Roots Dictionary

The roots dictionary is used for ordinary words like nouns, verbs, or adjectives, and for proper names.  The distinctive property of the roots dictionary is that you only have to enter the root form of a word; all other forms of the word will automatically get pronounced in the same way.
For example, the spelling-to-sound rules normally pronounce "roof" as `[ruf] (which has the vowel of "boot").  You can use the roots dictionary to specify the alternate pronunciation `[rUf] (which has the vowel of "book").  Then, all words with this root, such as "roofer," "roofing," and "reroof" will also be pronounced this way; there is no need to list the other words separately in the dictionary.

  The roots dictionary is not case-sensitive.  So, for example, when you enter a root in lowercase, it will still be found and pronounced as specified even when it begins with an uppercase (capital) letter (for example, when it occurs at the beginning of the sentence).
  The roots dictionary is designed to provide alternate pronunciations of existing roots, and may not work properly in the case of unknown roots.  For example, the entry "prego" occurring in the hypothetical word "pregoness" will not be accessed from the user roots dictionary because ETI-Eloquence
s rules of linguistic analysis assume that the word contains the  root "go" rather than the root "prego".

  The roots dictionary cannot be used to specify an alternate pronunciation of a function word.

Allowable Roots Dictionary Entries

Key 	Translation
	a single word in ordinary spelling, all lowercase letters		a single word in ordinary spelling
		a valid SPR
NO: digits, punctuation, or other non-letter characters; white space	NO: digits, punctuation, or other non-letter characters, white space, tags, or annotations
Roots Dictionary Examples

Key	Translation	Would apply to:
figure	`[.1fI.0gR]  	figures, figuring, figured, refigure
tomato	`[.0tx.1ma.0to]  	tomatoes, tomato's
wash	`[.1warS]  	wash, washing, washed, washes
Baltimore	`[.1bcl.mR]  	Baltimore, Baltimore's

See also:
Special Words Dictionary
Abbreviations Dictionary
Tags to control Dictionary Processing of Abbreviations

