Dictionary dot com and the pronunciation of words

I'm not very fond of dictionary dot com. Sure, they're here on the computer, where I usually am. I can't afford to buy a new dictionary and I wouldn't even if I had the money. Somewhere in Los Angeles a certain very dishonorable man has my old Random House Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, the 1967 edition. Back then this dictionary was a prescriptive dictionary, which means they will inform you what the rules of the language and usage should be, and whether the way we use this particular word follows that rule. They would even give you wrong words or the wrong usage and why they considered it to be the wrong usage.

This is all gone now. The dictionaries used by dictionary.com are for the most part descriptive dictionaries, which means they only tell you how we supposedly use our language today. If enough uneducated people make the same mistake, that's our language. Thus, mispronunciations that obscure the meaning of an original word and make it into a new but meaningless word are acceptable. Bad grammar is acceptable. New meanings for words just get reported, no matter how mistaken the user is.

Now, I'm aware that some words once meant this, and over the years have evolved to mean that. I even had to write a paper on this for an English class. And as a reader (however incompetently) of Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, Middle Dutch, and early Modern English, I'm pretty much aware of changing meanings and grammar. But every language has a structure that helps us communicate with one another. If you've ever tried to make sense out of a sentence spoken by someone who didn't have a care in the world what form our language follows, you will understand why we have this structure and why our language OUGHT to follow it.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/puerile

Today I went to dictionary dot come because Dennis said a word which I thought was mispronounced. They have a sound option that lets you hear what they think is the proper pronunciation, available for most words. You just click the microphone.

I was looking at "puerile", which used to be a two-syllable word when I was a kid. Apparently now it's a four-syllable word. Does anyone remember this word as "pwer ul"? The Pronunciation Voice says it's now "pyoo-ur-ee-ul".