Talk:phthongometer

RFV discussion: May–July 2014
Again, is this relatively obscure scientific text really a "well-known work"? The word doesn't seem to have caught on elsewhere. This, that and the other (talk) 11:53, 11 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Yeah, but it's made it into dicts such as the OED. Or do we intend to be a more limited dictionary? kwami (talk) 02:35, 14 May 2014 (UTC)


 * I think we do. We even have a list of words that some dictionaries include but that have failed to pass CFI: Appendix:English dictionary-only terms. —Mr. Granger (talk • contribs) 03:22, 14 May 2014 (UTC)


 * But the OED often gives citations of real-world use, just like we do. Maybe someone with access to it can find out if it provides cites, and if so, track them down and add them to our entry. —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 10:50, 14 May 2014 (UTC)


 * In this case, the OED (or at least its online version) only gives two citations, of which one is a clear mention and the other is from the text linked above. —Mr. Granger (talk • contribs) 12:39, 14 May 2014 (UTC)


 * My edition gives one actual citation, from 1837, where it appears to be a protologism (We may‥consider this instrument as a phthongometer, or measure of vowel quality), and as a second only in "Smart ... and in later Dicts." About as close to a "dictionary-only term" as we're likely to get, so I'd say this is a good candidate to be moved to that appendix. kwami (talk) 15:46, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

I've looked through the hits yielded by, and I couldn't find any English uses that aren't by , and even then, all he seems to do with the term is to give it as a suggested name for a device that measures the qualities of vowels. He was a prolific, so it would be no surprise if he'd coined the word; however, in the course of my searching, I found this isolated use of the German term from 1754 — what is the chance that these usages are related? — I.S.M.E.T.A. 20:28, 17 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Failed. Citations (all mentions) moved to Citations:phthongometer. Added to Appendix:English dictionary-only terms. — Ungoliant (falai) 00:49, 15 July 2014 (UTC)