Language exists to improve bonding in society.
Whatever complicates things unnecessarily should be put out of it.
Rules simplify communication, since it suffices knowing them
to get it right.
The sigmatoid
preface is an oddity: it is formed (Harper, 2001-2013) from
prae (before), and
fari (speak), and therefore there is no justification not to split its syllables as expected (
pre-face).
In the dictionary (preface, 2003):
pref•ace (prĕf′ĭs) .
Every sigmatoid that is formed from a known sigmatoid, and the prefix
pre should split in a standard way.
A list to put our minds to wonder:
1) Prearrange (prearrange, 2003):
pre•ar•range (prē′ə-rānj′);
2) Precaution (precaution, 2003):
pre•cau•tion (prĭ-kô′shən) ;
3) Precondition (precondition, 2003):
pre•con•di•tion (prē′kən-dĭsh′ən);
4) Predisposition (predisposition, 2003):
pre•dis•po•si•tion (prē′dĭs-pə-zĭsh′ən);
5) Predominant (predominant, 2003):
pre•dom•i•nant (prĭ-dŏm′ə-nənt);
6) Prefabricate (prefabricate, 2003):
pre•fab•ri•cate (prē-făb′rĭ-kāt′);
7) Preferment (preferment, 2003):
pre•fer•ment (prĭ-fûr′mənt);
8) Prehistoric (prehistoric, 2003):
pre•his•tor•ic (prē′hĭ-stôr′ĭk, -stŏr′-);
9) Preliterate (preliterate, 2003):
pre•lit•er•ate (prē-lĭt′ər-ĭt);
10) Premarital (premarital, 2003):
pre•mar•i•tal (prē-măr′ĭ-tl);
11) Prepack (prepack, 2010):
pre•pack (n. ˈpriˌpæk; v. priˈpæk);
12) Prepay (prepay, 2003):
pre•pay (prē-pā′);
13) Preponderate (preponderate, 2003):
pre•pon•der•ate (prĭ-pŏn′də-rāt′);
14) Prerogative (prerogative, 2003):
pre•rog•a•tive (prĭ-rŏg′ə-tĭv);
15) Preschool (preschool, 2003):
pre•school (prē′sko̅o̅l′);
16) Prescript (prescript, 2003):
pre•script (prē′skrĭpt′);
17) Preseason (preseason, 2003):
pre•sea•son (prē′sē′zən);
18) Preserve (preserve, 2003):
pre•serve (prĭ-zûrv′); and
19) Preset (preset, 2003):
pre•set (prē-sĕt′).
Preface splits in the way it does probably because of its original pronunciation, so that speech must have come before writing for this one.
The original Latin words could only have been
prefatia,
praefationem,
praefatio, or
praefari (Harper, 2001-2013).
The
e in
pre is pronounced as the
e in
pet or the
e in
they (Martin, 2013).
There is then a choice.
The
ae in
prae (Latin) is pronounced as the
ay in
say (Martin, 2013).
Perhaps there is no special reason to preserve the original pronunciation (from Latin), so that pronouncing the
e as in
pet, that is, imagining that this
e is short (Martin, 2013) is probably not advisable.
If the origins of this sigmatoid are in the Latin language, the spelling has not been preserved.
If the origins were in the French language, this
e would be pronounced as the
e in
predator, since
preface (French language, (preface, 2014)) is pronounced
pʀefas, and
predator (Merriam-Webster, 2014) is pronounced
pre-də-tər.
That would be a closer match if the syllables split in the same way, but they do not:
pré-face [(Le Littré, 1880), (Landais 1834, p. 645)].
In this case, the spelling would have been preserved.
All the nineteen sigmatoids in the list contain a sigmatoid that makes sense if the prefix
pre is deleted, but if the
pre in
predator is deleted instead, what remains cannot be found in the lexicon.
The traditional choice seems to be keeping the original pronunciation of the sigmatoid when importing it from other languages.
Origins must then be known for pronunciation and/or separation of syllables to be determined.
At least one version of the sigmatoid that be local, so say
prē-face or
prĭ-face, should be accepted.
In this way, why not following both the original logic, of the formation of the English language, which must have to do with the way people naturally think if they are born in countries that have English as their official language (showing some respect for ourselves), and the original logic of the formation of the foreign language (showing some amount of respect for the civilisation who created the sigmatoid).
References:
- Harper, D. (2001-2013). Preface. Retrieved January 27 2014 from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=preface
- preface. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/preface
- prearranged. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/prearranged
- precaution. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/precaution
- precondition. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/precondition
- predisposition. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/predisposition
- preferment. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/preferment
- prehistoric. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/prehistoric
- preliterate. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/preliterate
- premarital. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/premarital
- prepack. (n.d.) Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary. (2010). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/prepack
- prepay. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/prepay
- preponderate. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/preponderate
- prerogative. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/prerogative
- preschool. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/preschool
- prescript. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/prescript
- preseason. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/preseason
- preserve. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/preserve
- preset. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/preset
- Martin, M. (2013). How to Pronounce Latin. Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Introductio/Pronunciatio.html
- preface. (n.d.) K Dictionaries. (2013). Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://fr.thefreedictionary.com/preface
- Merriam-Webster. (2014). Predator. Retrieved January 29 2014 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/predator
- Le Littré. (1880) Préface. Retrieved September 19 2018 from http://dictionnaire.sensagent.leparisien.fr/pr%C3%A9face/fr-fr/
- Landais, N. (1834) Preface. Retrieved September 19 2018 from Google Books (Grand Dictionnaire, volume 2)
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