Changes

# The major U.S. style guides, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', recommend Merriam-Webster spelling.<ref>''Chicago Manual of the Style'', p. 350. “For general matters of spelling, the University of Chicago 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.''”<br>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."<br>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's Collegiate Dictionary'', or ''Random House Webster College Dictionary''."</ref> 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's Geographic Dictionary'' has over a hundred Vietnamese place names.<ref>CMOS, p. 403, “For the spelling of names of places, consult ''Merriam-Webster’s Geographic Dictionary.''” Oxford's ''Atlas of the World'' has even more Vietnamese place names given without diacritics.</ref> So this treatment is not restricted to well-known or "anglicized" names. An encyclopedia should give the reader a correct English-language name of the subject. To add diacritics that are not part of any editing style is to mislead the reader.

# The major U.S. style guides, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', recommend Merriam-Webster spelling.<ref>''Chicago Manual of the Style'', p. 350. “For general matters of spelling, the University of Chicago 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.''”<br>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."<br>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's Collegiate Dictionary'', or ''Random House Webster College Dictionary''."</ref> 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's Geographic Dictionary'' has over a hundred Vietnamese place names.<ref>CMOS, p. 403, “For the spelling of names of places, consult ''Merriam-Webster’s Geographic Dictionary.''” Oxford's ''Atlas of the World'' has even more Vietnamese place names given without diacritics.</ref> So this treatment is not restricted to well-known or "anglicized" names. An encyclopedia should give the reader a correct English-language name of the subject. 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''.<ref>I found these works in the reference section of the main library in Taipei, as well as in the reference section of the University of Minnesota Library. U of M also has ''Cambridge History of Southeast Asia'' (1993) (no diacritics) and William J. Duiker's ''Historical Dictionary of Vietnam'' (2006) (which includes diacritics).</ref>

# 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''.<ref>I found these works in the reference section of the main library in Taipei, as well as in the reference section of the University of Minnesota Library. U of M also has ''Cambridge History of Southeast Asia'' (1993) (no diacritics) and William J. Duiker's ''Historical Dictionary of Vietnam'' (2006) (which includes diacritics).</ref>

# 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.

# They're "distracting," according to the style guide of ''National Geographic'', certainly a publication that knows its diacritics.<ref>[http://stylemanual.ngs.org/home/A/accent-marks National Geographic Style Manual]. "Although Vietnamese is written in the Latin alphabet, the number of accent marks can be distracting and may therefore be omitted."</ref> Style should be as unremarkable as possible so that readers can focus on content.

# They're "distracting," according to the style guide of ''National Geographic'', certainly a publication that knows its diacritics.<ref>[http://stylemanual.ngs.org/home/A/accent-marks National Geographic Style Manual]. "Although Vietnamese is written in the Latin alphabet, the number of accent marks can be distracting and may therefore be omitted."</ref> Style should be as unremarkable as possible so that readers can focus on content.