# Vocal Samples Thread #2: The Accent Whisperer **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 12, 2008, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989 "2008-05-12T03:04:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/1 "2008-05-12T03:04:49Z")
Over in [this thread about accents](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=466934), **Inner Sticker** requests another thread where we can compare our accents. And here it is! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/2 "2008-05-12T03:17:51Z")
In the other thread, **Zsofia** mentions that she pronounces the p-syllable in ‘pin’, ‘pen’, ‘peeing’ and ‘piano’ the same. This startled me, but I remembered going to the Cincinnati area on work and meeting someone who pronoiunced ‘pin’ and ‘pen’ the same. Given that we were dealing with electronics, where pins are a common feature of connectors, _and_ taking notes in pen, it got a little confusing. **Indistinguishable** suggested, > [@](#): > > do “Mary”, “marry”, and “merry” get pronounced the same or differently in Tennessee? How about “cot” and “caught”? Do “furry” and “hurry” rhyme? Out of “on”, “gone”, “John”, and “lawn”, what rhymes? How do “pen” and “pin” compare? “Feel and fill”? “Wine” and “whine”? Do “mirror” and “nearer” rhyme? **Monty** suggested, > [@](#): > > Add, “Do flower, flour, and floor all sound the same?” From these, I think we can come up with the start of a list of words to pronounce: Pen, pin, peeing, piano. Mary, marry, merry. Cot, caught. Don, dawn. Furry, hurry. On, gone, Don, Dawn. Feel, fill. Wine, whine. Mirror, nearer. Floor, flower, flour As before, PM me or check my email in my profile, and send me files. I’ll slap them up on my webserver and link to them. The first few may take some time; I’m going to be quite busy for the next couple of days. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/3 "2008-05-12T07:20:01Z")
Ummm, a little more detail on how this is supposed to work? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/4 "2008-05-12T13:33:37Z")
Wow. After going through that list in my head, it seems I’m on a vowel austerity program. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/5 "2008-05-12T14:31:53Z")
**Sunspace** , you got poor old Don & Dawn in there twice. You know, we have two pronunciations of Mary here. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/6 "2008-05-12T14:48:38Z")
[QUOTE=Oslo Ostragoth] Ummm, a little more detail on how this is supposed to work? [/QUOTE] [Here’s the original thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=445112). Participants recorded themselves saying things and sent the resulting files to me. I loaded them onto my webserver and provided links in my posts. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/7 "2008-05-12T14:50:29Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] **Sunspace** , you got poor old Don & Dawn in there twice. You know, we have two pronunciations of Mary here. [/QUOTE] Two pronunciations of the name? When do you use one and when the other? :: head explodes :: ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/8 "2008-05-12T15:00:08Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] Two pronunciations of the name? When do you use one and when the other? :: head explodes :: [/QUOTE] Heck, I can find three different pronunciations of Mary within my extended family: 1. The “standard” pronunciation 2. “MAY-ree” (a common pronunciation among Southerners of the upper classes or pretentions thereto) 3. “Murry” the mumbling Appalachian pronunciation. More of a lower-class phenomenon. In my experience, Southern accents vary more along class lines than along geographic lines. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/9 "2008-05-12T17:30:00Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] Two pronunciations of the name? When do you use one and when the other? :: head explodes :: [/QUOTE] There, there. (picks up pieces of Sunspace’s head and all the rocks that go in there). I had a similar reaction when I realized you were talking about a car’s trunk when you said _boot_ in the other thread. I was thinking \*“how do you put a suitcase inside a shoe ???” \* 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/10 "2008-05-12T17:50:02Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] **Sunspace** , you got poor old Don & Dawn in there twice. [/QUOTE] Ah, but the first pair were the nouns ‘don’ and ‘dawn’; the second pair were the names ‘Don’ and ‘Dawn’. [sub]Yeah, that’s it…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/11 "2008-05-12T17:50:31Z")
Perhaps I’ll try this again, since last time was pretty interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/12 "2008-05-12T17:51:26Z")
[QUOTE=NinetyWt] There, there. (picks up pieces of Sunspace’s head and all the rocks that go in there). [/quote] Who, me? > [@NinetyWt](#): > > I had a similar reaction when I realized you were talking about a car’s trunk when you said _boot_ in the other thread. I was thinking \*“how do you put a suitcase inside a shoe ???” \* 😉 Actually, that was probably one of the Brits. We say ‘trunk’ in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/13 "2008-05-13T01:49:08Z")
So the list in post #2 is the final one? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/14 "2008-05-13T03:17:29Z")
[QUOTE=Oslo Ostragoth] So the list in post #2 is the final one? [/QUOTE] Dear Og, no! More words are welcome! I was also hoping that people would suggest some nice sentences or short paragraphs to read as well. Apparently peoples’ accents show through much more in extended speech, as opposed to one word. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/15 "2008-05-13T03:41:01Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] Dear Og, no! More words are welcome! I was also hoping that people would suggest some nice sentences or short paragraphs to read as well. Apparently peoples’ accents show through much more in extended speech, as opposed to one word. [/QUOTE] Well, then, let’s address that. I was trying my crappy cheap microphone with Sound Recorder tonight without much success. So I downloaded Audacity, which looks like it is flexible enough to do what is needed, but it has a lot of options. Sampling rate? Mono/Stereo? Somebody help me out here. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/16 "2008-05-13T03:45:00Z")
[QUOTE=Oslo Ostragoth] Well, then, let’s address that. I was trying my crappy cheap microphone with Sound Recorder tonight without much success. So I downloaded Audacity, which looks like it is flexible enough to do what is needed, but it has a lot of options. Sampling rate? Mono/Stereo? Somebody help me out here. [/QUOTE] I used Audacity with the default settings, and it seemed to work fine. I’ll have to find it, though, to know what those were–I’m on a different computer now. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/17 "2008-05-13T03:52:20Z")
I used Audacity for the samples in the other thread, and made everything mono. This makes the files half the size for emailing. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/18 "2008-05-13T03:56:34Z")
The default sampling rate in Audacity is CD-quality (44,100 samples per second, 16 bits per sample). You can cut the sampling rate down quite a bit and still be understandable. Note that in Audacity, if you want to export a file as an MP3, you have to install the “LAME Encoder”, which is available separately. This is because of the licensing of the MP3 standard, or something. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/19 "2008-05-13T04:09:19Z")
How’s this for a sample [del]sentence[/del] paragraph: > [@](#): > > Furry Mary was merry as she hurried along. She didn’t want to be caught at dawn on Don’s cot again, because Don would whine all day and pour the wine on the floor instead of mixing it with the flour in the flower beds where it belonged. She looked in the nearer mirror and momentarily pined for the days of her youth, when any boy with a pen could pin her down to agreeing to a date, and she would play the piano and fill their hearts with heartfelt feelings. Such were the joys of youth, but they were soon gone, and now she needed to pee. [sub]Okay, I got carried away…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989/20 "2008-05-13T16:23:42Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] How’s this for a sample [del]sentence[/del] paragraph: [sub]Okay, I got carried away…[/sub] [/QUOTE] Heavens. You should’ve submitted that to the [Bulwer-Lytton](http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2007.htm) contest. I’ve been thinking - it takes a paragraph or two to get the speaker into a relaxed, normal mode of speaking. I think that the longer the phrase, the better. I wish some linguist(s) would pop in to suggest more phrases (nothing against yours, **Sunspace** ). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vocal-samples-thread-2-the-accent-whisperer/448989.md?page=2)