Theatre Speech (was: Flapping to another Topic)

[Nancy Elliott]

From: Bob Fitzke <fitzke at voyager.net>
To: Nancy Elliott <nelliott1 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Theatre Speech (was: Flapping to another Topic)
Date: Sun, Jan 23, 2000, 9:47 AM


Thanks for the info.

Bob

Nancy Elliott wrote:

> Mr. F,
>
> For terms such as low back vowel, voiced, voiceless, flap, and intervocalic:
> see any book on phonetics (one such author is Peter Ladefoged) or
> introductory linguistics.  For the terms rhotic and non-rhotic, look in
> William Downes, Language and Society (Cambridge U. Press 1998), chapter 5 on
> Rhoticity.
>
> If you're interested in more, look at J.C. Wells' Accents of English (3
> vols.), and then, when it becomes available from Univ. Microfilms, my
> dissertation, "A Sociolinguistic Study of Rhoticity in American Film Speech
> from the 1930s to the 1970s" (Indiana University, January 2000).
>
> Yours,
>
> Nancy C. Elliott
>
> ----------
> >From: Bob Fitzke <fitzke at VOYAGER.NET>
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >Subject: Re: Theatre Speech (was: Flapping to another Topic)
> >Date: Sat, Jan 22, 2000, 7:43 PM
> >
>
> > Ms. E.
> >
> > Can you steer me to a book that explains the various terms you used in this
> > message? Thanks.
> >
> > Bob
> >
> > Nancy Elliott wrote:
> >
> >> Theatre (and theater) vocal coaches use the term "Transatlantic" for a
> >> conservative variety of stage speech still taught to stage actors today. It
> >> preserves many low-back vowel distinctions, has the voiced-voiceless W
> >> distinction, is either non-rhotic or prescribed as having "weakly
> >> articulated R", and has a released instead of flapped intervocalic /t/. It
> >> is called "Transatlantic" because, in the words of one prominent voice
> >> trainer, it is "the kind of speech that might be heard somewhere in the
> >> Atlantic Ocean exactly halfway between New York City and London" (Robert L.
> >> Hobbs, 1986, Teach Yourself Transatlantic: Theatre Speech for Actors, p.
6).
> >> Having examined some actor speech training manuals, I think that
> >> Transatlantic most closely resembles non-rhotic Eastern New England speech
> >> with the addition of British intervocalic /t/.
> >>
> >> Nancy C. Elliott
> >> Southern Oregon University
> >> ----------
> >> >From: "Aaron E. Drews" <aaron at LING.ED.AC.UK>
> >> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >> >Subject: Re: Flapping to another Topic
> >> >Date: Sat, Jan 22, 2000, 3:03 AM
> >> >
> >>
> >> >> Do linguists not use the term "mid-Atlantic"?  I've heard it very often,
> >> >> especially among actors.
> >> >
> >> > It's been used on this list a couple of time before.  I know it was in a
> >> > recent book, on phonology or acquisition, although I don't have the title
> >> > handy.  It's part of the title of my thesis.
> >> >
> >> > The term 'mid-Atlantic' is in use by linguists as well as non-linguists.
> >> > How much currency it has in either sphere, though, is another question.
> >> >
> >> > --Aaron
> >> >
> >> > ________________________________________________________________________
> >> > Aaron E. Drews                               The University of Edinburgh
> >> > http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron      Departments of English Language and
> >> > aaron at ling.ed.ac.uk                    Theoretical & Applied Linguistics
> >> >
> >> >  "MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF"
> >> >   --Death
> >> >
> >