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Rating: 
Summary: FUN! AMAZING!
Review: 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!
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty useful for some, less for others
Review: 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".
Rating: 
Summary: Lahv it, gahv-nah!!
Review: 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".
Rating:
Summary: The Best!
Review: I used to check this book out from the library when I was young... I been looking everywhere to buy this, but this is the first time I've been successful. I am SO pleased!
Rating: 
Summary: practically useless if you've learned IPA
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: practically useless if you've learned IPA
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT, Easy to follow
Review: This book helped me learn some of the hard accents, the easy way. It's really well organised and helped me out alot. It's easy to follow, and it'll make you happy.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT, Easy to follow
Review: This book helped me learn some of the hard accents, the easy way. It's really well organised and helped me out alot. It's easy to follow, and it'll make you happy.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty useful for some, less for others
Review: This book is proof that some information is eternal. I found the sections on European dialects fairly useful. However, I did not find the Asian dialects to be all that accurate and found the background information given on them to be of a rather politically incorrect (not to mention rather inaccurate) nature. But considering that the book was compiled in the 1940's (so says the first printing date in the version I have), that isn't all that shocking. The main reason why I have a hard time giving this book anything higher than three stars is that, like stated earlier, it does not use IPA, which is a far more accurate than the awkward system they used in the book. The system they use still has me boggled as to whether I am pronouncing the words correctly.
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