Re: _The_ OED was Re: Too Many Too Little Possible Roots!!!

Peter Clark wrote:
>
> ---Hawksinger <hawksinger@...> wrote:
>
> > Finally, you might take a look at what may be the greatest dictionary
> > EVER compiled, The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of Zinacantan.  The
> authors
> > spent years checking every phonotactically acceptable stem to make the
> > most complete list possible.  It may be as close as anyone will ever
> > come to having a complete dictionary of any language, albeit at that
> > point in time.  Don't recall the authors, it was a Smithsonian
> > Instititution publication though (IIRC).
>
>    Careful, Brad, you're bordering on heresy! As all good English
> majors know, the Oxford English Dictionary is the Dictionary of
> dictionaries, the Supreme Tome of Lexigraphical Knowledge. It is the
> only dictionary in which the definite article that proceeds its
> illustrious name is pronounced /Ti:5/* and not a lowly, earthly /T@/.
> All hail the OED and its 22-volume set! (Or is there more by now? I'm
> used to the first edition, but I know they're working on the second.
> Last I checked, they had gotten up to "s".)
>    :Peter
> * "5" indicates my tone marker for "imperial" tone. To insure proper
> pronounciation, elevate nose by at least two inches from standard
> position, begin in a low tone and quickly rise to a middle tone, being
> sure to add extra "haughty" nasal emphasis, especially when holding
> the long vowel.
> ==
Far be from me to speak ill of The Great One, The Mighty Tome, The
Authority, and I do not.  It is certainly larger but I don't for an
instant believe it as complete.  My hobbies are vast and many and
make a habit of checking large dictionaries, even IT, for some of the
more obscure terms of, oh lets say, rockclimbing.  They are rarely
there.  The Great Tzotzil Dictionary on the other hand is, as I noted,
probably as close as to a complete vocabulary of a language (at that
point in time) as has ever been done.
The Great Tzotzil Dictionary has another honor I believe.  It was the
winner of one of the infamous Golden Fleece awards, so cited because
the Senator considered it a waste of money to create a dictionary for
an illiterate Indian tribe!  Can't remember his name now, someone from
Minnesota or Wisconsin and now consigned to the trashheap of history.
--
Brad Coon
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