So I read Comma Gets a Cure

my name   Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:47 pm GMT
Hi Guys!

I decided to record myself reading Comma Gets a Cure!

Here's the link to the audio file: http://69.197.152.82/91828/92ff8b30a4.wma

Here's the text:
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.

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What do you think?
American   Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:55 pm GMT
It sounds like an American accent to me.
old timer   Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:54 am GMT
Interesting how "been" rhymes "bean" near the beginning of the story.

Maybe this is an ultra-modern US accent.
American   Mon Jun 22, 2009 3:10 am GMT
Ah, a new-fangled accent.
American   Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:46 pm GMT
Now that I think about it, I don't think that I've ever heard anyone pronounce "been" as "bean". I always pronounce it as "bin"--like the garbage bin.
my name   Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:30 pm GMT
What is an ultra-modern US accent?
Another Guest   Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:11 pm GMT
I don't know how much of it was just not being careful with your speech and how much was your accent, but your had several odd pronunciations. What follows are what you said followed by the correct pronunciation in parenthesis:
Jim McCullough (Jill McCullough)
Somerfill (Somerville)
veternary (veterinary)

You also seemed to have a hint of a lisp and rounding of your r's, and you dropped several words: "deserted district [of] the territory", "the letter implied [that] the animal", "it [would] take some force", "the cost [of] penicillin". I also found your voice somewhat nasal.

I pronounce "been" as "ben", and I didn't hear your pronunciation as being noticeably different from my own.
American   Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:33 am GMT
Interestingly enough, today I just heard two people pronounce it like that in meatspace (meatspace=real life. Ha ha "meatspace" is my new favorite word. That's another new-fangled dialect. Amazing how English has changed so much lately.)
my name   Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:58 pm GMT
I've never heard the word "meatspace" before. My spell check thingie even underlines it. I don't believe it's a real word.
or what?   Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:08 pm GMT
American   Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:44 pm GMT
Most of the new words are computer or internet related.
my name   Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:30 pm GMT
Yeah, I heard that words such as "defriend" and "noob" could be in the dictionary soon!

@American, btw, can you guess where I'm from?
American   Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:16 pm GMT
Wisconsin, perhaps?
American   Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:33 pm GMT
However, now that I listen to it again, it doesn't sound exactly like people from Wisconsin. Like how you pronounced the word "goose" stuck out at me. I'll have to compare it to other Comma gets a cure samples. I'll get back to you on that.
American   Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:56 pm GMT
I've found this site which has a whole bunch of Comma Gets a Cure samples as well as other passages:

http://web.ku.edu/~idea/northamerica/northamerica.htm