Varieties of English Accents and Dialects
I am a student of English Linguistics and English/Arabic Translation. I am currently studying Contemporary Linguistics, Phonetics and Phonology, and Translation Principles. I am interested in studying the vast varieties of spoken English accents and dialects in the US, Canada, Australia and Great Britain; thus I am looking for English native speakers who are majored or have interest in linguistics and are willing to share their linguistic background knowledge of Standard and Colloquial English. I'd be greatly appreciative of any advice or help you can give concerning spoken English accents and dialects.
student_linguistics@yahoo.com
SCOTLAND
Gaelic (or Gallic as we call it) is not really a dialect...it's a Language in its own right. When I was a wee lad I used to go with my parents (later my Mum and Step-dad) to the Isle of Lewis, right in the north west tip of Scotland) where Gaelic is spoken by the majority of the population. We used to stay in a bungalow on the outskirts of Stornoway.
If you are unfamiliar with Gaelic you can here on this link some old guys chatting away in Ness, right on the northernmost tip of the island. To a person not familiar with the Language it sounds, according to a lot of people, almost Scandinavian:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/group/nangaidheal-ness.shtml
Meanwhile, back in Stornoway, two guys are chatting in Scots (our version of English), and with the cool Highlands and Islands accent:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/group/scotland-stornoway.shtml
WALES
North Wales - hear some of the Welsh Language, and compare it with Scots Gaelic. The Welsh Language has its stronghold in the north west and west of Wales; it is hardly spoken at all elsewhere. To me, as a Scot, Welsh sounds a lot more guttural and throaty.
Welsh Language:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/group/cymru-pwllheli.shtml
In this one the guys can hardly contain their hilarity over something....I recognised the word "knickers" so that must have had something to do with it:
Welsh Language among all the giggling:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/group/cymru-cyfforddllandudno.shtml
South Wales - apparently greatly different in character from North Wales. This recording comes from a district of Cardiff, the cosmo capital of Wales:
Cardiff English:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/group/wales-splott.shtml
Interesting. Scots Gaelic or Gallic seems to be closer to Irish than to any other Celtic language, and the areas where it survives are those both closest to Ireland, formerly inhabited by Picts, and colonised by the Irish, who in fact gave Scotland its name, courtesy of the Romans' name for the Irish colonists they encountered north of England.
Any sign of the Picts these days?
No. They're sly and secretive and guard their privacy jealously. If you do happen to lay eyes on them, that's probably the LAST thing you'll see...
i need to improve my english ,listening and talking so please tell me sites for that and how can i use that
whats a good acuate site that can tell me wat percent of english people speak wat kind of dialects ?
I'm a great enthusiast of John Well's "Accents of English". It's clear, comprehensive, and it uses IPA transcriptions. I'm surprised that, 25 years later, it remains the only available major work on the subject.
Hi,
I'm a university student conducting a survey for one of my linguistics seminars. I'd like to find out what native speakers of English think about certain dialects/accents of their language. Please help my research by visiting this site and give your opinion by filling out a short questionnaire.
http://www.pdx.hu/accent/
Any comments/suggestions concerning the research or the questionnaire are welcome.
They were all English accents (which was the point of the survey, I suppose), but to be honest, I couldn't really tell most of them apart -- except for the first gentleman, who was speaking what I guess is the upperclass accent. The rest all sounded like minor variations of the same thing. Rating them in terms of their sociolinguistic status was just a guess -- the more twangy they got, I supposed the more low-class they were supposed to be, but as a non-Brit, they had no real visceral impact on me other than that they sounded odd.