Speech Accent Archive
I have always been interested in how accents of speech develop and change. I was very interested to discover this website that features English accents from all over the world. This is a fairly systematic study of the way English is pronounced using the same text sample. You can hear accents from Mongolia to California and everywhere in between.
People submit recording of the following text:
“Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.”
As I promised my friend Amy, here is a sample of me reciting the text:
To browse the existing samples please follow this link:
http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_atlas.php
This is a great idea and I hope you will consider recording your accent and submitting it to the project.
This entry was posted on Sunday, November 5th, 2006 at 7:02 pm and is filed under Community, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
4 Responses to “Speech Accent Archive”
Well, that is hardly fair! You are a professional! lol … that was fun, thanks for sharing. That is such a cool project. I need to go back out there and hear some new voices.
BTW - Iain left you a note about your backup script … http://community.nebraska.edu/amyblog/index.php/2006/11/02/google-blogger-gone-blinkers/
Hey here is something weird about the study. They classify the accent according to birthplace. They placed my accent as an example of an Oxford, England accent.
http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=604
I only spent years 1 and 2 in England (and then one again later when I was 10) Don’t think my accent sound like an English one.
That is interesting. Sounds like the selection criteria needs to be enhanced. Imagine how difficult that would have to be to come up with a set of questions that represent “real life scenarios” closely enough to properly classify the voice. Although, perhaps asking where you grew up when you started learning to talk might be a good start.
Also raises an interesting question as to when “accent” begins in speech. Do you think two year olds have accents? You work with kids - do they?
I like this theme, BTW.
For sure 2 year olds have accents. My 4 year old has a very specific accent now and pronounces several words differently than I do. Amazing how accents are constantly changing.
He says school and cool with an accent on the “oo” that makes lisa and me chuckle every time we hear it.
I also plan to record my 7 year old niece for the project too!!
I like this theme too though it was displaying strangely in explorer. (all the right column options appearing at the bottom of the page instead of the top)
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