English dialects and varieties around the world

[Kikwang]

The text contains 1169 words in the American English version so part 1 is about a fourth of the entire project.
I've completed the text (written and transcribed in I.P.A.) in the 6 major accents but I am also working on regional varieties in the U.S.

 

[Tdol]

Some of them I don't get- we use flip-flops in BrE.

 

[Kikwang]

"Some of them I don't get- we use flip-flops in BrE."

as I mentionned above, there is also a comparison with the Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South Africa accents.

Flip-flops are called "jandals" in New Zealand and "thongs" in Australia (LOL).

 

[probus]

May I suggest you add India and Pakistan to your list. English of a unique variety is used in those countries by several hundred million people. For some of them it is their mother tongue.

 

[Kikwang]

@probus : yes, I had the intention of adding Indian, Northern Irish, Irish, Scottish and some British accents.
But I want to finish this part before starting a new one as it requires a lot of research. Not so much for the phonetics but rather for the grammar and vocabulary.

 

[Tarheel]

Do you know the difference between a variant and a dialect?

Not all all of the mistakes in the OP have been addressed. But then you posted more posts with more mistakes.

I think perhaps you are biting off more than you can chew. You are trying to run before you can walk.

 

[emsr2d2]

@Kikwang - please start to use the "quote" facility. If you want to quote someone else's words, use the "Reply" button in the bottom right of the post you're replying to. That will automatically put that person's response in a quote box. You then type your response under it. It makes it a lot easier to work out whose words are whose in a post. Look at post #23 to see how your post should have looked.

 

[Kikwang]

@Kikwang - please start to use the "quote" facility. If you want to quote someone else's words, use the "Reply" button in the bottom right of the post you're replying to. That will automatically put that person's response in a quote box. You then type your response under it. It makes it a lot easier to work out whose words are whose in a post. Look at post #23 to see how your post should have looked.

Yes. Thanks for the heads up. I was looking for that button but I somehow missed it.

 

[Kikwang]

Some do. Others distinguish clearly between varieties (such as American, Australian, British, etc) and dialects (such as Liverpool, Glasgow, West Country, etc).

I agree with you. I was answering to the variant vs variety comment. I somehow missed the "reply button" so my post appeared without any connection to the thread.
The main focus of the project is on the different varieties (R.P. English, Standard American English, General Australian, etc...) but I also want to add some regional dialects too.

 

[Tarheel]

Say:

I was responding to ....

("Answering to" means something else.)

 

[Skrej]

This sounds similar to the IDEA project, which uses a few standard text samples coupled with auto-biographical discussions to provide both audio and phonetic transcriptions of English variants and accents from around the world - both native and non-native speakers.

It's a work in progress (for example, not all samples have phonetic transcriptions available) and certains regions have relatively small sample sizes. Howver, they continually accept submissions. Each sample provides a brief biographical summary of the speaker as well - age, gender, ethnicity, other areas of residency, education, occupation, and more. Sometimes there are even notes summarizing some of the key features of the speaker's pronunciation.

 

[Kikwang]

This sounds similar to the IDEA project, which uses a few standard text samples coupled with auto-biographical discussions to provide both audio and phonetic transcriptions of English variants and accents from around the world - both native and non-native speakers.

It's a work in progress (for example, not all samples have phonetic transcriptions available) and certains regions have relatively small sample sizes. Howver, they continually accept submissions. Each sample provides a brief biographical summary of the speaker as well - age, gender, ethnicity, other areas of residency, education, occupation, and more. Sometimes there are even notes summarizing some of the key features of the speaker's pronunciation.

It's one of the sources I forgot to mention. I've discovered it a few years ago.
I like the phonetic transcriptions although it is not always for the same text.
It contains narrow transcriptions which makes it unique and useful if you want to practice transcription.

The text is really interesting because it is long and it has a lot of different sounds (more representative than "Stella").
But, as you said, there aren't too many entries but it's was definitely a good inspiration and resource for my project.

Thank you

 

[Tdol]

Shouldn't you bring the versions together for easy comparison of the difference by word, phrase, spelling, etc? Is there a great deal of point in my looking at flip-flop as an AmE word, when it is used in other variants too, without seeing the variations used elsewhere? It seems like a case for a spreadsheet or database where variants can be compared simultaneously. Illustrations might help with flip-flops. Expecting someone to remember that they were called something different in a list that didn't make the meaning 100% clear in a list of AmE, is unlikely to stick directly in the memory when they see that AusE calls them thongs.

 

[Kikwang]

Shouldn't you bring the versions together for easy comparison of the difference by word, phrase, spelling, etc? Is there a great deal of point in my looking at flip-flop as an AmE word, when it is used in other variants too, without seeing the variations used elsewhere? It seems like a case for a spreadsheet or database where variants can be compared simultaneously. Illustrations might help with flip-flops. Expecting someone to remember that they were called something different in a list that didn't make the meaning 100% clear in a list of AmE, is unlikely to stick directly in the memory when they see that AusE calls them thongs.

This is exactly what I have done. I've created an excel sheet with the 6 varieties.
As I previously said, this is a personal project where I wanted to gather all the different varieties in one project.

 

[Kikwang]

Here is another example with the American English accents.
In one shot, you can see the cot-caught merger, the Mary-marry merger or the different "lawyer" pronunciation.
As you can see, I've been working on the project for quite some time now especially in the research part.
I've used the ANAE to identify the U.S. regional accents.

Thanks a lot for you suggestions and feedback.

 

[jutfrank]

Just a quick question about the sheet posted above: Do you mean to say that this is called a 'waistcoat' in American English?:

 

[Kikwang]

Just a quick question about the sheet posted above: Do you mean to say that this is called a 'waistcoat' in American English?:

View attachment 4477

No, that type. But you just found an error. It's a waistcoat in British English and a called "vest" in American English. Right?
That was the whole point of the OP, to find any mistakes.

 

[jutfrank]

Right. That's a waistcoat in every variety that I'm aware of. (Although I believe some US speakers would call it a 'vest' too.)

I can't make sense of the sheet in post #34. Which clothing item are you thinking of there? I think you may've confused the two items.

 

[Kikwang]

Right. That's a waistcoat in every variety that I'm aware of.

I can't make any sense of the sheet in post #34. Which clothing item are you thinking of there? I think you've confused the two items.

Yes, sorry about that. Again, help is always welcome

 

[Glizdka]

The problem with any project like this is that English simply has way too many variants, dialects, accents, or whatever you want to call them and categorize as. It's the language with the highest number of speakers in the world, by a long shot, when you include people who've learned English as a second language, of course depending on at what level of proficiency you're willing to call them "speakers of English". Everyone seems to want to learn it, and there's hardly anyone in the world who has no knowledge of English. It's used as a lingua franca whenever there are people who can't speak one another's languages. Some countries whose population speaks various languages, like Uganda, use English as their common language.

In today's era of globalization and with the ease of communication with anyone around the world provided by the internet, these "variants" have mixed, merged, and interchanged making it nearly impossible to talk about "American English" or "British English" as somehow homogenous variates, separate from each other. Even people from the same area can speak English differently, especially when you factor in their age, level of education, or even just personal preferences. I've met Americans who use "typical British expressions", as well as Brits who use "typical American expressions". There's lots of gray area.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think one person can do this all by themselves. It would require an extensive survey and lots upon lots of grunt work that would have to be done over many years of meticulous study. Otherwise, you'll end up with a list of differences that will be very arguable because there will always be at least one native speaker of one of the varieties you've described who will simply say "I'm a speaker of this variety and I don't speak like that".