Abecedary

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Perry Lassiter
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Abecedary

Postby Perry Lassiter » Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:19 pm

I realized I have never heard Abecedary pronounced. I looked it up and found at least two different ideas. In one you simply pronounce the first three letters of the alphabet and add -dary. In another all the vowels are schwas except for the second syllable, which is accented. Sounds British. Any of you linguists speak this word, and if so, how do you pronounce it?
The word refers to archaeological discoveries of ancient languages on which an alphabet is written. Useful for the study of whatever language. The word also applies to very simple basic books like primers. By extension it seems to have been used for simple instruction books like Language for Dummies. One who uses or teaches primers can be called an abecedarian.
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Slava
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Postby Slava » Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:27 pm

'Tis odd what's going on here at the Agora these last days. I know I answered this post yesterday, when it was in a shorter form. Then it all disappeared. :(

I'll try again:

I have known a longer related form of this word for a while, abecedarian. I looked up this version, and it seems the accepted pronunciation is the "one you simply pronounce the first three letters of the alphabet and add -dary." The stress goes on the C.

For abecedary, my first reaction was to put the stress on the first a.

My preference is for abecedarium, stress on the dar, which I gather means the same as abecedary.
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Philip Hudson
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Postby Philip Hudson » Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:30 am

Is this a segment of a thread previously posted? Being a sometime scholar of unusual sects, I have long known Aabecedarianism to be a mocking name given to some extra-radical Anabaptists who thought it worldly and evil to learn the alphabet and thus be able to read. If God had wanted you to know anything, then he would have told you.

Baptists, a few of whom deride extensive education, are nonetheless not derived from the Anabaptist sects. Some of the Anabaptists were probably demented. But some strong pacifist religions, such as the Amish, have come out of them and have lived down their early reputation.
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Perry Lassiter
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Postby Perry Lassiter » Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:25 pm

Slava, you may indeed have answered. I entered the post and checked back later in the day to find it gone. So I reentered it along with a little more explanation of what I know about it. A very unusual word, I think.
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