African Accents: A Workbook for Actors

Beth McGuire

feb 2016 · Routledge

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This is a comprehensive workbook for actors, covering the key characteristics and profiles of a wide range of African accents of English. Its unique approach not only addresses the methods and processes by which to go about learning an accent, but also looks in detail at each example. This lets the reader plot their own route through the learning process and tailor not only their working methods but also their own personal idiolect.

Full breakdowns of each accent cover:

• an introduction giving a brief history of the accent, its ethnic background, and its language of origin
• preparatory warm-up exercises specific to each accent
• a directory of research materials including documentaries, plays, films and online resources
• key characteristics such as melody, stress, pace and pitch
• descriptions of physical articulation in the tongue, lips, jaw, palate and pharynx
• practice sentences, phoneme tables and worksheets for solo study.

African Accents is accompanied by a website at www.routledge.com/cw/mcguire with an extensive online database of audio samples for each accent. The book and audio resources guide actors to develop their own authentic accents, rather than simply to mimic native speakers. This process allows the actor to personalize an accent, and to integrate it into the creation of character rather than to play the accent on top of character.

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Beth McGuire is a professional dialect and vocal coach for theatre and film. She is Director of Speech and Dialects at Yale School of Drama.