A celebration of Librivox accents..

[delibab]

I have been doing some searching trying to find a suitable 'phonetically relevant' passage that is well and truly in the PD. (I have also been in touch with the folks at 'IDEA' at the Univ. of Kansas - who have been very helpful).
A number of sample texts seem to appear over and over again...
Summary at (Univ. of Aberdeen):: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/langling/resources/Standardised%20reading%20passages.doc
- "The Rainbow Passage", a number of places indicate this is PD, but it comes from a 1960 text book (as far as I can see). So I am unsure.
- "Comma Gets a Cure", recent text so surely not PD
- "Arthur the Rat", seems to be recent..
- "The Grandfather Passage", again seems to be recent
- "The North Wind and the Sun", now this is a candidate as it's one of Aesop's fables
(I also came across http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect_Test - although this seems very short and perhaps a little 'old fashioned')

The text from http://www.abdn.ac.uk/langling/resources/Standardised%20reading%20passages.doc

The North Wind and the Sun

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveller came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveller take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other. Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveller fold his cloak around him, and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shone out warmly, and immediately the traveller took off his cloak. And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.

Seems to be the same as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_North_Wind_and_the_Sun

So - is this the text we should consider?
(should we also with this project try to do something 'special' for Voxforge? Encourage folks to submit a FLAC version? Hmm - perhaps I should check with the Voxforge folks if they are interested or not?!)
Regards - DB

[delibab]

I have made some changes (cough) to the template. I'd appreciate it if some of the more experienced MC's and/or BC's look it over. There will undoudtly be changes and corrections required.
Also - should this project move forward, can I make a plea for a co-BC ! Please...
Regards - DB

===================================
Librivox Dialect and Accent Collection, Vol 1.

A celebration of all the wonderful dialects and accents found within the Librivox community!
The goal being to record a 'phonetically relevant' text by as many volunteers as possible, and make this dialect/accent 'database' available to the world, by releasing the recordings into the public domain.

[*]New to recording?
Please read our Newbie Guide to Recording!

[*]Is there a deadline?
No... Hopefully the collection will go on and on and on!

[*]The text::
Source text (see below): Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_North_Wind_and_the_Sun

Please use your normal speaking voice, no 'put on' dialects/accents please.

Dialect and Accent Collection Volume 1. The North Wind and the Sun, attributed to Aesop, read for LibriVox.org by [your name].

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.
They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.
Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him;
and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.
And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.

End of text. This recording is in the public domain.

If this is your first recording, please let me know under which name or pseudonym you'd like to appear in the LibriVox catalogue. We can also link to a personal website/blog.

======================================================
This paragraph is temporary and will be replaced by the MC with the list of sections and readers (Magic Window) once this project is in the admin system.

BC - please provide *all of* the following:

• Number of sections (files) this project will have: say, 30 in the first volume?
• Does the project have an introduction or preface [y/n]: no
• Link to author on Wikipedia (if available): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_North_Wind_and_the_Sun
• Link to title on Wikipedia (if available): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_North_Wind_and_the_Sun
• Short description (please state who wrote the description. This can be a paragraph copied from Wikipedia. If you write this yourself, please be aware that your summary will be in the PD):
  The North Wind and the Sun is a fable attributed to Aesop. The story concerns a competition between the North wind and the Sun to decide who was the stronger of the two.
  The fable is made famous by its use in phonetic descriptions of languages as an illustration of spoken language.
  (from Wikipedia)
• Date of first publication: approx 600 BC
• Year of author's death (note: in some countries copyright is death of author plus 50 or 70 years) 560 BC

=======================================================

[*]BEFORE recording:
Please check the Recording Notes:
http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6427#6430

Set your recording software to:

Channels: 1 (Mono)
Bit Rate: 128 kbps
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz

[*]DURING recording:
Please leave no more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of your recording!

At the end please leave 5 seconds silence.

[*]AFTER recording:
Need noise-cleaning?
Listen to your file through headphones. If you can hear some constant background noise (hiss/buzz), you may want to clean it up a bit. The new (free) version 1.3.3. of Audacity (Mac/Win) has much improved noise-cleaning. See this LibriVox wiki page for a complete guide.

Save files as
128 kbps MP3
dialectaccent_vol_01_your initials.mp3 (all lower-case)
(e.g. dialectaccent_vol_01_db.mp3)

ID3 V2 tags
(To find out more about ID3 tags, go to our wiki: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/What_is_ID3)
Add the following tags to your .mp3 file (how you do this depends on which software you use – if you are unsure about ID3 tags, send me a message). Please mind upper and lower case!

