wikipedia pronunciation

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:40 AM +0000 7/4/09, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>You'll have to work out the "logic" with the British Council report:
>
>Count of true native speakers of English.
>http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:English_dialects1997.png
>The British Council report from 2000 seems to be
>the newest and most reliable source. Dumbledore
>12:08, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC).  Data (only true
>native speakers!):
>                     American    British
>Canadian    Australian    Other    Total
>Percentage          67.2        16.9       5.8
>4.5           5.5      100.0
>Absolute (000s)     226,710     56,990
>19,700      15,316        18,581   337,297
>
>Look at a map of the USA.  England is about the size of Louisiana.
>

Why are we limiting the count to "true native
speakers"?  As Scot notes, English is spoken in a
lot of places other than those counted above, and
by a lot more speakers.  Indian English is sui
generis, but is a lot closer to varieties of
British English in most ways than it is to U.S.
English.  Have you interacted with call center
help lines recently?

LH

>
>----------------------------------------
>>  Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 14:53:48 -0500
>>  From: slafaive at GMAIL.COM
>>  Subject: Re: wikipedia pronunciation
>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the
>>mail header -----------------------
>>  Sender: American Dialect Society
>>  Poster: Scot LaFaive
>>  Subject: Re: wikipedia pronunciation
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>>
>>>  The majority form of English is USA English, because 70% of native English
>>>  speakers are in the USA.
>>>
>>
>>  Faulty logic here. (Plus, I would like to see the research on this.) What
>>  about those who learn English as a second language in places like China,
>>  India, and Europe? Are they learning American English, British English
>>  (Received Pronunciation), or some other dialect? What about the native
>>  English speakers in England, Australia, Canada, and other English speaking
>>  countries?
>>
>>  Scot
>>
>>  On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 9:43 AM, David Bowie wrote:
>>
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  -----------------------
>>>  Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>  Poster: David Bowie
>>>  Organization: Organized? Me?!
>>>  Subject: Re: wikipedia pronunciation
>>>
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  From: Tom Zurinskas
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>  My take is this. The internet is mainly written in English. It was
>>>>  invented by English speaking people. English is the lingua franca of
>>>>  the world. 95% of the scientific journals are in English, including
>>>>  the IPA journal which switched to English in 1970 after being created
>>>>  in France and published in French for 90 years. Thus the
>>>>  pronunciation guide used here should be English friendly. The IPA is
>>>>  not. The majority form of English is USA English, because 70% of
>>>>  native English speakers are in the USA.
>>>
>>>  You invested in an asbestos company recently, i take it?
>>>
>>>  David Bowie
>>>
>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>_________________________________________________________________
>Hotmail® has ever-growing storage! Don't worry about storage limits.
>http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage_062009
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org