Facts on File Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases

Provides pronunciations, origins, and meanings for words and phrases from foreign sources, ranging from such everyday terms as "dollar," to words in the news and the specialized languages of cooking, music, the arts, and the law.

As the English language ceaselessly absorbs and assimilates more and more elements of other languages, Manser has reason to quote Emerson's observation that English is indeed "the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven." In this volume he presents more than 4,000 examples, from Abacus to Zombie. Information regarding grammar and usage accompanies each entry, and in many entries examples are included to lessen the possibility of misuse. Etymological information is provided as well. All of the entries are indexed, individually and by language, and variant spellings are cross-referenced.

Manser's pronunciation system offers good approximations of foreign sounds. A two-page guide in the introduction is simple and readily understood, for example, Manser's pronunciation of mutatis mutandis: "myootahtas myootandas," with an underline indicating the accented syllable in the second word (that accent being dominant in the phrase) but no accent indicated in the other word, a practice consistent throughout. Many entries include variant pronunciations, but Latin words beginning with v are all represented with a vee sound, as in ad verbum, rendered as "ad verbam," following the ecclesiastical method, without acknowledging the acceptability of the classical pronunciation--which renders the first syllable of "verbum" as "wer." A small matter.

Designed to meet the needs and expectations of a general readership, Manser's book should be a strong contender in its class. RBB
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