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'''Is it "pho" or "phở"? Why Vietnamese diacritics don't belong in English-language writing.'''

'''Is it "pho" or "phở"? Why Vietnamese diacritics don't belong in English-language writing.'''

# The major U.S. style guides, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'',<ref>''Chicago Manual of the Style'', p. 350. “For general matters of spelling, the University of Chicatago Press recommends using...''Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary''."<br>CMOS, p. 350. “Although the University of Chicago press uses Webster as its spelling authority, the use of other standard dictionaries such as the ''American Heritage Dictionary'' and the ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language'' is also acceptable.”<br>CMOS, p. 387. “For the names of well-known deceased persons, Chicago generally follows the spelling in ''Merriam-Webster’s Biographical Dictionary'' or the biographical section of ''Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.''”</ref> APA,<ref>American Psychological Association, "[http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/preferred-spelling.aspx APA Style]", "The APA Publication Manual recommends ''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary'' (2005) as the standard spelling reference."</ref> AMA, and MLA,<ref>Gibaldi, Joseph, ''MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers'' (2003), p. 61. "Your instructor will probably recommend a standard American dictionary such as ''The American Heritage College Dictionary'', ''Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary'', or ''Random House Webster College Dictionary''."</ref> recommend Merriam-Webster spelling. British style guides recommend Oxford spelling.<ref>''Oxford Style Manual'', p. 160. “The best advise is to treat any one item consistently within a given text and follow the newest edition of a suitable dictionary, such as the ''Concise Oxford Dictionary''.”</ref> Both Merriam-Webster and Oxford give Vietnamese names without diacritics. ''Merriam-Webster Geographic Dictionary'', recommended by CMOS,<ref>CMOS, p. 403, “For the spelling of names of places, consult ''Merriam-Webster’s Geographic Dictionary.''”</ref> has over a hundred Vietnamese place names. So this treatment is not restricted to well-known or "anglicized" names. An encyclopedia should tell the reader the correct English-language name of the subject, which I interpret as "correct in CMOS," since this is the most widely admired style. To add diacritics that no major style uses is to mislead the reader.

# The major U.S. style guides, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'',<ref>''Chicago Manual of the Style'', p. 350. “For general matters of spelling, the University of Chicatago Press recommends using...''Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary''."<br>CMOS, p. 350. “Although the University of Chicago press uses Webster as its spelling authority, the use of other standard dictionaries such as the ''American Heritage Dictionary'' and the ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language'' is also acceptable.”<br>CMOS, p. 387. “For the names of well-known deceased persons, Chicago generally follows the spelling in ''Merriam-Webster’s Biographical Dictionary'' or the biographical section of ''Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.''”</ref> APA,<ref>American Psychological Association, "[http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/preferred-spelling.aspx APA Style]", "The APA Publication Manual recommends ''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary'' (2005) as the standard spelling reference."</ref> AMA, and MLA,<ref>Gibaldi, Joseph, ''MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers'' (2003), p. 61. "Your instructor will probably recommend a standard American dictionary such as ''The American Heritage College Dictionary'', ''Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary'', or ''Random House Webster College Dictionary''."</ref> recommend Merriam-Webster spelling. British style guides recommend Oxford spelling.<ref>''Oxford Style Manual'', p. 160. “The best advise is to treat any one item consistently within a given text and follow the newest edition of a suitable dictionary, such as the ''Concise Oxford Dictionary''.”</ref> Both Merriam-Webster and Oxford give Vietnamese names without diacritics. ''Merriam-Webster Geographic Dictionary'', recommended by CMOS,<ref>CMOS, p. 403, “For the spelling of names of places, consult ''Merriam-Webster’s Geographic Dictionary.''”</ref> has over a hundred Vietnamese place names. So this treatment is not restricted to well-known or "anglicized" names. An encyclopedia should tell the reader a correct English-language name of the subject, i.e. a name that is correct in CMOS or one of the other major editing styles. To add diacritics that are not part of any editing style is to mislead the reader.

# Other standard reference works that cover Vietnam also remove the diacritics: ''Britannica'',<ref>''[http://www.britannica.com/ Britannica]'' is edited by University of Chicago Press copy editors trained in Chicago style. It has even more entries on Vietnam than the Merriam Webster dictionaries do. Its style for diacritics was revised in 1974 to take advantage of improvements in printing technology. Merriam Webster and other publishers adopted this style a few years later, and it is now standard. Pre-1974, the standard style was to use only eight Western European characters with diacritics (originally from International Morse Code). This is still a common style in non-academic writing.</ref> Spencer Tucker's ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'' (2011), ''Encyclopedia of Modern Asia'' (2002), ''National Geographic Atlas of the World'', and ''Lonely Planet Vietnam''.

