English Accents and Dialects : An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles (cassette sold separately) [Paperback]

Arthur Hughes (Author), Peter Trudgill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0340614455 | ISBN-13: 978-0340614457 | Edition: 3

This book is a unique introductory survey of the main regional and social varieties of English spoken in the British Isles. The authors discuss accent and dialect in the broader framework of language variation, including phonetic, phonological, grammatical, lexical, historical and stylistic differences. This is followed by a survey of the speech of twelve different areas of the British Isles. The cassette which accompanies the book consists of edited interviews (all transcribed in the book) with speakers from each of the different areas. The third edition has been thoroughly revised and includes an entirely new chapter on Received Pronunciation. The cassette now includes recordings of three different varieties of RP speech. Entirely new sections, with corresponding recordings, have been added on Lowland Scots, Devon and Dublin speech.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'This book really is a star. Written by people who really know how difficult it can be to pinpoint accents and dialects, this book provides maps and diagrams showing their locations, and differing phonological features of areas. The terminology is easily understood, so much so that it was a pleasure to read.' A reader from Essex (amazon.co.uk) --na --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Arthur Hughes, Senior Lecturer in Linguistic Science, Reading University. Peter Trudgill, Professor of English Linguistics, Lausanne University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Hodder Education Publishers; 3 edition (June 28, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340614455
• ISBN-13: 978-0340614457
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,500,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great intro and birds-eye view., July 2, 2001

By 

Tadeo Berjon Molinares (Mexico City, D.F. Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: English Accents and Dialects : An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles (cassette sold separately) (Paperback)

OK, first the good points about the book. It's superbly organised, providing word lists at the beginning of every chaptre, which gives you a great idea of how different accents compare on identical sets of words. The intro about different styles and registers of Received Pronunciation, including grammatical points, is also of great help to understand how accents may differ. The tape is a must, and the dialogues in it are great, since they were recorded in a very spontaneous manner. OK, so, the sound's quality is not the best around, but you get spontaneous dialogues (and therefore more natural dialectal pronunciations) in exchange. The only problem I'd see is that is that stylistic varieties are not covered more in depth. J.C. Wells' "English Accents: An Introduction" and "English Accents: The Brittish Isles" offer a lot more information, cover more nuances of accent, and are in general more complete that this book. Anyhow, it's still quite a good buy if you're interested in regional varieties of English in the Brittish Isles.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This is not a set., October 23, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles (Audio Cassette)

If you notice the Editorial review, it states "in the book" and "the tape which accompanies the book", so I thought I was getting both a tape and a book -- and I was in a hurry. I was surprised to receive only the tape (especially for $29.00). It has some good, if not always very understandable, native speakers of various dialects of Great Britain on it -- and without the transcriptions it is hard to grasp all the changes. I guess now I'll order the book and wait three weeks for that. It is a good resource for samples of some of the regional dialects not easily found in the major dialect source books.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can serve as a prelude to dialectology course, November 7, 2005

By 

Mikhail Ordin "Mikhail" (Russia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles Includes CD (Paperback)

Wonderful introduction into studying dialects and accents. Although not very suitable for a complete course on dialectology, it is nice to grasp the general idea of English variations on the British Isles. The CD is a must. The set will be valuable for students of English as a foreign language to prevent the shock of facing authentic casual speech, which may seem unintelligible to unprepared non-native speakers. Although it is not rich in theoretical issues, the book presents good material organization and easy to read text. The material presented in non-technical manner, lacks nuances, and mainly focuses on sound distinctions, mentioning intonation, stylistic appropriateness, cultural and historical grounds aside. On the other hand, it is one of the best introductory books for enthusiasts and non-linguists to get acquainted with language variations on the British Isles.