Want to hear different accents?

[erratio]

I know I do!

http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php

A lot of the speakers are way too fluent though. I would have liked to have heard thicker accents. And I'm slightly disappointed that they don't have different accents of English speakers on file (Australia, US, etc).

Sorry for all the linguistics-related posts people, this is what happens when I start trying to do my linguistics essay - I get caught up in all these tangents that are *way* more interesting than my essay topic

Comments

[erratio.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's Australian Question Intonation - not the rise accompanying a question but the rise accompanying a statement. It's generally believed that the function of it is to confirm that the listener comprehends the speaker and also functions as a floor-holding device. It's a fairly recent phenomenon too (last few decades) and is thought to have coincided with the massive influx of migrants post-WW2. (that's two thirds of my essay content right there :P)

Sadly, I'm at uni at the moment and out of cable internet quota so looking at the website again is going to have to wait until I get home

I like this idea of making my hypothetical new blog devoted to linguistics. It would kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, and I wouldn't feel so much like I was boring the people who read my blog with all this babble about accents and so forth.