Talk:£sd

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See Talk:Decimal Day for comments on merging content from various pages regarding British decimalisation -- OwenBlacker 21:52, Jun 2, 2004 (UTC)

Link: "Librae" links to the entry for the "Libra" zodiac sign. This doesn't seem right.

(The above comment was unsigned) I was about to change it to Scales but it seems someone has already changed it to point to Ancient Roman units of measurement with a mouse-hover popup of Weight. For now, I have left the article untouched and merely leave a suggestion of changing it to point to the scales page, since that is the most direct translation of the word Librae. EatYerGreens (talk) 12:22, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

The current version of this article has been edited by SimonTrew to state that £sd is pronounced ɛʎ' ɛs' ɖe. (This is IPA, though the article does not say so.) Previously it said that it was pronounced L.s.d. I prefer the earlier version for three reasons:

• "Pronounced L.s.d." is comprehensible by anyone with a basic knowledge of English, whereas most people will have no idea what "ɛʎ' ɛs' ɖe" means.
• I am not sure that it is pronounced "ɛʎ' ɛs' ɖe". The retroflex ɖ and the palatal ʎ may be in use in this expression in some varieties of English, but not in most, and they are certainly not usual in any pronunciation in widespread use in the United Kingdom, which is where this expression has had most prevalence. Likewise the final vowel is more likely to be i than e.
• Even if we were to edit the IPA expression to give a more typical pronunciation, I am not sure it would be advantageous to do so. It seems to me that what is required is to convey the message that the expression is commonly pronounced like the names of the three letters "L, S, D". If you pronounce those letters as ɛʎ' ɛs' ɖe, then that is how you should read "£sd", while, if I pronounce those letters ɛl' ɛs' di, then that is how I should read "£sd". This, I think, is more helpful than specifying the pronunciation used in one form of English.

There are certainly situations where IPA is a good way of indicating pronunciation, but I do not think this is one of them. My inclination is to revert this change, but I will wait a short while to see if anyone has a defense for the present situation. JamesBWatson (talk) 13:22, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

I agree that IPA is not appropriate here and should be reverted. L.s.d. are letters of the alphabet being pronounced, not words with an obscure or irregular pronounciation. Greensburger (talk) 14:41, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

No one has defended it: I have reverted. JamesBWatson (talk) 13:25, 8 May 2009 (UTC)