Dear Colleagues,
My thanks to all who took the time to respond to my inquiry on the correction prounciation of the term "animalier." The responses overwhelmingly favored the French pronunciation "ah-nee-mah-leeay" (my approximation).
The curator of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center's Whitney Gallery of Western Art sent a query to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary to see what their explanation was for the "animal ear" version of the pronunciation. (Side note: Faith Pleasanton at the Metropolitan Museum has a delightful story regarding this pronuciation.) They obviously do not subscribe to the use of the French version. If you are interested in reading what they had to say, I have pasted the query and the response at the end of this message.
Now -- the challenge. Should we as a group contact the dictionary and voice our support of the pronunciation that prevails in art historical circles? This is not a minor issue. Our Web content developers have provided the Merriam-Webster pronunciation to visitors to our site. [http://www.bbhc.org/exhibitions/proctor.cfm]. We believe this to be a disservice. To access the definition and an audio of the pronunciation go to: http://www.merriamwebster.comand and fill in the query blank.
Cheers!
Frances
Frances B. Clymer
Librarian
McCracken Research Library
Buffalo Bill Historical Center
720 Sheridan Avenue
Cody, WY 82414
Telephone: 307-578-4063
email: [log in to unmask]
Here are the inquiry sent to Merriam-Webster and the reply received:
The audio pronunciation for the word "animalier" uses a pronunction that I have never heard used.
The print edition of Merriam Webster's Third International Dictionary, Unabridged, shows the following for the pronunciation of animalier: |an?m?|li(?)r. The audio pronunciation does not include this pronunciation, although the art librarians whom we have contacted use this other pronunciation. Would it be possible for someone to provide me with information on why the pronunciation that is used in the audio was chosen and why the other one was omitted. Thank you for your attention to my request.
Sincerely yours,
Sarah E. Boehme
Sarah E. Boehme, Ph.D.
The John S. Bugas Curator
Whitney Gallery of Western Art
Buffalo Bill Historical Center
720 Sheridan Ave.
Cody, WY 82414
307.578.4053 (direct phone)
307.578.4076 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
www.bbhc.org
From: Joshua Guenter [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
To: Sarah E. Boehme
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 11:20 AM
Subject: RE: the word "animalier"
The two pronunciations are not really different. The pronunciations (audio and written) for our online dictionary come from the print edition of our Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. In the Collegiate Dictionary, only one pronunciation is given for "animalier", which is \"a-n&-m&-'lir\, with primary stress on the final syllable and secondary stress on the first syllable. This pronunciation is consistent with the audio pronunciation.
The pronunciation given in the Third New International is \|a-n&-m&-|lir\. The symbol \|\ indicates possible primary stress, with the other syllable marked with \|\ receiving secondary stress. Hence, the transcription \|a-n&-m&-|lir\ actually represents two possible pronunciation variants: \"a-n&-m&-'lir\ and \'a-n&-m&-"lir\. You will note that the first possible variant actually matches the sole pronunciation given in the Collegiate Dictionary (wherein we do not employ the symbol \|\). The Collegiate Dictionary is an abridged dictionary, and we do not include as much information as we do in the Third New International.
**********************
Joshua S. Guenter, Ph.D.
Editor of Pronunciation
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Springfield, MA
www.merriam-webster.com
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