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. For its 1974 edition, ''Britannica'' increased its use of European diacritics to take advantage of improvements in printing technology. Merriam-Webster and other publishers adopted the new style a few years later, and it is now standard.</ref> Spencer Tucker's ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'' (2011),<ref>Tucker's work 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> ''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. In addition, U of M has ''Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia'' (2004), which does use Vietnamese diacritics. This work is by ABC-CLIO, the same publisher as EVW. Like the first edition of EVW, it has numerous diacritic mistakes.</ref> ''The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia'' (1993), the top specialist work on Vietnamese history, also drops the diacritics.

# 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. For its 1974 edition, ''Britannica'' increased its use of European diacritics to take advantage of improvements in printing technology. Merriam-Webster and other publishers adopted the new style a few years later, and it is now standard.</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. In addition, U of M has ''Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia'' (2004), which does use Vietnamese diacritics. This work is by ABC-CLIO, the same publisher as EVW. Like the first edition of EVW, it has numerous diacritic mistakes.</ref> ''The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia'' (1993), the top specialist work on Vietnamese history, also drops the diacritics.

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

# The standard rejoinder to the arguments given above is that U.S. publishers drop Vietnamese diacritics only for "technical reasons." The style guides and reference works are the authorities on spelling. So even if this was true, it shouldn't matter. But it isn't. Windows has been able to handle Vietnamese input since 1995.<ref>VNI Encoding, which allows the user to type in Vietnamese on a home computer, was incorporated into Windows 95.</ref> All the major browsers have been able to display Vietnamese since 2000.<ref>Earlier browsers require that an appropriate font be installed. Explorer 5.5 and Netscape 4.7, both released in 2000, can display Vietnamese without tinkering. </ref> Unlike ABC-CLIO, a publisher based in Vietnam does not have to worry that a non-Vietnamese copy editor will screw up the diacritics. Vietnam has a substantial English-language publishing industry nowadays, and the output is mainly diacritics-free. The country's top English-language site is [http://english.vietnamnet.vn VietNamNet Bridge], which has always been diacritics-free.<ref>Alexa's U.S. and Japan rankings suggest that VNNB is by far the most widely-read English-language site in Vietnam. (There is no Japanese version of the site, so I assume the Japanese are reading it in English.) Vietnam's various news sites are aggregated by [http://en.baomoi.com/ Bao Moi].</ref> [http://news.chinhphu.vn VGP News] once had diacritics, but switched to conventional English about a year ago. So there is no trend toward increased usage. Viet-lish is certainly easier for Vietnamese to read, but they will avoid a site that has a reputation for it.

# The standard rejoinder to the arguments given above is that U.S. publishers drop Vietnamese diacritics only for "technical reasons." The style guides and reference works are the authorities on spelling. So even if this was true, it shouldn't matter. But it isn't. Windows has been able to handle Vietnamese input since 1995.<ref>VNI Encoding, which allows the user to type in Vietnamese on a home computer, was incorporated into Windows 95.</ref> All the major browsers have been able to display Vietnamese since 2000.<ref>Earlier browsers require that an appropriate font be installed. Explorer 5.5 and Netscape 4.7, both released in 2000, can display Vietnamese without tinkering. </ref> Unlike ABC-CLIO, a publisher based in Vietnam does not have to worry that a non-Vietnamese copy editor will screw up the diacritics.<ref>See [http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=WLcG5Cdw-NIC&pg=PA503&dq=#v=onepage&q=%22Encyclopedia%20of%20the%20Vietnam%20War%22%20diacritics&f=false this complaint regarding] the copyediting of Tucker's work.</ref> Vietnam has a substantial English-language publishing industry nowadays, and the output is mainly diacritics-free. The country's top English-language site is [http://english.vietnamnet.vn VietNamNet Bridge], which has always been diacritics-free.<ref>Alexa's U.S. and Japan rankings suggest that VNNB is by far the most widely-read English-language site in Vietnam. (There is no Japanese version of the site, so I assume the Japanese are reading it in English.) Vietnam's various news sites are aggregated by [http://en.baomoi.com/ Bao Moi].</ref> So there is no trend toward increased usage. Viet-lish is certainly easier for Vietnamese to read, but they will avoid a site that has a reputation for it.

# So why do U.S. publishers drop Vietnamese diacritics? It's because, "the number of accent marks can be distracting," according to the style guide of ''National Geographic''.<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> This publication has a great deal of experience with a wide variety of diacritics. Style should be as unremarkable as possible so that readers can focus on content.

# So why do U.S. publishers drop Vietnamese diacritics? It's because, "the number of accent marks can be distracting," according to the style guide of ''National Geographic''.<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> This publication has a great deal of experience with a wide variety of diacritics. Style should be as unremarkable as possible so that readers can focus on content.

# Who still puts Vietnamese diacritics in English-language material? Not anyone who could be considered a style model. 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 relic that disappeared from newsstands years ago.<ref>They still hand out copies of ''Viet Nam News'' to passengers who request it on Vietnam Air. Otherwise, the print edition doesn't have any circulation worth mentioning. The [http://vietnamnews.vn/ web edition of VNN] is the top English-language site in Vietnam and a very different publication. It is diacritics free and far less propaganda-oriented than the print edition.</ref> In "patriotic-language" publications of this type, Vietnam is "Việt Nam," Hanoi is "Hà Nội," and mainstream English has been left far behind.

# Who still puts Vietnamese diacritics in English-language material? Not anyone who could be considered a style model. 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. In "patriotic-language" publications of this type, Vietnam is "Việt Nam," Hanoi is "Hà Nội," and mainstream English has been left far behind.

#Some publishers did experiment with increased use of diacritics use after Unicode was introduced. But that trend has now reversed. ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'' was originally published in 1998 with diacritics. But these have been removed from the current (2011) edition of the work. [http://news.chinhphu.vn VGP News] once had diacritics, but switched to conventional English about a year ago. The print edition of ''Viet Nam News'' still uses diacritics.<ref>They still hand out copies of VNN to passengers who request it on Vietnam Air. Otherwise, the print edition doesn't have any circulation worth mentioning</ref> But this is a Cold War relic that disappeared from newsstands years ago. Nowadays, almost all of the newspaper's readers are accessing [http://vietnamnews.vn/ the VNN website], which is diacritics-free.

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