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 Twopop 
Rear Admiral (Ambassador)
Joined: Jul 21, 2004
Member#: 7382
Posts: 2673
Location: Oregon
    
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 Posted:
Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:20 pm Post subject: Speech Accent Archive |
 
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One of the coolest things about SST is that we represent a wide variety of languages and dialects. As diverse as we are, there is one thing we all have in common (besides the love of music of course) – we can all speak English.
There’s an interesting website called The Speech Accent Archive that is a resource for hearing English spoken with many different accents.
Using their map of the world, you click on a country or region to listen to audio samples of people reciting the same paragraph.
With so many regional dialects here in the US and Canada, it seems like there are many still missing from their database. For example, I would love to have heard more typical ones from Maine, Boston, Minnesota, Fargo, the burroughs of NYC, the deep South, various provinces in Canada, just to name a few. This is probably true of samples from other countries as well.
Anyone can participate and they have instructions on how to submit your own audio sample.
Here is the elicitation paragraph that you would record. It contains most of the consonants, vowels, and clusters of standard American English:
"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."
It would be fun to hear some SSTers on there. Please let us know if you end up sending one in.  |
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FoxMcleod64
Lieutenant
Joined: Apr 10, 2003
Member#: 849
Posts: 119
Location: Siloam Springs, AR
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Posted:
Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:17 am Post subject: |
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Pretty interestiong Twopop. The samples from the states all sound very rehearsed though and I can't hear much of the differences in those dialects and accents from the different regions and we all know there are!
I remember being at football game Arkansas playing Minnesota, and being right in front of the Minnesota crowd I could hear everything they were saying and I could have sworn they were speaking a completely different language their accents were so thick! (Maybe it was all the beer they were drinking.)
For obvious reasons, its not until I started listening to examples from outside the USA that I noticed the significant differences.
_________________
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."
- Sun-Tzu
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Twopop
Rear Admiral (Ambassador)
Joined: Jul 21, 2004
Member#: 7382
Posts: 2673
Location: Oregon
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Posted:
Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:35 am Post subject: |
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| FoxMcleod64 wrote: |
| ..sound very rehearsed though and I can't hear much of the differences in those dialects |
Great story, Fox. I agree - that's why I decided to post it here. The guy from Maine didn't sound much different from the Calif. and Oregon people.
One of the problems with their DB is that people submit them themselves, which probably means they're from a more tech-savvy, educated sampling. It would be great if they would go out in the field to record let's say a little old grandma in the hills of Appalachia. |
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 genericdragon
Commander
Joined: Jul 29, 2004
Member#: 7493
Posts: 706
Location: Over Hill and Under Wood
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Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 4:37 am Post subject: |
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Fascinating site find, 2. I will have fun with the samples for a while.
That said, I also find the DB abit sparce with content. My guess is that the DB will fill out as the site get more exposure.
I tried a sample of three dialects: one from Berkeley, California; one from Elmore, Alabama; one from Brooklyn, New York. There wasn't much difference to my ear for most of the words; with a few exceptions, mostly it was subtle differences in the vowel sounds. I did hear huge differences in the pace, intonation and nasal usage (like the person was holding their nose while speaking). For example, the Brooklyn clip was spoken with a heavy nasal monotone and at a steady pace. The Alabama sample was a light-nasal lilting tone at a broken, yet consistant, pace. And the Berkeley sample had very-little-nasal lighter lilting tone at an even pace (although the vowel sounds were strongly influenced by the speaker's native Mandarin)
These differences are hard to hear by listening the the full paragraph sample by sample. I had to stop the audio at each comma and compare each sample bit by bit.
I would give a sample of my accent, but I wouldn't really represent the California dialect. It is true that I was raised in Northern California, however I had been told that I have a Canadian accent. How is this possible(?), you might ask. When I was 6 until 16, I watched PBS educational programs most of the time (the rest of the time was for cartoons  )... most of these programs were produced in Canada. I tink that I pick up teh dialect from watching tease programs, eh?
_________________
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
"The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children." ~ King Edward VIII (1894 - 1972) |
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 j2brown
Commodore
Joined: Feb 22, 2002
Member#: 9
Posts: 3188
Location: Sterling, VA
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Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 5:59 am Post subject: |
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That's entirely possible, GD. My daughter loves watching Angeline Ballerina and she sounded quite British (to my American ears, at least) for a bit. She still uses some of the phrases, but without the accent. "Candy floss" and "Ready, steady, go!" come to mind.
jeff
sdg |
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Twopop
Rear Admiral (Ambassador)
Joined: Jul 21, 2004
Member#: 7382
Posts: 2673
Location: Oregon
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Posted:
Sun Apr 01, 2007 1:23 pm Post subject: |
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| genericdragon wrote: |
| "The thing that impresses me the most about America ..." |
Don't you mean "aboot"? |
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genericdragon
Commander
Joined: Jul 29, 2004
Member#: 7493
Posts: 706
Location: Over Hill and Under Wood
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Posted:
Wed Apr 04, 2007 12:55 pm Post subject: |
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LOL 2! What you talking aboot?!
J2- I still use phrases picked up from Monty Python and various other British sitcoms. I also picked up some phrases from a trip to Australia... I would guess that my accent is Canbriteurstrailian now. This should really confuse people.
_________________
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
"The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children." ~ King Edward VIII (1894 - 1972) |
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j2brown
Commodore
Joined: Feb 22, 2002
Member#: 9
Posts: 3188
Location: Sterling, VA
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Luther_III
Commander
Joined: Jun 20, 2005
Member#: 10621
Posts: 846
Location: New Orleans
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Posted:
Mon May 14, 2007 10:24 am Post subject: |
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Now that IS interesting.
Let's see... so I've lived in Pop, Pop, Soda, Soda, and now Coke areas!
_________________
"If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.... I get most joy in life out of music."
--Albert Einstein |
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