Dialects of the British Isles (includes five CDs)

This easy-to-follow yet incredibly detailed 147-page book is the industry standard for dialects of the British Isles. You get not only a proven system of instruction instead of mere voice mimicry, but an invaluable collection of five CDs. (Four CDs contain two dialects while the fifth contains one, bringing the total dialects/accents to nine). This is the new and improved 2012 edition, with photos. Paul Meier, who speaks the entire text himself while also providing recordings of real-life speakers, is a leading dialect coach for theatre and film, and contained in this impressive collection is a slightly smaller and less expensive version of the dialects and accents found in his 370-page, 12-CD book "Accents & Dialects for Stage & Screen" (also offered on Amazon). Concentrating on just the dialects found in the United Kingdom and Ireland, this best-selling stage-dialects manual for actors teaches the following nine dialects: Cockney, Hampshire, Irish, Liverpool, Northern Ireland, Scottish, Standard British English (Received Pronunciation), Welsh, and Yorkshire. Coaching many famous actors (Tobey Maguire, Tom Wilkinson, and Mark Ruffalo, for example), Meier has also taught dialects at RADA, LAMDA, Webber-Douglas, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and other famous schools. In addition to his easy-to-follow practice material, for each dialect Paul coaches you in two monologues (one male and one female) from a well-known play or film, and links you to the hundreds of online recordings of native dialect speakers on his International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA). Further enhancing the value of the book are his interactive IPA phonetics charts and information on his unique show-specific dialect CDs for hundreds of plays and musicals, custom CD recording, and phone-coaching services. Easy enough for the beginner, yet rigorous enough for the most experienced professional.