

It may be said from the outset that LPD lives up to most expectations.

These are two examples, among a few others, where recourse to the specialist dictionary proves indispensable. This then suggests the extent to which the pronunciation dictionary can also be of use to the native speaker : for instance, the pronunciation of a large proportion of proper names is not self-evident and numerous more common words are controversial because several pronunciations coexist. Moreover, it offers the user a description of the main phonological processes encountered in actual speech, thereby fulfilling an additional pedagogical purpose. It seems to provide them with various types of information that are not, as a rule, found in a general dictionary : it lists possible variants of the main pronunciation, deals comprehensively with all inflected and derived forms and comprises an extended selection of proper names. It is a specialist dictionary and is accordingly aimed in particular at teachers and students of English. Wells and first published in 1990 continues a tradition initiated in 1917 by the first edition of Daniel Jones's English Pronunciation Dictionary (EPD). The new Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD) compiled by J.
