wikipedia pronunciation

Sat Jul 4 04:52:39 UTC 2009

The English most suitable to the most native speakers is American English.  The data points out that this position is not a bias thing.  It's just plane fact by popularity numbers.  This goes to spelling as well as pronunciation.

This fact matters to ESL learners.  If you have a choice of learning UK versus USA English, the version suitable to the most native English speakers is USA English which has Webster spelling improvements.  These improvements came at the time British troops were attacking American and burned down The Whitehouse.  But that's ancient history.  We're friends now.

I care very much about spreading English to other nations.  Either UK or USA English will do, but the best English is USA, certainly in terms of spelling and majority use.  Why not go with the best.

I'm certain that truespel rather than the IPA does a better job of phonetically representing English and should be used to teach it.  IPA is like the asbestos of yore.  A good building material yet toxic.  So it's not used in America for reading instruction or portraying phonetics in our papers.

It's the Fourth of July.  God bless the ADS, and God Bless America.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
see truespel.com

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> Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 23:23:43 -0400
> From: laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
> Subject: Re: wikipedia pronunciation
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Laurence Horn
> Subject: Re: wikipedia pronunciation
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
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>>------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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