We Are Not Amused
Bodleian Library (Verlag)
978-1-85124-478-2 (ISBN)
Pronunciation governs our regional and social identity more powerfully than any other aspect of spoken language. No wonder, then, that it has attracted most attention from satirists. In this intriguing book, David Crystal shows how our feelings about pronunciation today have their origins in the way our Victorian predecessors thought about the subject, as revealed in the pages of the satirical magazine, Punch.
In the sixty years between its first issue in 1841 and the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, jokes about the fashions affecting English usage provide one of Punch's most fruitful veins of humour, from the dropped aitches of the Cockney accent to the upper-class habit of dropping the final ‘g’ (huntin’ and fishin’). For 'We Are Not Amused', David Crystal has examined all the issues during the reign of Queen Victoria and brought together the cartoons and articles that poked fun at the subject of pronunciation, adding a commentary on the context of the times, explaining why people felt so strongly about accents, and identifying which accents were the main source of jokes. The collection brings to light a society where class distinction ruled, and where the way you pronounced a word was seen as a sometimes damning index of who you were and how you should be treated. It is a fascinating, provocative and highly entertaining insight into our on-going amusement at the subject of how we speak.
David Crystal is a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster on language. His books include The Stories of English (2004), Wordsmiths and Warriors: The English-Language Tourist's Guide to Britain (with Hilary Crystal, 2013), The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation (2016) and The Story of Be: A Verb's-Eye View of the English Language (2017).
Contents
Introduction
Mr Punch tries to help
Why then?
Elocution Walker
Provincial peculiarities
Poor letter H- upstairs and downstairs
Going too far
The demand for elocution
Spelling out H
Spelling bees
Cockney vowels
Keb, sir?
Vowel washing
Ambiguities
Posh pronunciation
Personal intewest
Scots pronunciation
The wh- problem
Dr Johnson on the Scots accent
Inoffensive Boswell
Pronouncing place-names
Underground pronunciations
Law and Lindley Murray
Pronouncing surnames
Actors' pronunciation
American pronunciation
Taking Cockney seriously?
Leaving Walker behind
Picture Credits
| Erscheinungsdatum | 27.10.2017 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 54 Illustrations, black and white |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 161 x 210 mm |
| Gewicht | 352 g |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Comic / Humor / Manga ► Humor / Satire |
| Sonstiges ► Geschenkbücher | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-85124-478-6 / 1851244786 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-85124-478-2 / 9781851244782 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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