Thursday, July 14, 2011

Encarta dictionary

     I noticed a few years ago that one of our local libraries replaced the standard dictionary with an Encarta dictionary. Even the librarians did not seem to understand that this was a bad idea, so it must deserve an explanation. The Encarta Dictionary is a dictionary of English as it is spoken in different countries around the world where English is the dominant language--America, England, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, and others. In the Encarta dictionary you can find out that in England, "lift" means "elevator", that a "torch" is a "flashlight", that the "tube" is the subway in England and the television in America, that a hardware store in America is an ironmonger's in England, and that a pharmacy is a chemist's. Spelling and usage differ from country to country as well--in England and Canada color is spelled colour, for instance. In England curb is spelled kerb.

    The Encarta Dictionary was never meant to replace the standard dictionary--not in America, and not anywhere else. It was meant to show how English differs around the world. It doesn't have near enough entries to replace the standard dictionary--you might try to look up the meaning of a word and find that it isn't there. If you are using the dictionary to check your spelling, you might accidentally choose a spelling from the wrong country--and your word would be incorrectly spelled. Or spelt.

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