3. The questions are designed to be relevant to speakers of English worldwide, not just in the United States. Designed badly, then, in my view. Most of the questions seem to relate to purely American linguistic oddities. I do ... Hello,

}> }> I can half understand why we don't say Paree, but why shouldn't }> English speaking people be able to sort out the local pronunciations }> of proper nouns in English speaking countries? Why do all English }> people, it

Remarkably, that gentle valedictory provoked a flood of letters. (Well, eight letters.) In a sense it was much adieu about nothing, Perhaps he means Much ado about nothing. Adieu is a French word use to salute someone whom one expects never to see

I stopped reading Katherine Kerr when the same mistake was perpetuated in her 3rd or 4th book: she gave 'thin' ... of an o - I like to call it a smiley - so %u means a smiley over the u. That diacritic is called a "breve" in

Yes, but why do American dictionaries choose *my* pronunciation over someone from Alabama, or Massachusetts, or Wisconsin? There are glaring and drastic differences in pronunciation from region to region. There are, certainly. But, as I said

I don't necessarily agree with this. "Dictionaries describe the most *usual* pronunciation"?? What does "most usual" mean? The densest and ... There are a great many people in the South that pronounce "help" as

wrote: ^(2/3) is exponential and slower than linear. Actually, that's not exponential: an exponential function has x in the exponent, not as the base of the exponent. -Aaron J. Dinkin Dr. Whom Hasn't anyone consulted the dictionary yet?

True. But they share at least one thing in common: they're distinct. And I think they share other things in common too. For example, "ah" is never rounded; "ah" is never to the back of "aw". "Ideal" by

If you say that to me, you say nothing. As a description of a sound, "aw" has no useful meaning. But I think it does have some useful meaning to the community of CINC AmE speakers. I think if you were CINC you'd understand. I doubt

y = x ^(2/3) is exponential and slower than linear. Actually, that's not exponential: an exponential function has x in the exponent, not as the base of the exponent. -Aaron J. Dinkin Dr. Whom Hasn't anyone consulted the dictionary yet?