Comptroller vs Controller (?)
Thomas Schenk
debbie wrote:
> Am I posting this question to the correct newgroup?
Yes, indeed.
> I am looking for an explanation of the difference between
> "comptroller" and "controller" -- if there is one. Also, we are
> having an argument about how "comptroller" is pronounced, whether it
> is pronounced coMPtroller, coMtroller, or coNtroller -- and whether
> the pronunciation differs depending on the meaning.
In the USA we have the "Comptroller of the Currency", and the UK has the
"Comptroller of the Royal Household". The word itself dates to the 15th
century, but people made mistakes then, just as today. H.W.Fowler in
1926 said, "The...spelling is not merely archaic, but erroneous. being
due to false association with *count* (F *conter* f. L *computare*."
(MEU)
The Concise Oxford Dictionary calls it a "mis-spelling of CONTROLLER in
some titles, as, *Controller of accounts*."
Pronunciation of both forms is k@n-'troUl-@r (USA).
Regards,
Tom
--
************************
Dr Thomas M Schenk
Laguna Beach, California
debbie
This is my first time visiting this group, so forgive me if I
misunderstood the topic.
I am looking for an explanation of the difference between
"comptroller" and "controller" -- if there is one. Also, we are
having an argument about how "comptroller" is pronounced, whether it
is pronounced coMPtroller, coMtroller, or coNtroller -- and whether
the pronunciation differs depending on the meaning.
Am I posting this question to the correct newgroup? I tried searching
Yahoo: Reference: Dictionaries, but without much luck.
Thank you,
from Dallas, Texas
Lars Eighner
In article <32f28a4f...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>,
dacu...@ix.netcom.com (debbie) wrote:
|This is my first time visiting this group, so forgive me if I
|misunderstood the topic.
|
|I am looking for an explanation of the difference between
|"comptroller" and "controller" -- if there is one.
So far as the meaning of a chief financial officer is concerned
there is no practical difference between the words. For persons
or devices controlling things that have nothing to do with finance,
"controller" is the word.
|Also, we are
|having an argument about how "comptroller" is pronounced, whether it
|is pronounced coMPtroller, coMtroller, or coNtroller -- and whether
|the pronunciation differs depending on the meaning.
The division of opinion is very common. I reside in a state
(the same as yours) in which the finance officer is styled
"comptroller" and I perceive that "controller" is the most usual
pronunciation, followed by "comtroller" and "comptroller," but each of
the pronunciations has a substantial following.
Evidently this is in agreement with American usage in general, for
Merriam-Webster's 10th Collegiate lists these three pronunciations
in the same order.
When the reference is not to this specific office,
it is always "controller" so spelt.
|Am I posting this question to the correct newgroup?
I my opinion, yes.
|I tried searching
|Yahoo: Reference: Dictionaries, but without much luck.
I tried opening the dictionary that is always on my desk.
|Thank you,
|from Dallas, Texas
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Gary Williams, Business Services Accounting
> I am looking for an explanation of the difference between
> "comptroller" and "controller" -- if there is one. Also, we are
> having an argument about how "comptroller" is pronounced,....
Someone will say that you could have simply consulted a dictionary; but then I
would not have had the pleasure of responding.
As a budding accountant I was taught, and my dictionary confirms, that the two
are simply variant spellings of the same thing, and that both are pronounced
identically. It is my experience that, in the United States, at least, the
-mpt- spelling is primarily used for positions in government agencies, and that
even there the -nt- spelling is gaining ground.
Pronouncing "comptroller" as it is spelled, rather than as one pronounces
"controller", is regarded by comptrollers as illiterate. However, probably
just because the variant spelling is not often encountered by laymen,
prounouncing comptroller as spelled seems to be becoming more frequent.
A while back, I asked the operator at Ft. Carson to connect me with the
Comptroller (which I pronounced properly). I promptly wound up on the phone
with someone in the tower at the post airfield.
Gary Williams
WILL...@AHECAS.AHEC.EDU
Susan Carroll-Clark
Greetings!
Also my first post here. Thought I'd add a bit of history:
The controller/comptroller thing actually goes back further than the
confusion with the French _compte_. In medieval Latin orthography,
it was common to subsititute "-mp-" for "-n-"--that is, internally.
In the manuscripts I work with, one commonly sees, for example,
"dampnatio" for "damnatio", "temptatio" for "tentatio", and so forth.
Being an historian, not a linguist, I can only speculate that these
alternate spellings might have been influenced by the pronunciation
of these words in the vernacular..meaning that perhaps "comptroller"
WAS originally pronounced more literally.
Cheers--
Susan Carroll-Clark
scl...@chass.utoronto.ca
debbie
eig...@io.com (Lars Eighner) wrote:
>In article <32f28a4f...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>,
>dacu...@ix.netcom.com (debbie) wrote:
(snip)
>
>|I tried searching
>|Yahoo: Reference: Dictionaries, but without much luck.
>
>I tried opening the dictionary that is always on my desk.
>
Okay, I just looked up both COMPTROLLER and CONTROLLER in my brand
new dictionary -- Webster's New World College Dictionary, 1996
edition:
Comptroller -- it only gives one pronunciation, sounding like
"controller" and doesn't really give a definition.
Controller -- it gives the same one pronunciation as it has for
comptroller, and gives the following definition:
"1 - the chief accounting officer with responsibility for internal
auditing, as in a business, government (usually sp. comptroller), or
institution. 2 - person or device that controls"
Sounds like coMPtroller and coMtroller are out -- according to the
1996 edition.
Thanks.
John Nurick
>In the USA we have the "Comptroller of the Currency", and the UK has the
>"Comptroller of the Royal Household".
We also have a Comptroller and Auditor General. If they gave the job
to the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, wouldn't he have fun booking
an airline ticket?
He would also catch out those who aren't careful with their serial
commas:
"the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Earl of Strathmore, and
Kinghorne, said today that..."
John