# Other standard reference works that cover Vietnam also remove the diacritics: ''Britannica'',<ref>''[http://www.britannica.com/ Britannica]'' is edited by University of Chicago Press copy editors trained in Chicago style. It has even more entries on Vietnam than the Merriam Webster dictionaries do. Its style for diacritics was revised in 1974 to take advantage of improvements in printing technology. Merriam Webster and other publishers adopted this style a few years later, and it is now standard. Pre-1974, the standard style was to use only eight Western European characters with diacritics (originally from International Morse Code). This is still a common style in non-academic writing.</ref> Spencer Tucker's ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'' (2011), ''Encyclopedia of Modern Asia'' (2002), ''National Geographic Atlas of the World'', and ''Lonely Planet Vietnam''.

# Go on Amazon and search for "Vietnam" books. I guarantee that no book that comes up in the top twenty will use Vietnamese diacritics in the running text.

# Go on Amazon and search for "Vietnam" books. I guarantee that no book that comes up in the top twenty will use Vietnamese diacritics in the running text.

# ''The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia'' (1993), the top specialist work on Vietnamese history, drops the diacritics.

# ''The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia'' (1993), the top specialist work on Vietnamese history, drops the diacritics.

# Publishers in the English-speaking world who have tried to include Vietnamese diacritics have found that non-Vietnamese copy editors tend to screw them up.<ref>Tucker's ''Encyclopedia'' was originally published in 1998 with diacritics.[http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=Zk8YAAAAIAAJ&focus=] There were complaints that these were done incorrectly.[http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=WLcG5Cdw-NIC&pg=PA503&dq=#v=onepage&q=%22Encyclopedia%20of%20the%20Vietnam%20War%22%20diacritics&f=false] They have been removed from the current (2011) edition of the work.</ref> Of course, this is not an issue for a publisher based in Vietnam itself. In fact, Vietnam has several English-language news sites that are professionally edited, including [http://english.vov.vn/ Voice of Vietnam]. But you won't find diacritics on those sites either.<ref>The major sites are aggregated by [http://en.baomoi.com/ Bao Moi].</ref> They model conventional language use for the benefit of Vietnamese who are learning English. They have no interest in promoting Viet-lish.

# Publishers in the English-speaking world who have tried to include Vietnamese diacritics have found that non-Vietnamese copy editors tend to screw them up.<ref>Tucker's ''Encyclopedia'' was originally published in 1998 with diacritics.[http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=Zk8YAAAAIAAJ&focus=] There were complaints that these were done incorrectly.[http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=WLcG5Cdw-NIC&pg=PA503&dq=#v=onepage&q=%22Encyclopedia%20of%20the%20Vietnam%20War%22%20diacritics&f=false] They have been removed from the current (2011) edition of the work.</ref> Of course, this is not an issue for a publisher based in Vietnam itself. In fact, Vietnam has several English-language news sites that are professionally edited, including [http://english.vov.vn/ Voice of Vietnam]. But you won't find diacritics on those sites either.<ref>The major sites are aggregated by [http://en.baomoi.com/ Bao Moi].</ref> They model conventional language use for the benefit of Vietnamese who are learning English. They have no interest in promoting Viet-lish.

# Who puts Vietnamese diacritics in English-language material? Besides Wikipedia,<ref>Vietnam-related titles were moved to diacritic forms ''en masse'' soon after I was banned.</ref> there's Thế Giới Publishers in Hanoi. This company publishes old-style war propaganda. Tourists can buy these antiques and show the goofy writing to their friends back home. Locally produced English-language maps, travel books, periodicals, and signage -- i.e. material that the publisher expects English-speakers to actually read -- are all done without diacritics.

# Who puts Vietnamese diacritics in English-language material? Besides Wikipedia,<ref>Vietnam-related titles were moved to diacritic forms ''en masse'' soon after I was banned.</ref> there's Thế Giới Publishers in Hanoi. This company publishes old-style war propaganda. Tourists can buy this antiquated material and show the goofy lettering to their friends back home. Locally produced English-language maps, travel books, periodicals, and signage -- i.e. material that the publisher expects English-speakers to actually read -- are all done without diacritics.

==Wikipedia RFC==

==Wikipedia RFC==