 #1 (permalink) Tue Sep 11, 2007 13:49 pm Accent acquisition advice |
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Bernard Shaw wrote:
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| Finally, and for the encouragement of people troubled with accents that cut them off all high employment, I may add that the change wrought by Professor Higgins in the flower-girl is neither impossible nor uncommon. The modern concierge's daughter who fulfils her ambition by playing the Queen of Spain in Ruy Blas at the Theatre Francais is only one of many thousands of men and women who have sloughed off their native dialects and acquired a new tongue. Our West End shop assistants and domestic servants are bi-lingual. But the thing has to be done scientifically, or the last state of the aspirant may be worse than the first. An honest slum dialect is more tolerable than the attempts of phonetically untaught persons to imitate the plutocracy. Ambitious flower-girls who read this play must not imagine that they can pass themselves off as fine ladies by untutored imitation. They must learn their alphabet all over again, and different, from a phonetic expert. Imitation will only make them ridiculous. |
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Englishuser
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 06 Jun 2006
Posts: 806
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Ralf
