Beginner's Dictionary of USA English: Truespel Book 3
From the Voice of America Intermediate English Dictionary
by
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Section 1. Words Alphabetized by Traditional Spelling (Tradspel)
For Looking Up Words in Traditional Spelling
Note: Section 2 is for looking up words in phonetic spelling (truespel).
This Dictionary contains 1,476 words and makes an excellent vocabulary goal for beginning to intermediate level learners as determined by Voice of America. In fact, a special VOA site has a beginners news site using these words at http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/wordbook-a.cfm. The preliminary information for the dictionary is below:
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About the Book
This dictionary of USA English is directly taken from the Voice of America (VOA) "Intermediate Dictionary of English." There are about 1,500 words in the dictionary. The VOA uses these words primarily for broadcasting in a simplified English mode. The words and definitions in this book are exactly as in the VOA version. However, because there is no pronunciation guide in the VOA version, a truespel pronunciation guide is provided modeled after the voicings of English on m-w.com, the Merriam-Webster talking dictionary. Unique to this dictionary is a reverse guide that lists phonetic words alphabetically so they can be looked up phonetically. This solves the problem of silent first letters. A large volume reverse dictionary will be available as truespel book 2. More info is available at truespel.com.
About the Author
Thomas E. Zurinskas is the creator of truespel, the world's first pronunciation guide spelling for USA English. His experience is as a technical editor, human factors specialist, database specialist, and quality assurance specialist with the Federal Aviation Administration. His HF design background led him to create a user-friendly phonetic system for USA English. Using voicings from popular talking dictionaries, he respelled the English language in USA accent. This created a database for a unique analysis investigating how the sounds of USA English are spelled in traditional spelling (he calls tradspel).
He has applied truespel to other languages and compared them to USA English in terms of sound frequencies. Current efforts are detailed at truespel.com. He lives with wife, Bonnie, in Greenacres, Florida.