Speech Accent Archive
George Mason University's Speech Accent Archive recorded people from around the world saying the following phrase:
There's a map you can click on to hear how people from various parts of the world sound saying these words. Even though many of the people are non-English speakers, I thought the Scots and Irish still managed to sound the strangest.
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.
There's a map you can click on to hear how people from various parts of the world sound saying these words. Even though many of the people are non-English speakers, I thought the Scots and Irish still managed to sound the strangest.
Comments
Finally, the New Orleans accent is not as freaky as it is always made out to be when it appears on film. I hate movies that take place in New Orleans because the accent is never believable.
Posted by Madd Maxx on 02/09/09 at 07:25 AM
I don't think I do but I have been told that I do. Funny thing is I have been accused of being from either Jersey, New York, or New England but never New Orleans and never a southerner (New Orleans is not really southern even though it's smack dab in the middle of the south).
Posted by Madd Maxx on 02/09/09 at 08:19 AM
Maxx, everyone expects people from New Orleans to sound like Justin Williams (the Cajun Cook) so Hollywood blows it out of proportion. Like everything else Hollywood. And if you keep saying Jersey instead of New Jersey, people will think your from New York or Philly.
I wish I had a Scottish brogue. It sounds so rich and full of pride. Then again, everyone expects the Scots to sound like Sean Connery, and it's just not that way. They sound more like Chalies's father in So I Married an Axe Murderer ("Hayd! Pahnts! Neow!") If it were, there would be less stereotyped Latin lovers and far more Celtic lovers.
Oh well. :roll:
I wish I had a Scottish brogue. It sounds so rich and full of pride. Then again, everyone expects the Scots to sound like Sean Connery, and it's just not that way. They sound more like Chalies's father in So I Married an Axe Murderer ("Hayd! Pahnts! Neow!") If it were, there would be less stereotyped Latin lovers and far more Celtic lovers.
Oh well. :roll:
Posted by DownCrisis on 02/09/09 at 08:52 AM
I listened to the Greek and a few from UK. None of them represented the accents of the people. The wife has been teaching English as a Foreign Language for decades and the ones from Greece are WAY too clear. And if you ever run into a kilt wearin', claymore brandishin', piper from the highlands you'll understand what I'm talking about with the Scottish.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 02/09/09 at 09:50 AM
Hey Madd Maxx,
I know a couple of people from Louisiana, and they have a bit of a cajun accent, but they sound nothin' like I was led to believe by Zatarains commercials. And I thought Tennessee was in the middle of the South(geographically, anyways).
I know a couple of people from Louisiana, and they have a bit of a cajun accent, but they sound nothin' like I was led to believe by Zatarains commercials. And I thought Tennessee was in the middle of the South(geographically, anyways).
Posted by Matt in Florida on 02/09/09 at 09:52 AM
People from southern Louisiana do have a cajun accent. Northern Louisiana is more country than cajun. New Orleans is neither.
Posted by Madd Maxx on 02/09/09 at 12:14 PM
Nothin' is sexier than a Scottish or Irish accent, but I admit those sounded a bit weird. Maybe they were too self-conscious about being taped?
Posted by BikerPuppy on 02/09/09 at 04:56 PM
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Category: Languages