Dialect Guide - British Isles - Dialect Guide - British Isles - Research Guides at Point Park University

Guide Information and Navigation

This guide will provide resources for students learning dialects and accents, specifically those originating in the British Isles. The information will be presented in several formats. On each page you will find an embedded video featuring the respective dialect, information about the dialect, links to sound clips from the IDEA (International Dialects of English Archives) website, links to video examples of each dialect, and links to films and books available at the Library. Each specific dialect page can be linked to by clicking on the corresponding tab at the top of this guide. This guide can be used by students in THEA 213, 214 as well as anyone interested in learning dialects for acting purposes or for fun!

Below are links to three websites that contain sound clips and phonetic transcriptions of different dialects. Examples from the IDEA website are found on each page of this guide as well.

Dialect Library Resources

The following resources are all available at Point Park University Library.

Accents by Robert Blumenfeld
Call Number: PN2071.F6 B48 2002
ISBN: 9780879109677
This practical reference manual, with its precise, authentic instructions on how to speak in more than 100 dialects, has established itself as the most useful and comprehensive guide to accents available, now increased by a third in this revised printing. As before, the accents range from regional U.S. and British dialects to European accents that include, among others, the Germanic, Slavic and Romance Languages. Completing his around-the-world journey, the author then covers the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Includes two CDs.
Dialects for the Stage by Evangeline Machlin
Call Number: PN2071.F6 M3 2006
ISBN: 9780878302000
Dialect work is one of the actor's most challenging tasks. Need to know a Russian accent? Playing a German countess or a Midwestern farmhand? These and more accents - from Yiddish to French Canadian - are clearly explained in Evangeline Machlin's classic work. Now available in a book-and-CD format, Evangeline Machlin's Dialects for the Stage is based on a method of dialect acquisition she developed during her years working with students at Boston University's Division of Theatre. During her long career,Evangeline Machlin trained such actors as Steve McQueen, Lee Grant, Suzanne Pleshette, Joanne Woodward, and Faye Dunaway.
How to Do Accents by Edda Sharpe; Jan Haydn Rowles
Call Number: PN2071.F6 S53 2007
ISBN: 9781840026009
In this groundbreaking textbook, two of Britain's leading voice coaches set out a new way of learning how to do accents based on seeing, hearing, and feeling the way accents are put together. With the use of the accompanying CD, the reader is led through a step-by-step, simple but detailed process.

2018 IPA Chart

This link will take you to the full 2018 version of the IPA Chart, from the International Phonetic Association website.

IPA Chart

Paul Meier IPA Charts

Paul Meier IPA Charts
This link will take you to charts of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) that were designed by Eric Armstrong and voiced by Paul Meier (dialect coach and author of the best-selling Accents & Dialects for Stage and Screen).