RE: Speak-Punctuation

I don't think this is really a question of accent.
It's not even about pronunciation. It's a matter
of interpretation. There are times when a "." is
a period and times when it is a decimal point.
There is a special case of the decimal point where
it is interpreted as cents.

The problem is that the special case is more
complicated than it looks--just looking for the
presence of a dollar sign doesn't cut it. I've never
heard anyone read "$10.32" as ten point three
two dollars, but I have heard "$10.32 million" as
ten point three two million dollars.

I guess some sort of ALT-like attribute in the
markup is the only real solution for special cases
like this. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	www-style-request@w3.org [SMTP:www-style-request@w3.org]
> Sent:	Sunday, August 15, 1999 3:52 PM
> To:	Benjamin Schak; www-style@w3.org
> Cc:	charles@w3.org
> Subject:	Re: Speak-Punctuation
> 
> 
> Benjamin Schak <schak@schak.com> wrote on 12/8/99 10:21 am:
> 
> >The main problem seems to 
> >me to be that the nuances of 
> >written English
> >punctuation (and 
> >punctuation of other human 
> >languages) are too complex 
> >to
> >be handled by a predefined 
> >set of CSS properties. It 
> >would be better to
> >let page authors tell 
> >speech-based browsers 
> >exactly how to render 
> >complex text. 
> ... examples deleted ...
> 
> Because it is a complex problem, the listener should decide what style of
> pronounciation is used.
> 
> The cascade order for CSS2  allows the user's style sheet to override the
> designer's style sheet.  This is important for universal accessibility.
> 
> This is similar. I have spoken to a Scotsman that I couldn't understand.
> We knew that we were both speaking English, but he could not communicate
> with me. I would prefer to hear his Web pages with an accent that I can
> understand.
> 
> People who are illiterate in a secondary language may find it easier to
> understand a reading in the accent of thier primary language.
> 
> Even things like 'three thousand, two hundred' vs 'thirty two hundred'
> vary between cultures, don't they?
> 
> I think that pronounciation should be controled by the listener, not the
> writer.
> 
> Jonathan O'Donnell
> mailto:jonathan@rmit.edu.au
> http://purl.nla.gov.au/net/jonathan
> 
> Jonathan O'Donnell
> Director of Information Technology
> Art, Design and Communication
> RMIT City campus 6.3.12
> 
> Telephone: +61 3 992 52903
> ICQ: 4613558
> mailto:doit@art.rmit.edu.au
> http://purl.nla.gov.au/net/jonathan
>

Received on Monday, 16 August 1999 14:41:16 UTC