We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids
Ever wondered how English with a French accent sounds?
The Speech Accent Archive uniformly presents a large set of speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed. The archive is used by people who wish to compare and analyze the accents of different English speakers.
The paragraph to read:
Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.
The archive contains 14 speech samples of people with a french-language background.
Here's how it sounds from the mouth of a 31-year old Frenchman who started learning English at the age of 11, and spent 8 years in the USA:
According to the experts, this person's consonants suffer from final obstruent devoicing, interdental fricative to stop, and non aspiration. Bet you didn't hear that!
Tue 19-Dec-06 | Posted in: Language, Web
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