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The craftsman
(December 1913)

Book reviews,   pp. 303-308


Page 305


BOOK REVIEWS: ART NOTES
Copyright, igiro Augener, Ltd., London.
to be of unlimited usefulness to multitudes
of people.   It is a broader, a more com-
plete work than the Standard Dictionary
as first published some twenty years ago
and which was then a marked advance
over all preceding works of similar, char-
acter.
   During the last four years specialists in
various sciences and other phases of the
English-speaking races have been earnestly
engaged in bringing the new dictionary to
its present state of usefulness. Neither
time nor money has been spared to achieve
perfection in this work, both from an edi-
tor's and a publisher's viewpoint.
   A new departure is found in the two
 keys for pronunciation that are included-
 the familiar system known as the text-book
 key, and the more accurate key, a revised
 scientific alphabet, approved strongly by
 modern scholarship. This arrangement. as
 can well be understood, enables the search-
 er for information to use whichever key
 he prefers, while at the same time it assists
 the scholar, through a comparison of the
 two systems, to arrive at a just conclusion
 concerning the niceties of pronunciation.
   From cover to cover the text of the dic-
 tionary has been revised, many new words
"1 THE THREE LITTLE KITTENS" WHO LOST THEIR MIT-
TENS, AS PICTURED BY MISS LE MAIR IN "OUR OLD
NURSERY RHYMES."
have been included, such as those that have
hitherto had place only in colloquial or
vulgar English and many that have been
derived from other languages.  The pol-
icy pursued by authorities on the English
tongue is that of drawing into its fold all
words that appeal to the people as neces-
sary to an expression of thought, either
complicated or simple.  This policy is
strongly in opposition  to that of the
Academie Franqaise, which is so hyper-
critical about the French tongue that it
yearly prunes it severely and enters new
words only after an almost unlimited dis-
cussion. As a result the vocabulary of the
French language is remarkably small in
comparison with that of the constantly ex-
panding English tongue.
   The make-up of the new Standard is
 most pleasing to look upon, the paper, the
 inside lining of the covers and the morocco
 binding evidently chosen with an idea of
 long service and convenience.  The work
 is published in one full volume, also in an
 edition of two volumes, the choice between
 them being a matter of individual prefer-
 ence. (Published by Funk & Wagnalls
                                       305


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