SPOKEN, READ, AND RECITED SELECTED AND TRANSCRIBED BY WALTER RIPPMANN NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1914 Reprinted, 1913 THE SOUNDS OF SPOKEN ENGLISH. By WALTER RIPPMANN. ELEMENTS OF PHONETICS: English, French and German. Translated and Adapted by Walter RippmaNN from Professor Viëtor's "Kleine Phonetik." ELEMENTS OF FRENCH PRONUNCIATION By B. DUMVILLE, B.A. PREFACE AN attempt was made in the Sounds of Spoken English to give a concise and simple account of the sounds existing in standard speech. The reception accorded to this venture was gratifying, and there is reason to believe that its appearance was opportune. The growing attention now fortunately devoted to the subject, not only by specialists but by all who are concerned for the right teaching of English, has shown the necessity for some such introduction to the scientific study of the speech sounds in the mother tongue. Unfortunately it has also led to the production of several manuals which show an ignorance of the subject that would be amusing if it were not calculated to confuse, and perhaps repel, the earnest beginner. The present volume is the complement to Sounds of Spoken English. It contains a number of prose passages transcribed as simply as possible and carefully graduated, and also a selection of passages in verse. These reappear in the second part (pp. 49 and foll.) in the ordinary spelling, and beside them are parallel passages for practice. The task of preparing the transcriptions has not been easy, and I am conscious that in the use (for instance) of weak forms, in the division into breathgroups, and in the stressing, there may often be a difference of opinion. It seemed to me that the only safe course to pursue was conscientiously to record my own speech. I am a born Londoner, and, except for a period of two years in my boyhood spent in Germany, I have never been seriously ex333796 |