Boy, 7, kicks off global dictionary row
Thursday, 18 December 2008
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When a seven-year-old County Down schoolboy sat down to do his homework last week he had no idea he was about to kick off a worldwide row that would engulf one of the UK’s oldest publishing houses.
Oliver Saunders was receiving help with an English exercise from his mother Lisa when they realised ‘moss’ and ‘fern’ had been deleted from the most recent edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary.
Mrs Saunders from Dromore compared six editions of the dictionary since the 1970s and was mortified to find that a raft of words relating to British history and nature had been stripped out and replaced with ‘modern’ vocabulary to do with the internet and celebrity.
The local woman decided to go public with her discovery. Within days it had been picked up and broadcast by media outlets from New York to Auckland, sparking angry exchanges between online commentators and prompting Oxford University Press to defend its changes. American readers were frustrated by the removal of Hallowe’en words like ‘cauldron’ and ‘cackle’, while Canadians were infuriated that their national symbol, the beaver, had been phased out.
One internet commentator said: "How sad and almost unbelievable to think those words are being removed. Do those printing the books really think these things are such a dying breed?"
Another said: "It’s yet another assault on our cultural and heritage. It is dumbing down the English language."
Other words no longer deemed necessary for kids were festive terms such as ‘mistletoe’, ‘carol’ and ivy’, words linked to folklore like ‘goblin’ and ‘elf’, and a host of words relating to Christian ceremonies.
In their place the dictionary’s editors drafted in ‘blog’, ‘MP3 player’, ‘voicemail’ and words to do with citizenship and multi-culturalism.
Mrs Saunders told the Belfast Telegraph: "I was surprised by the scale of people’s reactions — it was a bit overwhelming to see all the comments coming in online — but this is the power of the internet. All around the world, whether you’ve emigrated to Australia or America, words can join us together. That’s why people attach their own sentimentality to the issue when words are taken away."
She added: "The Oxford Junior Dictionary is aimed at seven-year-olds and upwards. Children are impressionable, and this is a big shift that could store up problems for the future."
Vineeta Gupta, head of children’s dictionaries at Oxford University Press, said the dictionaries were compiled with help from teachers and were designed to reflect the age-related school curriculum.
"When you look back at older versions of dictionaries, there were lots of examples of flowers.
"That was because many children lived in semi-rural environments and saw the seasons.
"People don't go to Church as often as before.
"Our understanding of religion is within multiculturalism, which is why some words such as |‘Pentecost’ or ‘Whitsun’ would have been in 20 years ago but not now."
SIN IS OUT — BLOG IS IN — VICAR IS OUT — VOICEMAIL IS IN — CAROL IS OUT — CELEBRITY IS IN
Words taken out
Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe, dwarf, elf, goblin, abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar, coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade, adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.
Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow
Words put in
Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue
Celebrity, tolerant, vandalism, negotiate, interdependent, creep, citizenship, childhood, conflict, common sense, debate, EU, drought, brainy, boisterous, cautionary tale, bilingual, bungee jumping, committee, compulsory, cope, democratic, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate, endangered, Euro
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Comments
29 Comments
It is not only the removal of words that is a concern. The alteration/deletion of defintions is disturbing. The definition for Pray used to be 'talking to God'. The definition was altered in 2003 to 'when people pray, they talk to a god.' At least other publishers provide two definitions for children which cover a god or God. Why was 'interdependent' included in this dictionary which is aimed at 7-9 year old children but not included in the next stage dictionary 'Primary Oxford Dictionary' which is aimed at 8-11 year olds? Are the educationalists and publishers satisfied that the children of 7 years will have been sufficiently exposed to the word so as not to need it anymore?
Posted by L. Saunders | 22.12.08, 22:24 GMT
... and, since when has the terms : 'MP3' or 'cut and paste' been a word ???
-- Looks to me like the dictionary writers are signing their own death knell with this one.
Posted by Paul | 22.12.08, 16:05 GMT
I think Ms. Gupta should clearly explain:
1. The decision making procedure as it was applied to the deletion of a word.
2. Was the same procedure followed for all deleted words?
3. Who, and how many, were " the teachers" she said helped in the compilation of the new dictionary?
4. Were any other representatives of society asked for their input?
5. Does she feel the new dictionary is an improvement over the older version(s) by the inclusion of words, many of which I doubt would enhance the knowledge of any young child , especially when they have resulted in the omission of many words which all young children could appreciate and relate to, particularly those about nature.
