Absolutely no empirical evidence whatsoever to back this next statement up, but English is probably the most accented language in the world? Researchers at George Mason University are putting together a speech accent archive with everyone reading the same sample paragraph of English. I was a little disappointed to hear the recording of the speaker from Birmingham, England. She may have been born there and lived there for 30 years, but that's not the typical Brummie accent. Still some interesting ones in all that. via Boing Boing
While we're on the subject of language, here's a whimsical look at why you shouldn't try and learn Japanese. Thanks to DJ for that one.
Posted by Joe at January 16, 2004 01:26 PMI don't seem to be able to open that accent archive. Anyone else having any luck?
I'm not having a problem Marko.
Try going straight there via this link:
http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/
Posted by: Joe at January 18, 2004 11:59 PMNope, still doesn't work :(
Try this one:
http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/index.html
(Sometimes IE apparently will not load the default page, while Moz will. Something to do with the server settings, one suspects.)
Whimsical? Who said anything about whimsical? That page is *gospel*.
Posted by: DJ at January 19, 2004 12:04 PMA former gf did her thesis on a related topic: American English accents and second-language acquisition.
Posted by: DJ at January 19, 2004 12:05 PM> Whimsical? Who said anything about whimsical?
> That page is *gospel*.
ROR!
Posted by: Joe at January 19, 2004 01:45 PM