welcome] comments in social media).

I persisted mulishly (in an asinine way?) with the idea, and have now completed two chapters (including much of the Taster – which may be familiar to some readers).  And this is now making its way through  the swings and roundabouts of Kindle Direct Publishing:

As with the Taster, the "published price" is to all intents and purposes nugatory ...

<aside>
(to use a word recently abused [or at least, used questionably] by Philip Hammond recently with the meaning "unnecessary" – he was talking about preparations for a no-deal Brexit. [The guilty misnomer is about 60 seconds into the clip posted on that page.]

The word means "having a negligible value" – the value of a nut (think of nougat). I suppose it could be argued in the chancellor's defence that, in planning terms, preparations for that suicidal frenzy might prove to be pointless, but the actual expense of making the requisite preparations would certainly not be nugatory – far from it. Users of the OpenVMS operating system, who resumed business within hours of the Twin Towers being brought down know about the expense of contingency planning and disaster recovery.)
</aside>

... as I will arrange (and publicize) free downloads from time to time.

But I think I've taken the idea as far as makes sense (perhaps further, given the paucity of feedback I've had on the idea). So I'm resuming the cudgels with sonorants, at least for the combination <vowel>+r.

b

PS I wrote this last week, thinking I was about to push the Submit button. But the "final" checks are going on and on. I hope there‘ll be something to show before the weekend

Update: 2017.10.27.14:55 – PPS

The wheels of Kindle Direct Publishinng are grinding away as I write:

(This was a  screengrab at one time, but Blogger has lost it.
There‘s a chance I can recover it.... Leave  it with me.)

I'm not sure why there are two of me, but in due course its pages will hit the ...er... fan.

Collections, connections, corrections, and convection: - CUM dancing

More tales from the word front

Thinking, as I have been, about sonorants, I was more than usually intrigued by a friend's question about words spelt in English either com- or con- (and, I have since realized, two other sonorants come into the same story: coll- and corr-).

Many such words derive in some way from a Latin word that uses CUM- as a prefix. But there are various ways that the M develops. In most cases the CUM- becomes con- but there are others. In this back-of-an-envelope table I give examples of the main ways:

The sort of Latin used to produce Romance vernaculars ironed out irregularities (eg "sing": cano canere cecini cantum was hard to learn for speakers of Latin for Speakers of Other Languages (LSOL – which is after all what we‘re dealing with); so those speakers preferred the regular canto cantare cantavi cantatum. Which gives  Italian, ‘cantare‘  Sp, Pg, Catalan cantar‘, Fr chanter etc etc.

As a result, generally, irregular verbs don't fare well in forming vernacular words (apart from learned/technical words like conference). The Italian for CARRY is nothing to do with ferre; it's sopportare, portare {Latin}] was easier to handle; the prefix in that case [I used Italian as an example, because that was my interlocutrix‘s  {not sure if that‘s a word; but it is now} focus] is sub).

This isn't to say that ferre has left no trace in modern Italian; but those traces are not obvious and well hidden. The effective parts of the verb (the ones people learn...

<autobiographical_note  essentiality="0"=>
The first time I met the word paradigm it was in a Greek Grammar book: if you learn the standard model (not that one, SILLY) you can work out any part of a verb on the basis of those four parts.
</autobiographical_note>

... to work out all parts of the verb) are fero, ferre, tuli, latum. (Compare this with 'to love': amo, amare, amavi, amatum. Ferre is the most irregular Latin verb I know).

Here are examples of words that survive, derived from this irregular verb:

• Fero -- apart from scholarly words like circonferenza, there's Lucífero (="Light-bearer")
• ferre -- Iron was called in Latin (and thence Italian) ferro because it was weight-bearing or just heavy
• tuli - can't find any; as the most irregular form of the most irregular verb, I doubt if it has any derivatives
• latum -- lato, meaning broad/wide/extensive, and words derived from that, eg latifondo

(I‘m not sure about   this   last one. This, from Etymonline, sv flat suggests  another possible derivation for lato:

flat (adj.)c. 1300, "stretched out (on a surface), prostrate, lying the whole length on the ground;" mid-14c., "level, all in one plane; even, smooth;" of a roof, "low-pitched," from Old Norse flatr "flat," from Proto-Germanic *flata- (source also of Old Saxon flat "flat, shallow," Old High German flaz "flat, level," Old High German flezzi "floor"), from PIE root *plat- "to spread."

And this Italian source suggests yet another. I should have paid more attention in my History of Italian lectures.)

The way con|m- words works reminds me of the way im-|n- words work -

• impossible, immoral, imbibe (combat, commemorative, compact)
  but
• infant, invective (conference, convection)
  
  but
  
• illegible, irreverent (collect, correct).

But whereas in- is what linguists call "a productive affix" (one used by current speakers, throwing up phonological changes on-the-fly as they form  negatives – and, incidentally, with attendant  problems for speakers of ESOL – particularly speakers of languages with different rules, such as the Spanish inmoral), the changes thrown up by Latin CUM- are lost in the etymological mists –  of current interest only for people who want to get the distribution of ms right in commemorative. (In fact, when a newer source [not Latin, as is the case with, say, condescension]  is involved in adding the prefix, these rules don't apply: co-dependant. not *condependant)

There are things to  be doing though.

b