Vocabulary tally

[Tom Zurinskas]

The Voice of America Intermediate Dictionary has 1,500 words used to communicate English in simple fasion.  That dictionary has a truespel pronunciation guide added (authorhouse.com under truespel) with a second section added that puts the phonetic spelling first for phonetic lookups.  It shows USA accent in its most accurate form.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+ 
see truespel.com phonetic spelling


 
 





 
> Date: Mon, 31 May 2010 13:28:39 -0400
> From: rickbarremail at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Vocabulary tally
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Rick Barr <rickbarremail at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Vocabulary tally
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> "Ever listen to teens talk? Here, I'll do the math for you: Two kids on the
> phone for an hour burns no more than 100 vocabulary words, tops, with these
> terms most used: *I go*, *he goes*,* like*, *and*, *so not cool*. Boring."
> This is writer James V. Smith, Jr. on page 45 of a 2006 book called "The
> Writer's Little Helper."
> 
> I've often heard some form of this as a jeremiad about young people's
> vocabulary. I also heard it recently from one who should know, a grammarian
> who calculated young people's vocabulary at 1,000 words (including passive
> vocabulary). I find this very hard to believe, no matter how impoverished we
> assume a young person's vocabulary to be in light of formal, standard
> English. In this 1,000 word count, slang and nuanced uses must be
> overlooked. But my skepticism is anecdotal, not statistical. Does anyone
> know of relevant specialized literature that either confirms or denies these
> claims?
> 
> I'm sorry if this has come up before, but I couldn't track it down in the
> archives.
> 
> -- Rick
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
                                          
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