Gimson’s Pronunciation of English

Since its publication, ‘Gimson’s Pronunciation of English’ has been acknowledged as the standard description, both comprehensive and accessible, of spoken English: an essential book for anyone studying the sounds and tones of English or teaching English pronunciation and intonation to non-native speakers.

This 6th edition comprises detailed revision throughout, with particular emphasis on those areas which have seen rapid changes in the last five years. The chapter on ‘Standard and regional accents’ has been expanded to accurately reflect changes in attitude to language standards, with a particular focus on recently recognised variation within a wider Received Pronunciation, such as Estuary English.

The new edition continues to provide valuable guidance on how to teach the sounds of English to foreign learners, for whom a new subsection on pronouncing dictionaries has been added. In addition, many other sections have been substantially rewritten, including those on the syllable and phonotactics and on word accent, with new spectrograms added to improve the acoustic information.

As with all previous editions of this classic work, great care has been taken to preserve the spirit of the original edition, such that ‘Gimson’s Pronunciation of English’ will maintain its position as the standard reference book in the field for many years to come.