Hi, I purchased an audio from audible.com of Allan Bloom's Closing of the American Mind read by Christopher Hurt. I do not know who Christopher Hurt is, but I want to ask if his intonation is "normal" for US English. He seems to read every sentence wrong intonation-wise, rising on the wrong words and falling on the wrong words. The qn of how to read long sentences with correct intonation is quite difficult to answer, but I think it is at least possible that a US reading intonation might differ from a UK reading intonation.
Every sentence in that audio show the same thing but let me pick this:
Speaking of the (up) place of the (down) humanities in the univerisities.
He seems to have a rising tone up to "place of the" and then a falling tone on humanities, which seems odd. Place is a general word and humanities is a particular word, and I think humanities would be stressed in this sentence in UK English. I am wondering if he is affecting this pronunciation to sound more "measured" and thus come across as a careful thinker? But the book just sounds like is read wrong to me. What do US forum members think?
Every sentence in that audio show the same thing but let me pick this:
Speaking of the (up) place of the (down) humanities in the univerisities.
He seems to have a rising tone up to "place of the" and then a falling tone on humanities, which seems odd. Place is a general word and humanities is a particular word, and I think humanities would be stressed in this sentence in UK English. I am wondering if he is affecting this pronunciation to sound more "measured" and thus come across as a careful thinker? But the book just sounds like is read wrong to me. What do US forum members think?