Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!cornellcs!newsstand.cit.cornell.edu!portc01.blue.aol.com!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.erols.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!midway.uchicago.edu!msszczep
From: msszczep@midway.uchicago.edu (mitchell steven szczepanczyk)
Subject: Re: Source for Recent Spellings?
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: woodlawn-nfs.uchicago.edu
Message-ID: <DzHMxB.Jnr@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Organization: The University of Chicago
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
References: <53h29b$7m1@dove.nist.gov>
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 20:15:11 GMT
Lines: 36

Bill Fisher (billf@osi.ncsl.nist.gov) wrote:
:   Help!

:   We're trying to prepare accurate transcriptions
: of recent radio and TV news broadcasts for the
: evaluation of automatic speech recognizers, and
: it's not clear how to spell certain terms, such
: as foreign names transliterated into English.

:   It's occurred to me that it's probably not
: the case that every newspaper editor at every
: newspaper in the country makes up their own
: mind about how to spell, for instance, Dzokhar
: Dudayev's name.  Does anyone out there know
: if reporters or editors have an accepted standard
: source of spellings of foreign or original words
: in the news, perhaps an online subscription service?

:   - billf

In the past, particularly with regards to such names at Qadaffi (of
Qadafi or Kadafi, or....) and Tolstoy (or Tolstoi), the Library of
Congress has been consulted as the authority, and when I say authority, I
mean "let's let these people pick a spelling and have it stick."

Perhaps they can help with this situation as well.


--
--------                                 |"Three passions, simple but
MITCHELL SZCZEPANCZYK (shchih-PINE-chick)| overwhelmingly strong, have
University of Chicago Linguistics        | governed my life: the longing
m-szczepanczyk@uchicago.edu              | for love, the search for know-
http://www.umich.edu/~szcz               | ledge, and unbearable pity for
5130 South University, Chicago, IL, 60615| the suffering of mankind
(773) 667-8105 or (773) 667-6073         | [sic]."      --Bertrand Russell
