As one movie heroine said: “A person is given out two circumstances: if he incorrectly puts emphasis in words ... And asks stupid questions.” Unlike the false daughters of Professor Tikhomirov, ordinary people have nothing to pretend to be someone else, but the advice is not stupid. If you do not ask all sorts of nonsense is not difficult, then correctly pronounce the words even in their native language is often very difficult. Here the orthoepic dictionary of the Russian language can come to the rescue.
What is stress and why is it so important to put it right
Before you learn more about the orthoepic dictionary, you should refresh your knowledge about such a simple thing as stress. So, stress is the allocation by voice of a certain syllable in a word.
Despite the seemingly insignificant role of stress, often it is he who depends on the meaning of the word.
Features of stress in Russian
In Russian, stress can fall on absolutely any part of a word.
Moreover, when declension of the same word in cases, stress can fall on its different syllables, which increases the chance of a mistake in pronunciation not only for foreigners, but also for native speakers. In this regard, the main assistant to any person who wants to speak correctly is the orthoepic dictionary. The emphasis on how to put correctly in complex words, he will tell. For example, even the Russians themselves very often incorrectly pronounce the well-known names of certain food products, clothing, or abstract concepts. But in fact, the emphasis in them is placed as shown in the figure.
The science of orthoepy and the orthoepic dictionary is what?
The study of stress in words is the science of orthoepy (the name is translated from Greek as "correct speech"). In addition to stress, this science is engaged in the study, regulation and establishment of orthoepic norms of literary speech.
All data on the correct pronunciation of words and word forms by linguists specializing in orthoepy are entered into special dictionaries called orthoepic.
Each language has its own orthoepic dictionary. This helps foreigners learning the language to develop the correct pronunciation, and native speakers to improve their own speech.
History of orthoepic dictionaries
Despite the fact that the science of orthoepy came from Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, humanity should be grateful for the first orthoepic dictionary. The fact is that, having conquered another country and turning it into their own province, the Romans declared Latin the official language , and the conquered people had to learn it willy-nilly. Over time, in the provinces, Latin began to differ from the official one, as the words of the local language of the conquered territory were added to it, and the pronunciation of Latin phrases was greatly distorted. In order to somehow streamline the speech and reduce it to one norm, special reference books began to be published, in which the correct pronunciation of the most complex Latin words and phrases was recorded. These directories are considered the first orthoepic dictionaries in history.
With the collapse of the Roman Empire, difficult times came for orthoepy. Only in the XVI-XVII centuries in France began to gradually fight for the purity of speech. However, at that time, information about the correct pronunciation of words was submitted in the form of additions to the grammar.
Later, by analogy with Roman directories, orthoepic phrasebooks began to be published, which gradually turned into dictionaries.
In the Russian Empire, the orthoepic norm was formed by the beginning of the 20th century. By that time, many linguistic scientists began to publish their own orthoepic dictionaries in order to streamline the Russian language.
With the development of radio and television, special dictionaries for announcers and presenters began to be published, so that their speech was an example for listeners.
With the development of computer programs, orthoepic dictionaries gradually become remnants of the past. Since today, to find out where to emphasize a particular word, simply enter it into an online translator - and you can not only see where it is stressed, but also listen to the correct pronunciation recorded by a native speaker.
Types of orthoepic dictionaries
As you know, all dictionaries are divided into two types:
- Encyclopedic - contain information about various countries, phenomena, historical events and personalities and more.
- Linguistic - specialized dictionaries containing information about the word (its meaning, spelling, origin, translation, pronunciation, etc.). The orthoepic dictionary is a linguistic view.
Today, all orthoepic dictionaries are divided into two categories: paper and electronic.
Two separate types can be distinguished - according to what norm this orthoepic dictionary describes. The pronunciation of the dialect words of different regions involved in orthoepic dictionaries of dialects. But dictionaries of the second type, which everyone uses when they try to speak correctly, will tell you how to properly emphasize according to the norms of literary speech.
Sometimes stress dictionaries are distinguished in parts of speech. For example, an orthoepic dictionary of verbs, an orthoepic dictionary of nouns, etc.
Paper orthoepic dictionaries
Everyone imagines what a paper orthoepic dictionary is. This is an ordinary book in which words are placed in alphabetical order and it is indicated where they are emphasized.
Before computers, this was the only kind of dictionary. However, now he has a serious competitor - electronic.
Electronic orthoepic dictionaries
Often paper editions of orthoepic dictionaries are scanned and digitized. Thus, anyone can download the electronic version of the necessary orthoepic dictionary and use it, since paper editions are quite expensive, especially rare ones. But these scans are not electronic dictionaries.
Electronic orthoepic dictionary is a specialized program with automated word search. To find out information about the necessary word, you need to run the program, enter the desired word in the search engine window, and then the system itself will find it.
Such orthoepic dictionaries are autonomous (all data is on the installation disk and Internet is not necessary for work) and online (they do not work without the Internet).
Orthoepic Dictionary of the Russian Language: History
One of the most famous first orthoepic dictionaries of the Russian language was the work of the famous Ukrainian linguist Ivan (Hilarion) Ogienko. In 1911 he published the Dictionary of stresses in Russian and the rules of Russian stress.
According to the traditional version, the history of the orthoepic dictionaries of the Russian language begins in 1955, when the work of Ruben Avanesov and Sergey Ozhegov, Russian Literary Pronunciation and Stress: A Reference Dictionary, was published. A little less than 30 years later, the well-known "Orthoepic Dictionary" of Avanesov was published, which became a desktop tool for many.
In 1960, F. Ageenko and M. Zarva released a specialized orthoepic dictionary for broadcasters and presenters on radio and television. The same authors in 1993 published an orthoepic dictionary of 76 thousand words.
In the mid-80s in Minsk, the Russian Dictionary of Accents was released by R. Khryslova. In the same period, S. Borunova published her own orthoepic dictionary. This edition contained about 63.5 thousand words.
With the beginning of the 2000s, orthoepic publications began to be actively published again. So, in 2000, the dictionary of Avanesov and Ozhegov was reprinted. In the same year, M. Studiner published an orthoepic dictionary of 82.5 thousand words. In addition, the authors T. Ivanova and T. Cherkasova published a specialized orthoepic guide for broadcasters.
Today, specialized brochures or publications containing complex cases of stress in new words are more often published than orthoepic dictionaries. In addition, many people prefer to create orthoepic Internet services, since they are cheaper than publishing a book, and they are easier to maintain and edit.
If the wise Romans had not invented an orthoepic dictionary at one time, it is not known if different languages would exist today in general. After all, without a standard of the correct pronunciation of words of a certain language, after several decades, residents of different parts of one country would cease to understand each other. Like 2000 years ago, the orthoepic dictionary plays an important role, being the standard of pure and beautiful speech.