MED Magazine – Accents of English from Around the World

MED Magazine - Issue 55 - November 2009

MED Web Watch
by Mairi MacDonald

Next in a series of short articles looking at web resources useful for teachers and learners of English. As a rough guide, each site is marked out of 25 in terms of content, design and ease-of-use.

Accents of English from Around the World
www.soundcomparisons.com

This is a wonderfully detailed site that aims to provide an overview of English accents over time, space and sociolinguistic context.

A carefully selected sample of 110 words is used to demonstrate the differences between the regions. The site deals mainly with the UK, but North America, Africa, Asia and Australia are also covered. You can listen to all the accents according to language region or by word. Alternatively, click on Maps and find the accents by navigating the list on the left. A pop-up box provides a link that will take you to the sound samples for that city or region.

To listen to the sounds, simply hover over the blue transcription. Depending on your browser, you may have to download an additional plug-in to make the site work. If you can't hear anything, the Help pages are clear, and will guide you through any problems.

The sound samples are organised into 7 categories: historical, England & Wales (South & Midlands), England (North), Scotland & Ireland, North America, Rest of the World and Other Germanic Languages. Some samples demonstrate sub varieties of accents and are classified as 'typical', 'traditional' or 'emergent', depending on the age and social background of the speaker.

The site can also be used to look at how accents have changed over time, but you will have to rely on your knowledge of IPA if you want to know how Old English was pronounced. It would have been nice to hear a reconstruction of the historical versions of the sounds too. Incidentally the link to the IPA chart on the Further Info page is broken but if you want to download it (pdf format), click here.

Design-wise, the site definitely has a dated feel, but don't let this distract you from the content. The material is well-organised and navigation is logical and straightforward. Depending on your browser, however, accessing the sound files can be a frustratingly slow process.

Nevertheless, if you or your students are interested in the varieties of English, or you simply want to raise awareness of the range of accents, this website serves as a solid introduction. It would also be useful for focusing on pronunciation, especially if your students are speakers of the Germanic languages covered.

Score
current and archived content
up-to-dateness/topicality
graphic design and navigation
speed and technical performance
features and functionality
overall score	17 out of 25