Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation

Review Previous praise for David Crystal: Crystal's book is full of distractions and delights ― Daily ExpressRefreshing and briskly written ... Crystal shows that grammar is not nearly as tedious as it can seem ― Sunday TimesIf the history of language is a sort of labyrinth, David Crystal is an excellent guide ― The Age, AustraliaDelicious revelations ... Crystal does an excellent job, not just of tracing the etymology of a word, but of relating it to social history, painting a picture of our times through words ― Independent on Sunday Product Description 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. Book Description The newest volume in David Crystal's pentalogy of the English language, focusing on the subtleties of pronunciation From the Back Cover 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. Covering phonetics, linguistics and physiology, and with wide-ranging examples from Eliza Doolittle to Winston Churchill, Crystal explores the origins of regional accents: how they are influenced by class and education, and how their peculiarities have changed over time. 'Highly entertaining'Observer 'Crystal's achievement is to make the history of our language a live and lively study.'The Times About the Author 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.