Posted by Brian Black | 21.12.08, 22:36 GMT
By deleting the word 'fern' you have deleted the word used to describe over 10000 of the worlds plant species. A word often used in the childrens books of Enid Blyton, or is this another PC attack on Enid?
Posted by Alistair | 20.12.08, 11:13 GMT
It looks like they decided that if the word wasn't in the predictive text function of their mobile phone, it didn't make the cut...
There are some astonishing omissions from the new dictionary. I'm not religious, but the removal of some words relating to the features and functions of the church is diabolical.
Posted by Patrick | 19.12.08, 08:54 GMT
For God's sake, but the words back in! How can you claim to be a Christian country if you cater to atheists. They are atheist. Who cares what they think
Posted by Denise | 18.12.08, 23:56 GMT
What do we expect when we put the fox in charge of the chickens?
The christian heritage of our language is far too important to be entrusted to some one with a clear agenda. It's highly noticeable that many of the deleted words have connotations with the religious and royal heritage of the British Isles.
For example;
Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe, dwarf, elf, goblin, abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar, coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch,
Posted by Howard Bull | 18.12.08, 14:21 GMT
What version of the English Dictionary was PC using.
What's a NOWN?
Posted by Ivor Notion | 18.12.08, 14:02 GMT
"PC", I suggest that you buy yourself a copy of the OED. "Apper" has two "p"s in it and the word you were looking for is "nouns", not "nowns"!
"CoZmO", the stand of your English (if you could call it English), answers your own question. If the rest of us do not maintain standards in this great language, it will soon deteriorate into meaningless mumbo-jumbo and our society will go back to the Middle Ages.
Posted by Centaur | 18.12.08, 13:37 GMT
Vineeta Gupta, there were mosses and ferns on this earth long before mankind placed one foot before the other. There will be mosses and ferns here whem mankind amd all his works have crumbled to dust. Please put the mosses and ferns back in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Posted by Centaur | 18.12.08, 13:29 GMT
Most of the words removed, as quoted above, would apear to be proper nowns. I would presume that you would check other reference books to define the characterisitics of such things as animals and plants.
I'd be careful about checking up on beaver, though.
Posted by PC | 18.12.08, 12:25 GMT
Why not get a child a proper dictionary -I've had 'The Little OXFORD DICTIONARY' of current English near at hand all my life. Goodness Gracious Me, what is happening to our language?
Posted by Malachy McAnespie | 18.12.08, 12:21 GMT
Language is constantly evolving and so it should, are people honestly trying to say we should all be speaking and writing in Chaucer's English?
Posted by Michael | 18.12.08, 11:52 GMT
It's their dictionary and they can put whatever words they like into it. If you don't like it, don't buy their product. Language is a constantly evolving entity, trying to stop it is changing is pointless.
Posted by Ian | 18.12.08, 11:17 GMT
Is there a restriction on the number of pages? Why can't they add some new words without removing others?
Posted by Richard | 18.12.08, 10:58 GMT
the people at oxford have gone mad . people need to boycott
this edition. more power to the lady that brought it to light
James Coleraine.
Posted by james brown | 18.12.08, 10:58 GMT
That's it: get them young and they'll appreciate 1984 and Ingsoc and Newspeak more readily.
Awful, isn't it?
Posted by Terence Conway | 18.12.08, 10:39 GMT
What's the point of having a dictionary that only contains words children have heard of? Isn't part of the purpose of a dictionary to let you look up the meaning of a word you don't know?
Posted by Sharrie | 18.12.08, 10:33 GMT
Erasmus
Mandarin may be spoken by more people but English is universally acknowledged as the major language of the world. It is the standard language used by ALL international pilots an Air Traffic Controllers.
Posted by Alan | 18.12.08, 10:25 GMT
Has anyone else noticed that when you switch on your computer, you are not given the choice of English as the operating language, insead the only option is US English! How many others are frustrated when you send an email, or type into a word document to be told tat the english spelling of some words isn't recognised, but instead "s" is frequently repaced with "z", the american spelling. The american's have been changing the use of english for years to suit themselves. What a sorry world we're living in that we're being controlled without recognising it!
Posted by Andrew | 18.12.08, 10:22 GMT
29 Comments