Abstract
In the 1930s and earlier teachers of speech paid considerable attention to pronunciation. The popular Speech Handbook by Harry Barnes (1936, 1941) included a form on which teachers might grade students’ speeches. One of the 11 items was pronunciation. This form was representative of ones that were in popular use. The accompanying textual material devoted a chapter to each of the items of the score sheet. An inference to be drawn by a student was that speech composition and delivery were of equal importance and that each was equal to the sum of its parts. A program for a theatrical production at a midwestern university often included on the production staff a “Director of Diction.”
With the close assistance of Algeania Freeman (Norfolk, Virginia), Sheila M. Goff (The Ohio State University), Eui Bun Lee (Texas Southern University), Cleavonne S. Stratton (Murray State University), and Keith Young (Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia).
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Notes
This procedure has been largely superseded by more sophisticated ones in the United States; however, it remains current in many regions of central and southern Europe.
See Wise (1958) for Thomas Sheridan’s avowed purpose in writing the General Dictionary of the English Language, 1780: “One main object of which, is, to establish a plain and permanent Standard of Pronunciation.”.
At the risk of being both boorish and paternalistic, the authors recommend a rereading of the cryptic Preface to Pygmalion, possibly the only brief essay Shaw ever wrote.
References
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Black, J.W. (1984). The Pronunciation Judgment Test, 1939–1978. In: Raphael, L.J., Raphael, C.B., Valdovinos, M.R. (eds) Language and Cognition. Cognition and Language: A Series in Psycholinguistics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0381-5_4
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