Search

This Article provides the first comprehensive legal analysis of parents' rights to name their own children. Currently, state laws restrict parental naming rights in a number of ways, from restrictions on particular surnames, to restrictions on diacritical marks, to prohibitions on obscenities, numerals, and pictograms. Yet state laws do not prohibit seemingly horrific names like "Adolf Hitler," the name recently given to a New Jersey boy. This Article argues that state laws restricting parental naming rights are subject to strict scrutiny under both the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. This Article concludes that although many restrictions are constitutional, prohibitions on diacritical marks, such as that employed by the state of California, are unconstitutional. If parents wish to name their child "Lucía" or "José," they have a constitutional right to do so. Similarly, current laws restricting parental choice of surnames fail strict scrutiny review. This Article also considers the constitutionally and desirability of statutory reforms that would address certain harmful names not prohibited by current law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to transcribe disordered speech is a vital tool for speech-language pathologists, as accurate description of a client's speech output is needed for both diagnosis and effective intervention. Clients in the speech clinic often use sounds that are not part of the target sound system and which may, in some cases, be sounds not found in natural language at all. While the IPA provides a wide range of symbols that can be used in clinical transcription, the extended IPA (extIPA) may also be needed to transcribe atypical sounds never or rarely encountered in natural language. When using the IPA and extIPA transcribers aim to show the client's productions, irrespective of the intended target. An alternative tradition of clinical transcription has grown up in the US: the symbols suggested by Shriberg and Kent (SK). In many cases, these symbols are designed to show the intended target with a diacritic illustrating in which way the realization differs from the target. In this article possible confusions that may occur if the SK system is used are discussed, together with problems that may occur when SK and IPA are used together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using information from the 1996 INFOUSA ProCD CanadaPhone, I present graphically frequency distributions of forenames, surnames, and forename-surname pairs in Canada and compare each distribution with the equivalents in the United States. Minor cultural differences between Canada and the U.S. in the use of forenames are noted. Lists of the most popular forenames, surnames, and forename-surname pairs in Canada are presented. Although the source provides more information than previously available, several deficiencies are noted, in particular the absence of diacritics does not allow all French names to be correctly rendered, and the method of listing results in a gross under-representation of female forenames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the use of diacritical marks in developing word-analysis skills in reading and spelling. Importance of diacritical marks to the identification of the correct pronunciation of an unfamiliar word; Analysis of the pronunciation guides of dictionaries commonly used in the elementary schools in the U.S.