A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English

by John S. Kenyon and Thomas Albert Knott

Book Overview

American Pronunciation by John Samuel Kenyon is a comprehensive guide to the pronunciation of American English. The book covers all aspects of American pronunciation, including vowel and consonant... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877790477
• Release Date: June 1953
• Publisher: Merriam-Webster, Inc.
• Length: 542 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.1" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

correct standard American English

The book is a very useful tool for actors who are cleaning up their own speech and regionalisms. The key is correct (another reviewer is claiming it has an error)the pronounciation of the ending "y" is actually a "short i" (as in "it") sound not the "ee" sound that we so commonly hear today. And yes, pitted and pittied would be pronounced the same, that is not a mistake--merely a change in how we are accustomed to hearing them spoken today. Who speaks like this? Anyone who wants clarity and sharpness when performing Shakespeare or speaking into a microphone. If you look at movies from the 40s in particular you will find this standard applied. You will also find a dialect coach listed in the movie's credits :) Do we still use these pronounciations today? Sometimes not, language usage/pronounciation changes over time. What is considered "correct" changes more slowly as well. And certainly, some of the choices on pronounciation are rather classist, reflecting a preference for the Eastern US upper class. In general, we have collapsed a lot of vowel sounds and made them much more "slovenly", this book reminds us that it was not always so. You need to have a good understanding of IPA to correctly use the dictionary. It makes a very good companion to any of the Edith Skinner materials on speech for actors. If your interest is in sounding "current" this may not be the book for you.

Standard Reference Tool for American English

I've used this as a required reference in over thirty years of teaching Voice and Phonetics on the college level. In all those years, I've found only three pronunciations that are incorrect and a handful of others that are a little more formal than are currently accepted in non-regional American English pronunciation.

Great for teaching English

This book is an excellent tool for an ESL tutor. The word pronunciation guide makes American English as clear as it can be.

Very practical reference book for non-native English speakers

This is an excellent book for anyone who doesn't know how to pronounce some English words using a perfect American pronounciation. It helps a great deal to some people whose English is not their first language and sometimes it is difficult for their audience to understand what they are trying to express in their speech. Furthermore, I think that it can also help some native Americans with some words that they don't know and they want to pronounce them correctly.

Excellent even for native speakers!!!

The use of this dictionary is very, very helpful to speak or read aloud correctly. I have been reading words that I haven't used before, and have lived all my life in the United States. For anyone learning American English as a new language, this dictionary would be even more priceless. This Pronouncing Dictionary of American English is so much easier to use that a normal dictionary. With no definitions, it is very quick to look up words, and the International Phonetic Alphabet, that is used, gives such a simple, easy, clear way of how to speak a word. One example is:psychosis - sai 'kosisIf a word is actually pronounced a little differently in the East (E) or the South (S), or elsewhere, that pronounciation is also given. This dictionary is a real "keeper".