The Voice and Diction of Conversation : Page 69

Part of this is due to grammar and vocabulary, but much more, and the most difficult part to analyze, is due to a mode of pronunciation and a timber of voice. In his play, Pygmalion, Shaw shows how lowly born Eliza is trained away from her crude-sounding Cockney diction to the cultured articulation of better society. Perhaps reading this play might be as good as anything for developing an understanding of what is meant by talking in a pleasing level of refinement. Courses in phonetics and elocution give hundreds of rules and exercises. Here only a few practical short cuts to diction acceptable in good conversation can be indicated.