It is fun to listen to these. I played mostly with the US variants. Couple of things struck me: they have a significant gap in the West/Southwest (I suppose the site's still under development), and that older speakers tend to have a more pronounced regional accent than younger ones. The ones from Ft Worth and New Orleans, for example, aren't nearly as distinctive as the people I know from those places. Now I'm wondering, too- in many places in the South, the local dialect often differs between black and white speakers. So, what would be even more informative would be a pool of sample speakers from a certain area, rather than a single representative. Still, it's a terrific resource. Thanks!
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Date: 21 Sep 2008 03:12 am (UTC)