It could happen some day. *****************
As many native and fluent English speakers know, the language contains many irregular pronunciations which makes it difficult to develop speech synthesis programs for those with reading or speech impairments. A new Aural Standard is being formulated to aid developers of such programs. Examples under review with the International Standards Committee on Speech Synthesis include the following:
Enough will be pronounced "enowf"
Thought will be pronounced "thowt"
Bough will be pronounced "bow" (no change)
Brougham will be pronounced "browam"
Dough will be pronounced "dow"
In the example above, English speakers from the southern United States will have little difficulty making the transition because the new pronunciations closely resemble how they have always pronounced these words. However, it is not the Committee's intent to validate the pronunciations of any regional group.
Those English speakers with an instinctual familiarity with the customary pronunciation of these words may experience some slight difficulty in making the transition to the revised pronunciations but the Committee is confident that the context in which words are spoken will help clarify the meaning of the word.
The period for word submissions, as well as rule codifications to be included in the Aural Standard, will be open for 90 days from the publication date of this notice.
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