As I mentioned in another forum, I think it would be lovely if we could e-mail our accents to Tom (the webmaster) for uploading. Does Tom agree? I do hope he uploads his own accent, since he claims to have mastered English as a second language.
I suggest that we should read and record the following passage from "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens:
"The suspicion that she laughed too, when she said it, preyed upon my mind all the time I was dressing; and gave me, I was conscious, a sneaking and guilty air when I passed her on the staircase, as I was going down to breakfast."
I don't think the passage will take up too much of Antimoon's disk space. The size of my recording of the passage is only 247 kilobytes.
Tom, I will e-mail you my recording as soon I receive your consent. Thank you in advance!
I think I will upload it too.
Not a bad idea, you could also get some native speakers to upload to let you guys compare some accents for real, rather than just trying to imagine them with phonetic language.
Comment: Apart from the single 'the' in there, you need to find a passage with some decent 'th's, seeing as a lot people seem to have trouble with that sound!
Now, how about this passage...
"When I passed her on the staircase, as I was going down to breakfast, I thought her more like him than ever I had thought her; and I felt, rather than saw, that the resemblance was not lost on my companion. Then, I dressed myself for the dinner party, and was off."
File size estimate= 285 KB.
Blah, I am a native speaker (English is one of my two mother-tongues) and I certainly do wish to compare accents for real.
I suppose the second passage would be a better sample to determine accents, pronunciation etc. There are many words in that passage that are pronounced differently by people from different regions and countries. These include "passed" (a: or ae), "dinner" (rhotic or nonrhotic), "thought" (different "o" pronunciations), and "party" (rhotic or nonrhotic and different "t" pronunciations).
I will send another, slower-read recording to Tom.
I've sent mine too. Just in case you weren't sure, I am a native American from the Great Lakes region.
Ryan
Just in case you weren't sure,
I'm a British citizen born in Hong Kong and currently in the United States.
I believe that Wingyellow is a native of Hong Kong and Tom is Polish.
you don't have to believe. It is a fact.
In fact, my accent gives me a lot of advantage in Hong Kong. It shows people that I am from college and well-educated. It is so easy for me to get a job despite of the economy. The bosses, who speak lousy English, think that I am good, though I know I am not really very good.
The accent thing is actually more like a hobby to me, because people in Hong Kong really don't care if you can speak like a native speaker (of course, it will definitely be better if you can). And perfecting the accent would not be as rewarding as learning a new language. So if my accent is really understandable, then maybe I have to cut myself some slack.
Ryan,
where is your sample? I can´t find it...
Evidently Tom has not posted it yet. Ask him about it.
Ryan
Good for you, Wingyellow. In what field are you working? My father found it quite hard to get a job in Hong Kong even though he speaks English like a native and got his master's degree in linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh in the U.S.