Comments on: Site/Text with English dialect divergencies?

Question: Site/Text with English dialect divergencies?

symbioid — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:53:47 -0800

There was a site of speakers around the world speaking a specific phrase in English. This was to show how regional dialects of English sounded. You could click on a map and it would pull up video of these speakers. Does anyone know what that site is? If not, perhaps a good response would include a concise phrase that can show different regional variations (cot/caught, don/dawn, pin/pen).

I ask this due to a friend and I talking and she asking me if she had an accent to me. I noticed a slight Northern City Vowel Shift at times from her, and that got me wondering about this... I would like to post me speaking a phrase that has these pronunciations on my LJ, and have friends do the same. An interesting project, but I don't know a good source for such a text.

HELP?

By: holgate

holgate — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:57:26 -0800

IDEA?

By: el_lupino

el_lupino — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:58:43 -0800

Previously on MeFi.

By: holgate

holgate — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:00:54 -0800

Actually, IDEA doesn't have videos, and it's based upon longer passages. But the test passages, especially 'Comma Gets A Cure', really are very good at exposing variations in regional accents.

By: Beardman

Beardman — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:01:15 -0800

Are you thinking of this BBC site?

By: fogster

fogster — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:04:34 -0800

It sounds a lot like GMU's Accent project, except they don't do video.

FWIW, the phrase they use is: "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."

By: symbioid

symbioid — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:18:21 -0800

All these replies are excellent. In fact, I was thinking of the Stella quote (though I was pretty certain there was video... guess not) But I have seen the Comma Gets a Cure as well. I couldn't find the MeFi link, even though I'm pretty sure that's where I first saw it.

By: Solon and Thanks

Solon and Thanks — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:19:22 -0800

It sounds like a combo of the el_lupino and fogster's answers. That is, the GMU Accent project is probably the most useful and maybe you're remember the videos from the 'previously on mefi.'

By: rhizome

rhizome — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:15:17 -0800

Harvard Dialect Survey also.

By: Kachina_Motel

Kachina_Motel — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:21:30 -0800

Way back in my undergraduate Linguistics class I remember hearing an audio compilation of regional pronunciations of the phrase "When Mary got married, we all made merry." For a short line it revealed a lot. No video, alas.