Artist Name: Aesop
Track Title: North Wind and the Sun - Read by YOUR INITIALS
(eg. North Wind and the Sun - Read by DB)
Album Title: Librivox Dialect and Accent Collection
Comments: (optional) Recorded by [your name]. Optional - short dialect/accent description

Please ignore tags for Genre and Track Number - these will be filled in automatically at the cataloging stage.

Transfer of files (completed recordings)
Please always post in this forum thread when you've sent a file.
Also, post the length of the recording (file duration: mm:ss) together with the link.
Optional:: if you wish you may provide a short description of your accent for cataloging purposes

• Upload your file with the LibriVox Uploader (when your upload is complete, you will receive a link - please post it in this thread):
  http://upload.librivox.org
  
  (If you have trouble reading the image above, please message an admin)
  You'll need to select the MC, which for this project is: yy - yyyyy
• If this doesn't work, or you have questions, please check our How To Send Your Recording wiki page.

[/list]

Any questions?
Please post below or PM me.


====================================[/b]

[Peter Why]

Do you want it read in a casual speaking voice or the more precise voice that I (and presumably most of the rest of us) use for reading our books?

Peter

[dii]

Also - should this project move forward, can I make a plea for a co-BC ! Please...

Hi,

I'd be co-BC with pleasure
I think it's a very interesting project. It would be lovely to take part ^^

Dii

[delibab]

Peter,
Hmmm, I guess the most important aspect is the reader uses their genuine dialect/accent.
What do you think, perhaps they are most likely to read with their genuine dialect/accent if they 'deliver' it in a casual, more informal way. If that was true (ummm) - how to get it across in the instructions.
Regards - DB

[kayray]

You'd better copy your template post over to the new projects launch pad or it will likely be overlooked :)

[delibab]

Dii,
Tök jó! (cool!)
Although I think we still have a little more 'due diligence' to do before we get this one off and running.
Köszönöm.
Szia - DB

[Peter Why]

The business of casual reading is difficult. Take part of your test piece:
"the one who first succeeded in making" If I was reading it within a librivox work I would read it in what to me would sound accentless, fairly precise English.

But if I imagine I was talking to someone at a bus stop, for example, it would come out something like this (using a "|" for that short "uh" sound ... a schwa, is it? ... like the first "o" in "potato"):

"v| one oo FIRss|k-SEE-didin MAYkin"

You could ask for both, if other readers hear the same sort of separation in their reading voices.

You might also ask the reader to state, perhaps at the end of their recording, how they would describe their accent. My relaxed accent is south-east London, softened a little by time spent in East Anglia, for example.

Peter

[annise]

I agree with Peter - it would be good to have a semi scripted ending saying something like "Read by Peter . I'm English with a south east London accent"
which would let the listener know and would also tend to be said in a more casual accent.
I'm pretty sure everyone has a variety of voices - even little kids talk in one voice to their peers , another to teachers and parents and another when asked to stand up and read something in class

Anne

[delibab]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I will try to incorporate it into the template and post the updated version to the 'Launch Pad' (mental picture of 'Baikonur' always springs to mind - when I think of the 'Launch Pad')
Regards - DB

[dii]

Dii,
Tök jó! (cool!)
Although I think we still have a little more 'due diligence' to do before we get this one off and running.
Köszönöm.
Szia - DB

I'll be here [or PM]

Dii

[paullawleyjones]

There has been (well, still is ) lots of discussion in various places on the forum in regard to 'accents'. (and I would like to point out - personally speaking I do not have an accent, it's all the rest of you that do!
I was thinking might we be able to take advantage of this wonderful 'accent resource' we have, to celebrate all the rich audible colours (or should that be colors ) available within the community.
We could record a text (hmm, but what text ) in a vast range of accents, those that want to can put a label to those accents, and make this 'accent database' available to the world in glorious public domain Technicolor! It may be very useful to other projects like Voxforge, same known text in 'x' different accents. Allowing them to fine tune the voice recognition software.

Did this ever get off the ground? Is there a bunch of CDs mouldering away in the deep recesses of someone's basement?

[annise]

https://librivox.org/celebration-of-dialects-and-accents-vol-1/
https://librivox.org/celebration-of-dialects-and-accents-vol-2-by-aesop/

[paullawleyjones]

https://librivox.org/celebration-of-dialects-and-accents-vol-1/
https://librivox.org/celebration-of-dialects-and-accents-vol-2-by-aesop/

Thank you. I didn't think of searching the catalogue.