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Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation

It's not what you say, it's the way that you say it ...

There have long been debates about 'correct' pronunciation in the English language, and Britain's most distinguished linguistic expert, David Crystal, is here to set the record straight. Sounds Appealing tells us exactly why, and how, we pronounce words as we do.

Pronunciation is integral to communication, and is tailored to meet the demands of the two main forces behind language: intelligibility and identity. Equipping his readers with knowledge of phonetics, linguistics and physiology - with examples ranging from Eliza Doolittle to Winston Churchill - David Crystal explores the origins of regional accents, how they are influenced by class and education, and how their peculiarities have changed over time.

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Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation

It's not what you say, it's the way that you say it ...

There have long been debates about 'correct' pronunciation in the English language, and Britain's most distinguished linguistic expert, David Crystal, is here to set the record straight. Sounds Appealing tells us exactly why, and how, we pronounce words as we do.

Pronunciation is integral to communication, and is tailored to meet the demands of the two main forces behind language: intelligibility and identity. Equipping his readers with knowledge of phonetics, linguistics and physiology - with examples ranging from Eliza Doolittle to Winston Churchill - David Crystal explores the origins of regional accents, how they are influenced by class and education, and how their peculiarities have changed over time.

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Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation

Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation

by David Crystal
Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation
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Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation

Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation

by David Crystal

Overview

It's not what you say, it's the way that you say it ...

There have long been debates about 'correct' pronunciation in the English language, and Britain's most distinguished linguistic expert, David Crystal, is here to set the record straight. Sounds Appealing tells us exactly why, and how, we pronounce words as we do.

Pronunciation is integral to communication, and is tailored to meet the demands of the two main forces behind language: intelligibility and identity. Equipping his readers with knowledge of phonetics, linguistics and physiology - with examples ranging from Eliza Doolittle to Winston Churchill - David Crystal explores the origins of regional accents, how they are influenced by class and education, and how their peculiarities have changed over time.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781782832348
Publisher: Profile
Publication date: 12/14/2017
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 4 MB

About the Author

David Crystal is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. His many books range from clinical linguistics to the liturgy and Shakespeare. He is the author of The Story of English in 100 Words, Spell It Out: The Singular History of English Spelling, and Making a Point: The Pernickety History of English Punctuation, all published by Profile. His Stories of English is a Penguin Classic.

Find him on Twitter @davcr
www.davidcrystal.com


David Crystal is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Bangor. His many books range from clinical linguistics to the liturgy and Shakespeare. He is the author of Making a Point, The Story of English in 100 Words and Spell It Out: The Singular History of English Spelling, both published by Profile. His Stories of English is a Penguin Classic.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Panel A poetic voice 4

1 Always there 7

Panel Henry Higgins 11

2 The phoneticians 12

Panel Three early phoneticians 19

3 The basic system 21

Auditory check 1 26

4 How sounds are made 27

5 'Tain't what we say … 32

6 High and low 41

Panel Uptalk? 49

7 Loud and soft 52

Panel Laboratory or lavatory? 60

8 Fast and slow 63

9 Strong and weak 68

Panel Rhythm sells 74

10 Filled and unfilled 75

11 The value of vowels 81

Panel The Tyger puzzle 85

12 One quality or two? 88

13 Long or short? 91

Auditory check 2 96

14 Spread or rounded? 97

Auditory check 3 104

Panel Prunes and prism 105

15 Close or open? Front or back? 106

Auditory check 4 115

Panel Schwa 117

16 The plosive family 119

Auditory check 5 129

Panel The glottal stop 130

17 The fricative family 132

Auditory check 6 141

Panel Poetic friction 142

18 The affricate family 144

Auditory check 7 148

19 The nasal family 149

Auditory check 8 158

20 The approximant family 159

Auditory check 9 167

Panel Beautiful sounds 168

21 Words of one syllable 170

Panel Phonemic torture 177

22 Speaking with your mouth full 178

Panel Writing it down 183

23 Connecting words 186

24 Accents welcome 192

Panel Myths about accents 202

25 Being accommodating 205

26 Where are you from, robot? 211

Panel The accent detective 220

27 Which century are you from? 222

Panel RP 130 years ago 231

Panel How did Isaac Newton speak? 232

28 Where is English pronunciation going? 234

29 Pronouncing Purcell (and others) 243

Panel Pronouncing Shakespeare 249

30 Never heard of it 252

Panel New brand pronunciations 257

31 Using phonetics 259

Epilogue Endless changes 266

Appendix Teaching pronunciation 267

Quiz answers 277

References and further reading 279

Acknowledgements 284

Index 285

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Reference
English Language Reference
English Language Reference - General & Miscellaneous
Reference
English Language Reference
English Language Reference - General & Miscellaneous

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