Changes

# ''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 news sites are aggregated by [http://en.baomoi.com/ Bao Moi]. You look up a name on this site and get an overview of how the Vietnamese press handles this issue.</ref> They model conventional language use for the benefit of Vietnamese who are learning English, so 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 news sites are aggregated by [http://en.baomoi.com/ Bao Moi]. You look up a name on this site and get an overview of how the Vietnamese press handles this issue.</ref> They model conventional language use for the benefit of Vietnamese who are learning English, so 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 this material and show the goofy lettering to their friends back home. The print edition of ''Viet Nam News'' also uses diacritics, although this dinosaur has disappeared from newsstands in recent years.<ref>They still hand out ''[http://vietnamnews.vn/ Viet Nam News]'' to passengers on Vietnam Air. The web edition is diacritics free, and it is far less propaganda-oriented than the print edition.</ref> 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. Much of the material this company puts out is old-style war propaganda. Tourists can buy it and show the goofy language and lettering to their friends back home. The print edition of ''Viet Nam News'' also uses diacritics. This newspaper is a Cold War dinosaur that disappeared from newsstands years ago.<ref>They still hand out copies of ''[http://vietnamnews.vn/ Viet Nam News]'' to passengers who request it on Vietnam Air. Otherwise, the print edition doesn't have any circulation worth mentioning. The web edition is diacritics free, quite popular, and far less propaganda-oriented than the print edition.</ref> In "patriotic-language" publications of this type, spelling is completely Vietnamized. Vietnam is "Việt Nam," Hanoi is "Hà Nội," and mainstream English has been left far behind.

==Wikipedia RFC==

==Wikipedia RFC==