Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the Great
Why is "prun-ounce-e-hay-shun" so taboo and impossible to use?
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Because that would defeat the international part. It's fine when you're trying to tell an English-speaking person how to pronounce it, but it's pretty useless in, say, an English - Italian dictionary (meant for Italians), as they'd have no idea how the English pronunciation rules work. After all, that's why they're looking it up. Of course, when telling a Dutchie how to pronounce this (I don't know how Italian brains work), you could tell him "prun-auns-i-hee-sjun" but what if you don't know who is reading it?
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not defending IPA or any of those others, but if you want international, it's the closest thing we've got. I agree with Maverick though, that we should pick one and stick with it.
Practically though, I know just how that would turn out. As we have too many choices, every great country would want the right to pick one for itself, and then we, in the EU, are taught one, and told that we should learn another as well, as it's used in the US. (Of course, Canada would follow the US, as would most of Asia, but after a while they switch to the Euro - I mean the European system, since they think the US isn't so stable anymore. Meanwhile, Africa doesn't care.) It's happened before, it will happen again.
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