Speech sample

Travis   Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:43 am GMT
As I just got my mic working by getting my hands on a sound card (instead of the onboard chipset that I have been using whose microphone input support is broken), I have made a sound sample of the following passage at:

http://www.upl.cs.wisc.edu/~bemann/audio/speech_example_3.mp3

Note that to avoid any really weird questions as to where I am from or what my accent is which have plagued similar threads here, I will state right here that I am from the Milwaukee, WI area and have lived here my entire life besides when I have lived in Madison, WI. No, I do not have any kind of accent associated with any language spoken in East or Southeast Asia (seriously, at least one person has said that I sound like I speak Konglish).

Comma Gets a Cure and derivative works may be used freely for any purpose without special permission provided the present sentence and the following copyright notification accompany the passage in print, if reproduced in print, and in audio format in the case of a sound recording: Copyright 2000 Douglas N. Honorof, Jill McCullough & Barbara Somerville. All rights reserved.

"Well, here's a story for you: Sarah Perry was a veterinary nurse who had been working daily at an old zoo in a deserted district of the territory, so she was very happy to start a new job at a superb private practice in north square near the Duke Street Tower. That area was much nearer for her and more to her liking. Even so, on her first morning, she felt stressed. She ate a bowl of porridge, checked herself in the mirror and washed her face in a hurry. Then she put on a plain yellow dress and a fleece jacket, picked up her kit and headed for work.

When she got there, there was a woman with a goose waiting for her. The woman gave Sarah an official letter from the vet. The letter implied that the animal could be suffering from a rare form of foot and mouth disease, which was surprising, because normally you would only expect to see it in a dog or a goat. Sarah was sentimental, so this made her feel sorry for the beautiful bird.

Before long, that itchy goose began to strut around the office like a lunatic, which made an unsanitary mess. The goose's owner, Mary Harrison, kept calling, "Comma, Comma," which Sarah thought was an odd choice for a name. Comma was strong and huge, so it would take some force to trap her, but Sarah had a different idea. First she tried gently stroking the goose's lower back with her palm, then singing a tune to her. Finally, she administered ether. Her efforts were not futile. In no time, the goose began to tire, so Sarah was able to hold onto Comma and give her a relaxing bath.

Once Sarah had managed to bathe the goose, she wiped her off with a cloth and laid her on her right side. Then Sarah confirmed the vet's diagnosis. Almost immediately, she remembered an effective treatment that required her to measure out a lot of medicine. Sarah warned that this course of treatment might be expensive-either five or six times the cost of penicillin. I can't imagine paying so much, but Mrs. Harrison-a millionaire lawyer-thought it was a fair price for a cure"
Robin   Mon Dec 04, 2006 4:03 am GMT
Dear Travis

I recorded a speech sample, and I explored your Web Site. However I have not been able to find a location to 'upload' my speech sample.

Bye for now
User   Mon Dec 04, 2006 4:16 am GMT
Lol. This is so funny. I played your sample to someone (without showing your message), and here's what she responded.

Where is he from? (Give 3 answers)
1) Someone with a speech impediment from Japan or Korea.
2) Definitely a foreigner
3) Someone with a bad cold in their nose or a severe allergy.

Assuming he is from North America, name 3 cities where he might be from:
1) Toronto, ON --lots of immigrants
2) Charlottesville, VA
3) Mexico City

Assuming he's from the US, name 3 places
1) Detroit
2) Vermont
3) Kansas City
-----

I think it's funny that the first guess was Japan or Korea. This is the first sample I've played this person, and she's never heard the other samples on this site, nor seen any of the posts on this site.

You'll be happy to note that when hearing your samples, I myself, did not think you were from Asian (although I read your above post so I knew that wasn't the case).
Comma   Mon Dec 04, 2006 5:27 am GMT
Well, here's mine. It's in Microsoft format:

Comma Gets a Cure Copyright 2000 Douglas N. Honorof, Jill McCullough & Barbara Somerville. All rights reserved.

http://www.zippyvideos.com/1475941426369456/comma2/
Mr. Befuddled   Mon Dec 04, 2006 6:30 am GMT
Shocking. You really looked like someone from Japan or Korea. Even I am not a native speaker. I can feel this. My friend listented to your sample and he could not believe that you were from USA. Your accent is hard to understand, and you have got a cold or something..how's the weather up there?
Mr.Befuddled   Mon Dec 04, 2006 6:39 am GMT
More shocked after listening to Comma's accent. Is she a sister of Travis by any chance? Both seem to have speech impediments. ;)
Sorry   Mon Dec 04, 2006 7:18 am GMT
I don't mean to be offensive, but do either Travis or Comma have speech impediments? It sure sounds so to me.

Remember, I'm not trying to be offensive--I'm just curious.
Travis   Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:21 am GMT
Speech impediments, no. What you are noticing is most likely a combination of a few different features, they being:

* Frequent realization of canonical /l/ as separate [M\] or in diphthongs as [M] or [U], especially in "dark" positions but also in "light" positions as well. This is simply the completion of the common shift [5] -> [w] / [M\] (or when following vowels, "l" vocalization), which has been found in many languages. This is shown by the presence of [L\], which is an expected intermediate position in that shift, in many "light" and some "dark" positions in my speech, especially in more formal or careful speech.

