Anyway, it’s hard to say if it’s a universal theme. If so it’s worth noting that it’s not that people are reluctant to use IPA, since most of these books include it in the introduction. So as a theme, “abandonment” feels wrong. And at least one of the better dictionaries, the 上海话大词典, makes full use of it. Unfortunately the sister-edition lacks it entirely.

I’m a bit bothered by everyone’s need to come up with their own system of transcription when a perfectly good one already exists. Give me one reason why I should bother learning your system when you already know my universal system (IPA in this case) so well. Discussion has been had about intuitiveness of different systems but they’re really only as intuitive as their ability to mimic one you already know.

There are still a number of competing transcription systems in American dictionaries. I did a quick check in my Dictionary application built in to my computer. It’s the New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd edition, and gives you the choice between British IPA, American IPA (for which it still gives 4 different pronunciation) or American Diacritical (e.g. |ˌdīəˈkritikəl|). Most Americans, at least judging by those I meet as English teachers in China, are completely oblivious to IPA, and I think this may be one reason why.

Do you think there’s some universal theme here about abandonment of IPA in China and US? In the US it is (used to be? I’m getting dated here) that all the dictionaries used their own systems for showing pronunciation, often useful only if you already (mostly) knew the pronunciation.