The Authoritarian Aspect of Dictionary Use

Welcome to the April 2023 episode of In a Manner of Speaking. This month’s guest is Dr. Catherine Sangster, executive editor of pronunciations at Oxford Languages. She has been in charge of pronunciations for The Oxford English Dictionary for 11 years.

Paul and Catherine discuss not just the dictionary and the purpose and origins of the dictionary but many other topics related to pronunciation.

Before moving into lexicography, Dr. Sangster headed the BBC Pronunciation Unit and completed a D.Phil. in sociophonetics. Catherine’s linguistic research interests include accents and dialects, Germanic languages, the phonology of conlangs, language and gender/sexuality, and Latin and its Anglicization.

For the OED’s pronunciation models and transcription keys for World Englishes, visit https://public.oed.com/how-to-use-the-oed/key-to-pronunciation/. 

For the recent press release discussing the decision to add Indian-English pronunciations to the dictionary, click here.

For more information about the OED, go to OED.com. And for more about Catherine, click here.

(Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)