After nearly four years as an articulatory outlaw, GUD has finally decided to conform to the ruling of the International Phonetic Association and change its pronunciation to that required by its appearance, as understood by readers of the International Phonetic Alphabet: /gud/*. The IPA has escalated its attempts to force us to make our pronunciation less misleading from friendly memos through harassing phone calls and litigation to a full-on international campaign of persecution. While we regret the loss of our previous pronunciation (/gʊd/**) and its connotations of quality, desirability, and virtue, we understand the IPA's position that setting such a precedent for pronunciation of the letter 'u' might lead to a rash of unlawful, undesirable, and disharmonious manipulations of the vowel space, especially among youth already under the dangerous influence of heavy metal music. Also, we were tired of reading letters that began "/diɹ ɛdɪtɹz/".

* Those of you who learned pronunciation from subversive dictionaries such as Webster's will perhaps understand more easily if we say we are changing the pronunciation to 'gūd'.

** Per Webster's, 'gŏŏd'.

2 comments; 3 subscribers

Tuesday, April 6, 2010 / 08:20:28

mmSeason

If i didn't know the word 'good' i'd probably have read it as 'gÊŒd'* (rhyming with 'thud'). You mean it's now to rhyme with 'lewd' instead of 'wood'? Never mind, it's encouraging to know such respectable bodies as the IPA have you on their radar. ;0)

* I was never taught any phonetic alphabet, just picked it up out of interest, and haven't got it memorised.

 

Friday, May 7, 2010 / 06:26:57

ashkrafton

Pshaw. Conformers.

*wink*