Speak with Distinction: The Classic Skinner Method to Speech on the Stage

by Edith Skinner, Timothy Monich, Lilene Mansell

Widely recognized as the most complete and rigorous text of its kind since it was first published in 1942, Speak With Distinction is an invaluable resource. It presents a comprehensive study of the sounds of Spoken English in their most important phonetic environments.

This most recent revision also adds much material for comparisons of speech sounds; suggestions for accurate, efficient and conversational ways of combining the sounds into connected utterance; indications that foster a working knowledge of two dialects of speech (General American and what Mrs. Skinner called Good Speech for classic and elevated texts); and beginning material to show application of the principles of Good Speech to well-written texts.

Some important additions to the book are the extensive Glossary and Index, abundant guides to pronunciations, new sections featuring such details as the complete "Ask-List" of words, a program for the elimination of glottal attacks of vowel and dipthong sounds, greatly expanded practice material of phrases and sentences, and an updated Chart showing several levels of phonetic transcription and spelling equivalents in current usage.

Speak With Distinction can be used in several ways: as a primary educational textbook for both the beginning and advanced actor; as a supplementary textbook for teachers and students who have their own methods and agenda for study; and as a reference book for teachers, speech coaches and directors.

Genres: Nonfiction, Linguistics, Self Help, Textbooks

416 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1990

Reviews

[Henry Fellows Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the work a great deal, but I will not say that it wouldn't be enormously tiresome for someone with only a cursory interest in the involved subjects. The book is very useful. It gives good explanations and has a great deal of exercises. Working through them will give one a solid internal reference point for the accent one wishes to acquire against which one can check one's reading aloud of texts. I do have some issues with it, however, and these are with its content. First, Skinner seems very fond of diphthongs before silent /r/. There is nothing wrong with this, but I have never heard anyone who says [kɑə] for ⟨car⟩. Similarly, I do not think one ought always to have a diphthong for ⟨or⟩. Though universal [ɔə] is found in certain New York accents, I think it is wiser to prescribe a simple [ɔ] after the fashion of most RP speakers, unless one wishes to acquire a horse-hoarse distinction, which would be very difficult. One finds this later pronunciation in speakers such as Henry Cabot Lodge, and the effect is very successful. All in all though, this book is an excellent guide, though I will admit that I hardly read any of the section on consonants, which render me rather little difficulty.

[May Ling · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this book is about learning to Speak with Distinction in the context of acting, it's a brilliant book for anyone that is interested in what is involved with speaking English well. The book is divided into five chapters.
Chapter 1 is an overview of vowels and consonants and proves some of the basic phonetics.
Chapter 2 is related just to Vowel Sounds. Wow. It is a wonder that any of us learn how to speak properly. There are so many different types of ways that we talk about vowels beyond long and short sounds. There are Front Vowels, Mid Vowels, Back Vowels and the nuances of each.
Chapter 3 talks about Dipthongs as relates to vowels. These are the odd intonations that we add to shorter or lengthen the sound (not the type of vowel that is pronounced). Here there is long, short with the letter r, two tripthongs (hire, flower), and a rising dipthong (tedious, influence).
Chapter 4 - Move to consonants. You would think this would be straight forward. Nope. There are Stop Plosive Consonants, Affricate Consonates, Lateral Consonants, Frictive, Gliding. All of which are necessary for someone to sound fluent in the language.
Chapter 5 - speaks to even more specific pronunciation that moves you from speaking to being theater distinctive.

I once reviewed a company that said there were like 250 elements to speaking English without an accent. I get it now. Wow. The book has tons of exercises to help those that have specific issues. Many are considered tongue twisters. As I currently have Invisilign, I really struggle, though without the device I can do most of the exercises without a problem. Wow, though! A great book if you're trying to reduce accent or understand what the missing elements are that are causing you to have one.

[Sun Protostellar · Rating 2 out of 5]

The accent introduced in this book is a blend of GenAm and RP for actors in the 1930s, which is rhotic, advocates for the intermediate-A (trap-bath split) but forbids the intrusive-R. However I believe that on today's stages, actors should employ the accent of the characters they play to reflect their socioeconomic class and regional background, not the so-called "correct" accent.

The book offers a good review of sounds of English and has numerous good examples for exercises. However in comparison, pretty much any modern linguistics textbook on phonetics has a better and systematic presentation of IPA and various phonological changes.

[Daryl Nagai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book secondhand and it was missing the cassette tapes. Open it up and there's lists of words, phrases, and sentences to practice proper enunciation. Some of the pages read out like avant-gardé stream-of-consciousness tongue twisters. These exercises are supposed to teach you the mid-Atlantic old Hollywood accent. At page 320, the book adds excerpts from poems, songs, and plays so you can show off the grand finale of what you've learned from your lessons.

[chelsea angeles · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone trying to perfect different kinds of accents, this was quite interesting and somewhat helpful. It does not teach you how to do different kinds of accents, but it provides information and techniques that could be useful. Good for learning proper pronunciation and for practicing speech skills.

[S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this out from my local library so I could try to learn to speak like Katharine Hepburn. Unfortunately for me, I am not cut out to sound as eloquent as she did and now I can see why the trans-Atlantic accent, as swell as it was, died out. lol

[SoapBox Speakers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has good examples of how to practice diction and pronunciation. Lots of exercises.

[Genevieve]

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atla...

I would lovvve to find an old copy of this.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I blamed my sibilance on dental implants. I was wrong.

[Aithen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be a standard course for at all anglophone universities for teachers/educators in training.