Resources

Accent Sample Databases

International Dialects of English Archive

The largest collection of audio samples from around the world, to which I am a proud contributor.

Each sample includes a passage reading (Comma Gets a Cure or The Rainbow Passage) followed by a free narrative.

There are also instructions on how to record and upload your own gathered samples.

Speech Accent Archive

A large set of audio samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Each one includes a passage reading (Please Call Stella) and a close transcription in IPA . Some of them even list generalizations about consonants, vowels, and syllable structure. You can hear my Brummie donation here!

Not only that, there is a native phonetic inventory for each language.

Accents of English from Around the World

It may feel like going back in time to the early days of the internet, but don't let that distract you! This site has a word list in a plethora of accents and languages related to English. You can listen to most of them by hovering your pointer over the word you want to hear.

You can either bring up the entire word list for each accent/language or one word in all the accents/languages.

Search Engines

Youglish

Search YouTube for a word or phrase and hear it spoken from a number of selected countries where English is a main language.

Interactive Phonetic Charts

Interactive IPA Chart

Devised by Eric Armstrong of York University, Toronto and Paul Meier of the University of Kansas, this fully-interactive version of the standard International Phonetic Alphabet chart is fun and useful.

TypeIt

This page allows you to easily type phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). You can edit your text in the box and then copy it to your document, e-mail message, etc.

Seeing Speech

These charts goes even further. There's ultrasound tongue imaging (UTI) and lip video of speech, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) video of each speech sound!

Lexical Sets

Lexical Sets (cheat sheet PDF)

This is a 4-pager you can download as a quick reference to see which words are "in" what sets.

Lexical Sets for Actors

This generous free resource by Eric Armstrong allows you to dip or dive deep into the world of lexical sets. Everything you need to know about the 27 or so syllable categories is here.

Jerome Butler's Text Categorizer

This amazing resource lets you upload a text (script, sides, etc.), then categorizes each of the words into the lexical sets for you to download.

It takes a bit of figuring out, but it's well worth it for practicing drills.

Currently has the following categorization sets: British RP. New York City, Scottish Southern Borders, Shakespeare OP, US Upper Midwest.

Requires signup & login.