* Elision of /n/ before unstressed sonorants which are not stressed non-initial vowels, leaving preceding vowels nasalized except in rather unstressed positions. Non-realization of /n/ combined with remaining nasalization of preceding vowels is likely part of what is being heard as part of my nose being really stuffy.

* Elision of [4], [v], and occasionally [D] which are not before stressed non-initial vowels.

Notably, none of the above features show up in my German, even though I have only [l] in my German (but [5] does not exist in Standard German), which definitely contradicts the idea of the above being some sort of "speech impediment".

My nose is *slightly* stuffy at the moment, though, which could also contribute to such.
Travis B.   Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:50 am GMT
>>You'll be happy to note that when hearing your samples, I myself, did not think you were from Asian (although I read your above post so I knew that wasn't the case).<<

It is not like I care that someone specifically does not think I am from Asia, it is just that I find it really strange that some people to insist that any English-language accent they do not recognize must be a non-native one belonging to a L1 speaker of some language spoken in East or Southeast Asia (a concept that is even more strange because there are quite significant differences between the languages spoken there phonologically).

All in all, I was really just trying to explicitly explain that I am an L1 speaker of English from North America so people do not go off wildly guessing that I am an L1 speaker of a whole range of different languages. I brought up languages spoken in East or Southeast Asia because that seems to be something people often associate unfamiliar accents with, and in particular Upper Midwestern dialects seem to be associated with such.
Weatherman   Mon Dec 04, 2006 3:28 pm GMT
>> Your accent is hard to understand, and you have got a cold or something..how's the weather up there? <<

Well, I just checked Google weather. Och that's right cold! How can you stand it, Travis?

Celsius: -5 High -13 low
Fahrenheit: 22 High 8 low
Fred   Mon Dec 04, 2006 9:03 pm GMT
Wow, I thought you Midwestern folk were supposed to not have accents. Both of you have really strong accents. I was surprised.
Travis   Tue Dec 05, 2006 8:19 am GMT
>>Travis,

I think the speech impediment comments are stemming from your rather unique pronunciations of R's and S's. I will have to check out the IDEA site to compare your pronunciation with other natives of the Milwaukee area.<<

The pronunciation of /s/ here involves two different phonological phenomena which are not general features of NAE dialects. The first is the shifting of [stS] to [StS] to [S:], where I normally have the intermediate value of [StS] rather consistently, and will only on occasion have [stS] or [S:]. Note that this is something where I am more progressive when it comes to speakers here, as it seems like most people here by default have [stS] and only sporadically use [StS] or [S:] in such positions, or at least freely alternate between [stS], [StS], and possibly [S:].

The second is allophony of /s/ depending on what it precedes, where it has a weakly laminal allophone that I will call "[s]" and a strongly laminal allophone that I will call "[s_m]" which is more like [S] except alveolar rather than postalveolar. /s/ is normally "[s]" except when preceding /p/, /t/, /m/, /n/, /L\/, /R/, or /w/ but *not* /k/, where it is "[s_m]" instead. However, though, an intermediate value of "[s_m]" will in turn assimilate to a preceding [S] or [tS] to become [S] while "[s]" will remain as such in such positions. This results in things such as "much stuff" having /s/ realized as [S] but "much skill" having /s/ realized as "[s]". With respect to this, I do not seem to differ much from most other people here, at least from what little I have gathered up to this point.

My realization of canonical non-syllabic /r/ is [R_o] (a uvular approximant) unless after a laminal or coronal, where it is [r\_m_-] (a laminal postalveolar approximant). The syllabic version of such for me is normally just [R_o=] except when after /w/ or /m/, where such then has a postalveolar coarticulation (think trying to pronounce both [R_o] and [r\_m_-] simultaneously, syllabically). Unlike with [StS], this pronunciation seems rather typical for this area, at least to me. As for where this came from, I really do not know - either such is due to substratum influence (think German) or is a really weird local innovation.
Guest   Wed Dec 06, 2006 3:05 am GMT
I'd say that the oddest section was when Travis got to the section: "near the Duke Street tower. [?] area was much nearer." and when Comma gets to the "plain yellow dress" section.

The other thing that stuck out for me was the intonation. Is it just me, or do both Travis and Comma have very unusual intonation throughout the entire passage?
Rocio   Wed Dec 06, 2006 7:00 pm GMT
I have one question, I´d love to upload something for you to listen but I´ve no idea where to do it! can u help me with this? I´ll appreciate it :)
I want you to tell me how I sound, it´s not easy to control one´s sounds. thanks!!
Guest   Wed Dec 06, 2006 7:32 pm GMT
Record your voice. make a free e-mail account at yahoo. download it at yahoo briefcase. And then provide us email ID and password in order to access to it.