Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation

This clear and interesting book is an expression of Professor Crystal’s passionate interest in the sounds of English. In my country, Japan, English has been taught like classical Latin and Greek since the country’s modernization in the mid-19th century, so its suprasegmental features have been neglected in English education here. Crystal points out various features which are usually ignored in Japanese English education, for example, the subtle emotional nuance of ‘He’s in the garden, isn’t he’, which changes depending on whether the sentence has either a question mark or an exclamation mark at the end (page 44). Also, he explains the grammatical function of the intonation in ‘I really think it’s time...’ (page 73). This book reminds us of the importance of sounds in communication, both in the English of Shakespeare and at the present day. Highly recommended.

Typically Crystal - well-written and displaying his erudition and knowledge. However, I found it slightly less engaging than his spelling, grammar and punctuation books: it slightly crosses over with his one on accents (co-written with son, Ben), but with a bigger focus on phonetics. So, in summary: good, but not essential Crystal, in my opinion.

This book explains all about pronounciation using great examples. It is a bit scientific in places but if you pronounce the examples you get the idea quickly. One tip is have a copy of the IPA to help you pronounce correctly. Would higher recommend,

Fascinating book and essential reading

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