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Foreign Dialects: A Manual for Actors, Directors, and Writers
 
 
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Foreign Dialects: A Manual for Actors, Directors, and Writers [Paperback]

Lewis Herman (Author), Marguerite Shalett Herman (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)


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Book Description

January 15, 1997
Most actors and directors have struggled with the problem of needing to imitate foreign dialects. Marguerite and Lewis Herman have created an essential tool for actors, directors and writers aiming toward the most authentic performances possible.
Foreign Dialects contains an extensive repertoire of dialects that will assist the actor in the preparation for the most difficult foreign roles. Now in paperback, this classic text offers the director or producer a quick, convenient aid for correcting actors and evaluating applicants for authenticity and dialect ability. In addition, it guides those writing fiction as well as radio, movie, and television scripts. Thirty foreign dialects are provided, with character studies, speech peculiarities, and examples of the dialects in easy-to-read phonetic monologues--including Cockney, British, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Polish, Greek and Yiddish.


Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lewis Herman and Marguerite Shalett Herman compiled this material during more than 25 years of acting, writing, teaching, and study, in Europe, Hollywood, Chicago, and New York. They also acted and directed for stage, television, radio, and motion pictures.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 376 pages
  • Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (January 15, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0878300201
  • ISBN-13: 978-0878300204
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #787,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars FUN! AMAZING!, May 14, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Foreign Dialects: A Manual for Actors, Directors, and Writers (Paperback)
After getting this book, my parents were totally driven crazy for a week while I rambled in Cockney...it's amazing help, complete with little practice excercises, and each dialect has its own monolougue at the end of the chapter. The range of accents this book teaches is amazing...everything from Pidgen English to Scotish to Caribbean. super!
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars practically useless if you've learned IPA, April 1, 2003
By 
This review is from: Foreign Dialects: A Manual for Actors, Directors, and Writers (Paperback)
If you haven't learned dialect basics using the International Phonetic Alphabet, then you might find this book useful. The author discounts the use of IPA by saying that to learn it to be practical in this book would require the reader learning the equivalent of 3 other alphabets. I disagree; most useful IPA characters comprise about 36 different figures, most of which are similar or identical to the english alphabet. And the authors' use of very confusing diphthong combinations and upper and lowercase letters, without a solid basis of understanding their pronounciation, left me stumbling over the examples listed. I got more from trying to piece together their drawn-out descriptions of each sound than their "simplified" symbols.

If you're at all familiar with IPA, which is pretty much a standard for any dialect work you may learn, or any voice or articulation work, for that matter, you'd do better to avoid this book. The confusion is not worth the smattering of dialects (often bordering on the stereotypical) contained within.

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Lahv it, gahv-nah!!, April 18, 2003
This review is from: Foreign Dialects: A Manual for Actors, Directors, and Writers (Paperback)
As you maybe can tell from the title, I'm reading the first chapter on Cockney accent and driving everyone around me bloomin' bonkers. It's a well written, detailed book. The hints on dialects are so insightful...I've always liked to do accents but the fine-tuning ideas make you go, "Oh, yeah! That's right!" when you try them. There are almost too many details...the authors give you so many tidbits on doing certain dialects that you would be unintelligible if you tried them all. They warn you about this, though. The authors not only cover vowel and consonant changes but also lilt, grammar, and common slang. I only wish it came with a companion CD; I learn well by listening and imitating.

I definitely recommend this book and am planning on also purchasing "American Dialects".

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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Had the Ephraimites studied the dialect of the Gileadites they might have saved their lives. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
preceding vowel changes, glide rule, light dialect, indicating elongation, this vowel sound, initial vowel word, syllabic emphasis, fella bin, fella man, dialect substitutes, phonetic list, tonal emphasis, drill words, fella boy, vowel elongation, repeat the corrections, consonant changes, dialect student, this diphthong, grammar changes, stressed emphasis, gum ridge, dialect making, initial aspirate, foreign dialects
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Pidgin English, French Glide Rule, New York, Some Germans, Chinese Pidgin, Miss Stlevens, Charles Scribner's Sons, Mutual Network
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