The cover of the most recent edition of the Dykstra-Morris.
The Dykstra-Morris Dictionary of Lovian English, known informally simply as the Dykstra-Morris, was compiled in 1953 by the linguists A.J.C. Morris and Jacob Dykstra. It is the most well-known of all Lovian dictionaries, but has never been recognised as the standard. Since its first edition came out, it has been reprinted and updated once every ten years, and the next edition, the 7th, will be published in 2013.
Aims and methodology[]
According to the authors in their Preface to the First Edition, the aim of the work is 'to provide a guide for the comprehension and use of unique Lovian vocabulary, and to clarify on Lovian spelling conventions.'
Some linguists have criticised what they see as the inconsistency of the methodology of compilation, citing the very different attitudes of the two authors. Morris was a highly theoretical linguist and classicist, an eminent professor at the Nobel University who advocated a highly prescriptive work. Dykstra was a field linguist, much of whose knowledge was self-taught, and who spent many years recording and transcribing speech from different parts of Lovia. He suggested a descriptive methodology with spelling much closer to the actual pronunciation of the people, and reflecting the Dutch influence on the dialect, but this was vetoed by Morris who argued that Lovia did not want to isolate itself from the rest of the English-speaking world. The tension between the two viewpoints is demonstrated by the two separate entries for 'actrice' and 'actress', the former a Dutch word and the latter an English word, but with an identical meaning.
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