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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.'''

* '''None of the references commonly consulted by copy editors include Vietnamese diacritics'''. The major U.S. style guides 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 guides recommend Oxford spelling.<ref>''New Hart's Rules'' (2014), p. 48. “A good dictionary such as ''Concise Oxford English Dictionary'' or ''The Oxford Dictionary of English'' should be consulted on matters of spelling and inflection."</ref> Both Merriam-Webster and Oxford give Vietnamese names without diacritics. (See the chart below.)  

* '''No widely used or recommended reference work includes Vietnamese diacritics'''. The major U.S. style guides 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 guides recommend Oxford spelling.<ref>''New Hart's Rules'' (2014), p. 48. “A good dictionary such as ''Concise Oxford English Dictionary'' or ''The Oxford Dictionary of English'' should be consulted on matters of spelling and inflection."</ref> Both Merriam-Webster and Oxford give Vietnamese names without diacritics. (See the chart below.)  

:For biography, ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' recommends ''Merriam-Webster’s Biographical Dictionary'' and ''International Who's Who''.<ref>A full list is [http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/16/bib4.html here].</ref> For geography, CMOS recommends ''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary''.<ref>CMOS, p. 403, “For the spelling of names of places, consult ''Merriam-Webster’s Geographical Dictionary.''</ref> ''Britannica'', ''Columbia'', and ''Oxford Atlas of the World'' are recommended as backup references. Together these works give hundreds of Vietnamese names without diacritics. An encyclopedia should give the reader the correct English-language name of the subject, which in this case is something that all the relevant references and style guides agree on.

:For biography, ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' recommends ''Merriam-Webster’s Biographical Dictionary'' and ''International Who's Who''.<ref>A full list is [http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/16/bib4.html here].</ref> For geography, CMOS recommends ''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary''.<ref>CMOS, p. 403, “For the spelling of names of places, consult ''Merriam-Webster’s Geographical Dictionary.''</ref> ''Britannica'', ''Columbia'', and ''Oxford Atlas of the World'' are recommended as backup references. Together these works give hundreds of Vietnamese names without diacritics. An encyclopedia should give the reader the correct English-language name of the subject, which in this case is something that all the relevant references and style guides agree on.

*'''Other library reference works don't use them either.''' See ''Encyclopedia of Modern Asia'' (2002), Spencer Tucker's ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'' (2011), ''Encyclopedia of Modern Asia'' (2002), ''Lonely Planet Vietnam'', ''National Geographic Atlas of the World'', and ''The Columbia Gazetteer of the World''.<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 library reference works don't use them either.''' See ''Encyclopedia of Modern Asia'' (2002), Spencer Tucker's ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'' (2011), ''Encyclopedia of Modern Asia'' (2002), ''Lonely Planet Vietnam'', ''National Geographic Atlas of the World'', and ''The Columbia Gazetteer of the World''.<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.

*'''It's the style followed in the books people are actually reading.''' Look up any Vietnam-related topic on [http://www.amazon.com Amazon], sorted by "New and Popular." I guarantee that the top results will all be diacritics-free, at least as far as the running text is concerned.  

*'''It's the style followed in the books people are actually reading.''' Look up any Vietnam-related topic on [http://www.amazon.com Amazon], sorted by "New and Popular." I guarantee that the top results will all be diacritics-free, at least as far as the running text is concerned.  

* '''It's not only for technical reasons.''' 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 a U.S. publisher, 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.<ref>Vietnam's various news sites are aggregated by [http://en.baomoi.com/ Bao Moi].</ref> This includes [http://english.vietnamnet.vn VietNamNet Bridge], the country's top English-language site.<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.)</ref> Viet-lish is certainly easier for Vietnamese to read, but they will avoid a site that has a reputation for it.

* '''It's not only for technical reasons.''' The standard rejoinder to the arguments given above is that U.S. publishers drop Vietnamese diacritics only for "technical reasons." The reference works are the authorities on spelling, as any style guide will tell you. So even if it really was for technical reason, that 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 a U.S. publisher, 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.<ref>Vietnam's various news sites are aggregated by [http://en.baomoi.com/ Bao Moi].</ref> This includes [http://english.vietnamnet.vn VietNamNet Bridge], the country's top English-language site.<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.)</ref> Viet-lish is certainly easier for Vietnamese to read, but they will avoid a site that has a reputation for it.

* '''Style should be as unremarkable as possible so that readers can focus on content.''' "Although Vietnamese is written in the Latin alphabet, the number of accent marks can be distracting and may therefore be omitted," 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.''' "Although Vietnamese is written in the Latin alphabet, the number of accent marks can be distracting and may therefore be omitted," 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.

* '''There is no trend toward increased use of diacritics.''' Yes, some publishers did experiment with them after Unicode was introduced. But for the last five years or so, the trend has been the other direction. ''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 two years ago. The print edition of ''Viet Nam News'' still uses diacritics. This was once a major news source, but it disappeared from newsstands years ago.<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> Nowadays, almost all of VNN's readers access [http://vietnamnews.vn/ the website], which is diacritics-free.

* '''There is no trend toward increased use of diacritics.''' Yes, some publishers did experiment with them after Unicode was introduced. But for the last five years or so, the trend has been the other direction. ''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 two years ago. The print edition of ''Viet Nam News'' still uses diacritics. This was once a major news source, but it disappeared from newsstands years ago.<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> Nowadays, almost all of VNN's readers access [http://vietnamnews.vn/ the website], which is diacritics-free.