Orð og tunga - 01.06.2011, Page 60

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Orð og tunga
Summary
The dispute about the Danish dictionaries of foreign words and phrases
The dispute about the Danish dictionaries of foreign words and phrases concems
those dictionaries published in Denmark in the first half of the 19th century. Such
dictionaries as a literary genre were new and the editors did not always agree as to
the vocabulary that was to be included in them. There was more or less agreement
as to the orthography of the words that were selected but there was no consensus as
to their pronunciation. The question was whether the editor of a dictionary should
reproduce the foreign pronunciation of the words or the Danish one and, if the Dan-
ish pronunciation were selected, there were in many cases several pronunciations to
choose between. Finally, the meaning of the words was also a topic that could lead
to dispute. The dispute about the Danish dictionaries of foreign words and phrases
ended with a victory to Ludvig Meyer's dictionary of foreign words and phrases. It
made its first appearance in 1837 and became an institution that survived into the
20lh century, when other dictionaries made their appearance and entered into the
competition. In the course of the 20lh century the concept of the dictionary of foreign
words and phrases became more clearly defined and, first and foremost, standard
specifications for the foreign words were established.
Bente Holmberg
lnstitutleder
Nordisk Forskningsinstitut
Kobenhavns Universitet
Njalsgade 136
2300 Kebenhavn S
holmberg@hum.ku.dk