Abstract
THIS is a delightful book. Works on phonetics are usually dry and uninteresting except to those who are willing to face the technical difficulties of the subject. But Dr. Burch, who is well known in' other departments of science, invests the discussion with both wit and humour, while, here and there, he gives an amusing anecdote which is always appropriate and telling. He deals with the difficulties experienced by foreigners in catching the correct pronunciation of some of the sounds of the English language. The book is founded on lectures delivered at Norham Hall, Oxford, to foreign women students, and during the past ten years or so Dr. Burch has kept records of the chief difficulties in the pronunciation of 1305 persons of many different nationalities. He gives an excellent, although a short, account of the general mechanism of speech, and minutely describes the movements necessary for the articulation of the speech sounds of consonants, diphthongs, and vowels. There are also excellent remarks on the breathing apparatus.
The Pronunciation of English by Foreigners: a Course of Lectures to the Students of Norham Hall on the Physiology of Speech.
By Dr. Geo. J. Burch. Pp. x + 110. (Oxford: Alden and Co., Ltd.; London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Ltd., 1911.) Price 3s. net.
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MCKENDRICK, J. The Pronunciation of English by Foreigners: a Course of Lectures to the Students of Norham Hall on the Physiology of Speech . Nature 87, 246 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/087246a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/087246a0