This book concisely describes ways in which today's standard British English speech differs from the upper-class accent of the last century, Received Pronunciation, which many now find old-fashioned or even comic. In doing so it provides a much-needed update to the existing RP-based descriptions by which the sound system of British English is still known to many around the world. The book opens with an account of the rise and fall of RP, before turning to a systematic analysis of the phonetic developments between RP and contemporary Standard Southern British (SSB) in vowels, consonants, stress, connected speech and intonation. Topics covered include the anti-clockwise vowel shift, the use of glottal stops, 'intrusive r', vocal fry and Uptalk. It concludes with a Mini Dictionary of well over 100 words illustrating the changes described throughout the book, and provides a chart of updated IPA vowel symbols. This book is an essential resource for anyone interested in British pronunciation and sound change, including academics in phonetics, phonology, applied linguistics and English language; trainers of English teachers; English teachers themselves; teachers of voice and accent coaches; and students in those areas.

This book will tell all you need to know about British English spelling. It's a reference work intended for anyone interested in the English language, especially those who teach it, whatever the age or mother tongue of their students. It will be particularly useful to those wishing to produce well-designed materials for teaching initial literacy via phonics, for teaching English as a foreign or second language, and for teacher training. English spelling is notoriously complicated and difficult to learn; it is correctly described as much less regular and predictable than any other alphabetic orthography. However, there is more regularity in the English spelling system than is generally appreciated. This book provides, for the first time, a thorough account of the whole complex system. It does so by describing how phonemes relate to graphemes and vice versa. It enables searches for particular words, so that one can easily find, not the meanings or pronunciations of words, but the other words with which those with unusual phoneme-grapheme/grapheme-phoneme correspondences keep company. Other unique features of this book include teacher-friendly lists of correspondences and various regularities not described by previous authorities, for example the strong tendency for the letter-name vowel phonemes (the names of the letters ) to be spelt with those single letters in non-final syllables.

Some people say scohn, while others say schown. He says bath, while she says bahth. You say potayto. I say potahto And- -wait a second, no one says potahto. No one's ever said potahto. Have they? From reconstructing Shakespeare's accent to the rise and fall of Received Pronunciation, actor Ben Crystal and his linguist father David travel the world in search of the stories of spoken English. Everyone has an accent, though many of us think we don't. We all have our likes and dislikes about the way other people speak, and everyone has something to say about 'correct' pronunciation. But how did all these accents come about, and why do people feel so strongly about them? Are regional accents dying out as English becomes a global language? And most importantly of all: what went wrong in Birmingham? Witty, authoritative and jam-packed full of fascinating facts, You Say Potato is a celebration of the myriad ways in which the English language is spoken - and how our accents, in so many ways, speak louder than words.

This course includes an overview of current theory and practice. The paperback edition offers current and prospective teachers of English a comprehensive treatment of pronunciation pedagogy, drawing on current theory and practice. The text provides an overview of teaching issues from the perspective of different methodologies and second language acquisition research. It has a thorough grounding in the sound system of North American English, and contains insights into how this sound system intersects with listening, morphology, and spelling. It also contains diagnostic tools, assessment measures, and suggestions for syllabus design. Discussion questions encourage readers to draw on their personal language learning/teaching experiences as they assimilate the contents of each chapter. Follow-up exercises guide teachers in developing a range of classroom activities within a communicative framework.

American English Phonetics and Pronunciation Practice provides an accessible introduction to basic articulatory phonetics for students of American English. Built around an extensive collection of practice materials, this book teaches the pronunciation of modern standard American English to intermediate and advanced learners worldwide. This book: • provides an up-to-date description of the pronunciation of modern American English; • demonstrates the use of each English phoneme with a selection of high-frequency words, both alone and in context in sentences, idiomatic phrases and dialogues; • provides examples and practice material on commonly confused sounds, including illustrative pronunciation diagrams; • is supported by a companion website featuring complete audio recordings of practice material to check your pronunciation against; • can be used not only for studying pronunciation in the classroom but also for independent practice. American English Phonetics and Pronunciation Practice is essential reading for any student studying this topic.

The essential handbook for every actor In every drama school, in every English-speaking country, students from all over the world have to learn a Standard English Accent, and voice and drama tutor shave to teach it. But what exactly is it? How many varieties are there? And which one should they use when? Following on from How To Do Accents, this book provides a long awaited,up-to-date answer to these important questions and offers a complete course in how to do A Neutral Standard English Accent & Upper and Upper-Middle Class Varieties Part One: contains all the tools you need to learn a current Neutral Standard English Accent; neutral in terms of class, race, age, gender, occupation and social background Part Two: introduces you to the most useful Upper and Upper-Middle Class varieties of Standard English Accent

First published in 1990, this collection celebrates the life and work of Professor A. C. Gimson, four years after his untimely death in 1985. A. C. Gimson, Professor of Phonetics at University College London, 1966-83, was the most distinguished and influential phonetician of his day concentrating specifically on English speech. This collection of essays on phonetics and phonology of English- written by linguists from all over the world – celebrates his life and work. The work is divided into five sections: prosody; phonology and phonetic description; accents of English and RP; other accents of English (focusing on those non-native speakers); and phonostylistics. The twenty-eight chapters cover a very wide range of topics and the contributors offer a stimulating variety of approaches, with the emphasis on data-based objectivity. Balancing description and theory with application, this volume provides a serious and coherent contribution to the academic study of English pronunciation.

English in Modern Times describes the development of the English language from 1700 until 1945, and argues that it is in the course of this later modern English period that the characteristics of 'modern' English evolved. This is the first undergraduate text to cover the whole of this important period, which has been called the 'Cinderella' of English historical linguistics because of its lack of representation in scholarly literature. This book is sociohistorical in orientation, arguing that social changes in the Anglophone world need to be taken into account if we are to understand the linguistic changes that occurred during this period. Further chapters deal with changes in vocabulary, syntax and morphology and phonology and with the attempts of lexicographers, grammarians and elocutionists to arrest and control these changes by codifying the language. Unlike many earlier histories of English, 'English in Modern Times' does not define 'English' as confined to Standard (English) English, but also considers the development of extraterritorial Englishes and non-standard varieties of British English in the Later Modern period.

This book advocates a new approach to pronunciation teaching, in which the goal is mutual intelligibility among non-native speakers, rather than imitating native speakers. It will be of interest to all teachers of English as an International Language, especially Business English. It proposes a basic core of phonological teaching, with controversial suggestions for what should be included.

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