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 Preface

VI

Other divergences from the "broad" transcription to suit special circumstances will readily suggest themselves to teachers. Generally speaking, however, the usual broad form of 'transcription, taken in connexion with the rules

given in Appendix A transcription is used

—

which have to be learned whatever form of answer all requirements. One detail of the transcription may he referred to here. The question whether to use the sign e or the sign £ to represent the vowel in get, red, etc.,

—

rules

,

will be found to

has been carefully considered. The matter

is

one of considerable

difficulty

(l) owing to the fact that several varieties of pronunciation exist, (2) owing to the fact that many speakers use different varieties in different words (e. g.

a "closer" one in get and an "opener" one in %cdt), and (3) owing to the sound is probably just about intermediate between "cardinal" e and "cardinal" £. After much hesitation the sign e has been adopted in this book, the chief reason in favour of this mode of representation being that it helps better to counteract the common foreign mistake of using too open a variety. It should, however, be made clear that there fact that the "average"

is

not

may

much

between the two modes of representation in fact cases which it would be on the whole more helpful to tran-

to choose

easily arise in

scribe with C (e. g. in



refemng

to English pronunciation during the teaching

of French pronunciation to English pupils).

STYLES OF PRONUNCIATION The pronunciation represented

is

essentially that of Southern

Englishmen

who have been educated at the great public boarding schools (see § 24). Where more than one form is admissible, that form is chosen which is shown by experience to give the best results with foreigners. Thus the word extraordmary admits of a number of pronunciations. The form generally aimed at by foreigners is ekstra'd.'dinari, but they usually give such undue emphasis and incorrect values to the unstressed vowels that the wofd sounds utterly wrong. But when a foreigner is taught the form iks'traidnri, which is equally correct in ordinary speech, he soon succeeds in making the word sound English, for the simple reason that there is not so much opportunity him to go wrong. The latter form is therefore given in this book. It is sometimes stated by English teachers that such forms as iks'tra: (Inri, not being generally used in the style of speaking adopted in recitation, etc., are not suitable forms for to teach to foreigners. I am unable to share this for

opinion for two reasons, in addition to that given above. Firstly, the vast majority of people who study the pronunciation of a foreign language do so not with a view to being able to recite in that language, but because they want to be able to talk like ordinary educated people. And secondly,

who do wish to learn to recite cannot do better than start by learning to talk. The modifications of pronunciation necessary in the elocucutionary style of speaking require special study, and cannot be properly

those few

understood without a thorough knowledge of the conversational style of speech. I take this opportunity of reminding English-speaking readers that it is not the object of this book to set up this particular style of pronunciation as a standard. Its object is to record accurately one form of English pronunciation, and to give to foreigners methods of acquiring that form if they