Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot
From: chabot@amber.DEC (L S Chabot)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Phonetic spelling isn't practical
Message-ID: <41@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Nov-84 16:10:11 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.41
Posted: Wed Nov 14 16:10:11 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Nov-84 02:10:29 EST
Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 31

Has this discussion included anything about regional pronunciation differences?
Which accent should we decide is standard?  This is a serious question.

We could choose California, since everybody seems to move there :-).  Since it
is such a melting pot, we could get a good average accent?

Traditionally, standards for correct pronunciation have been built around what
the nobility spoke.  We lack nobles here, so what do we do?  And, come to think
of it, if we decide in favor one region we have placed them in a superior
position to the rest of the english speakers in the US--they talk good, we
talk like hicks or sloppy talkers or the unschooled.

We can't base it on the educated class, because this isn't as perceptable as,
say, Oxford attendance was (or is): if we arbitrarily decide upon the famous
Harvard accent, but not many students really pick up a discernable accent any
more.  (My alma mater doesn't exactly have a characteristic accent, but if you
talked like they do at MIT we wouldn't be having these problems--it's easy
to spell numbers!)

[Remember the difficulties you had learning to spell?  I do (how come there 
aren't inny "r"s in "Warshinton").  And then, what do we suppose we're going
to do with those homonyms that so many pronounce as homonyms ( there/their )?]

It is a serious question, and it has interesting political and sociological
effects.

L S Chabot
UUCP:	...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot
ARPA:	...chabot%amber.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
USFail:    DEC, MR03-1/K20, 2 Iron Way, Marlborough, MA  01752
shadow:	[ISSN 0018-9162 v17 #10 p7, bottom vt100, col3, next to next to last]