Help: A linguistic project

[grendel]

Hello everybody,

I'm an MA student at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, and in order to finish writing my MA thesis, I'm going to need some help from speakers of Australian, New Zealand and South African English.
My MA project includes some research on the vowel systems of the above varieties of English, and for that I need samples of authentic, natural speech.
Unfortunately, I don't have any money to pay you for your help, but your input into linguistic studies will be highly appreciated.

Now, all I want you to do is make a recording (preferably in .mp3) of yourself reading a short text which I'm going to send you.
After that, you would send me a copy of your recording (directly via e-mail or by uploading the file e.g. to rapidshare.com...).

I would also need some information such as your age, education and possibly region (e.g. New South Wales, Australia; Northern Cape, South Africa; Wellington, New Zealand etc.), as accents differ according to these factors.
However, you don't have to give me your exact address or any minute details, etc... In the study, you will be referred to simply as “Speaker 5”, and so on...

To conclude, if you're a speaker (or know any speakers) of Australian English, New Zealand English or South African English and would like to help me out – please, let me know!
I need at least 30 recordings in total before my research is considered “valid”.

Thanks in advance!

[naphazoline]

are you into motorbiikes at all?

[grendel]

Potentially, yes... But currently I'm into linguistics more than anything else; hence my post above

[nodrog:Me]

how much are you paying?

[Number One]

how much are you paying?

Can you not read man? Sheesh

MR Poland: I would help but I don't have anyway of recording my velvety dulcet tones for you

[Mom]

Can you not read man? Sheesh

MR Poland: I would help but I don't have anyway of recording my velvety dulcet tones for you

And they are velvety and dulcety tones too

I dont have a mic either

[Nasty]

Can you not read man? Sheesh

MR Poland: I would help but I don't have anyway of recording my velvety dulcet tones for you

I am sure I can help you with that ... you have such lovely ducet tones and I have multiple computers and recording stuff set up .. and I know how to use it (I think)!

[Number One]

OK MR Poland. When do you need this recording by?

It's not a dirty story you'll be having me read is it?

[KiwiRat]

You girls stop playing with the poor noob.

He doesn't realise the trouble he's in.

[grendel]

Alright then I need the recordings within the next few months, but the sooner the better... I'm not sure whether I can post direct links here, but this is where you can download all the necessary stuff: http://rapidshare.com/files/17145181...t-package2.zip - the package contains a questionnaire, the main text to read, and a couple of sentences to read as well.

For recording, you can use Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) or any similar software of your choice. The output format can be .mp3, .wma, or .wav.

Now, if you feel a bit tired and bored with the sentences in the 3rd file, you can skip some of them, although that data is of some significance to me. If you don't feel like answering all the questions in the questionnaire, that's fine as well. The part that is of most importance is the passage called "The Dream", as it shows most of the features which I want to study in detail.

Also, if you feel like adding anything to the recordings, e.g. talking about your near-death experience or contemporary Kiwi slang, feel free to do it!
Similar studies have been conducted here: http://web.ku.edu/idea/australiaocea...newzealand.htm , so you can check it out to see how it usually works.

I promise to provide you with my final results and the whole MA thesis as soon as it's finished (around June).

Lastly, if you know other people around that are as open to such stuff as yourselves (your family or friends), I'll be more than happy to listen to their voices as well

Thanks & looking forward to your response (PM me whenever you're ready).

And please... You can just call me Greg :P

[grendel]

It's not a dirty story you'll be having me read is it?

It's not that dirty :/ It's actually based on my own dream that I had some time ago... Anyways, I've adjusted it a bit so as to elicit the sounds and phonological processes that I'm interested in...

[klingon]

Oooh that sounds fascinating! I majored in linguistics for my BA at Auckland University, and I find the idea of a modern Kiwi vowel-shift very intruiging indeed.

Radio New Zealand National has a regular segment called "Sounds Historical" where they play news items sourced from the NZ Sound Archives. It's wonderful to hear the accents of ordinary New Zealanders and hear how we have changed even in the last few decades.

Good work Mr Poland - and good luck with your project.

[Ixion]

Radio New Zealand National has a regular segment called "Sounds Historical" where they play news items sourced from the NZ Sound Archives. It's wonderful to hear the accents of ordinary New Zealanders and hear how we have changed even in the last few decades.
.

Some of us have not, even in the last few centuries. Although I am a sixth generation Kiwi on one side and a seventh on the other (ignoring the Maori line), and have never lived outside NZ, I am constantly told that I have an English accent. Even to the point of those who claim to have linguistic training telling me that they can identify the county I was born in (Shropshire apparently!).

The interesting thing is, listening to recordings of family members ,and questioning older members ( "Do I sound like great great granddad ?"), my "accent" is pretty much exactly that of my parents/grandparents/great grandparents etc, going back as far as about the middle of the 19th century.

I suspect that my "English accent" is simply the original, undefiled, New Zealand accent, and the claimed "New Zealand vowel shift" (I do know what it is) , is a result of immigration in recent years.

[Hitcher]

Nuw Zullin vowels. Gahh!

[klingon]

Some of us have not, even in the last few centuries. ...

I suspect that my "English accent" is simply the original, undefiled, New Zealand accent, and the claimed "New Zealand vowel shift" (I do know what it is) , is a result of immigration in recent years.

Well Mr Ixion, you sound like exactly the kind of person who is required for this data-gathering exercise! Having had the opportunity to study your speech up-close-and-personal (so to speak) I suspect it may be your intonational patterns that lead people to be mistaken about your accent, rather than your vowels.

If, next time I see you, I appear to be listening very intently to what you are saying, please do not be mistaken. I will actually be studying your vowels rather than the meaning of your words.