The International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA) is a free, online archive of primary-source

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

and accent recordings of the English language. The archive was founded by Paul Meier in 1998 at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

and includes hundreds of recordings of English speakers throughout the world. IDEA is divided into 10 major sections:

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

and Special Collections, with further divisions by country. Most speakers read a passage of scripted text and also speak some unscripted text, usually containing biographical information about themselves, such as their age, where they were born and where they have lived. This allows the listeners to evaluate the subject's accent or dialect based upon where that subject has spent most of his or her life. The Special Collections section contains unique information related to accent and dialect studies. For instance, one subsection is devoted to

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivors while another features readings of "Comma Gets a Cure" (the standard scripted text for most IDEA subjects) by trained speech teachers in the

General American General American English, known in linguistics simply as General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm), is the umbrella accent of American English used by a majority of Americans, encompassing a continuum rather than a single unified accent. ...

dialect. Another part of the Special Collections section is devoted to

oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

and allows subjects to discuss the places in which they grew up and reflect on their heritage. Still another subsection of the Special Collections contains native speakers pronouncing place names, people names and

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a Literal and figurative language, figurative or non-literal meaning (linguistic), meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic speech, formulaic ...

s from well-known plays often produced in the theatre. The speakers sometimes add interesting commentary on these words and terms. The geographical locations of all the subjects featured on the site can be viewed on IDEA's Global Map. The Archive is used primarily by students of accents and dialects, researchers,

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

s and those wishing to either study English pronunciation or learn a new dialect or accent. Anyone can submit a sample recording by visiting the "Submit A Sample" page of the website. University of Kansas professor emeritus and dialect coach Paul Meier, author of ''Accents & Dialects for Stage and Screen'', created IDEA. Since its founding in 1998, the Archive has added approximately 80 associate editors, who are responsible for gathering new primary-source recordings. Senior editors are Eric Armstrong, Geraldine Cook, Ben Corbett, Kris Danford, John Fleming, Tanera Marshall, Bill McCann, Deric McNish, David Nevell, Sarah Nichols, and Dylan Paul. Cameron Meier is executive editor.

References

* Entsminger, Brandy (November 10, 2008). "KU Theatre Members Sing and Act in the Raunchy Play, ''Street Scene''." ''University Daily Kansan.'' * Global English Editors. Global Englis

Retrieved 2011-07-22. * Gooch, William (March 20, 2009). "Everything Old is New Again." ''Stage and Cinema.'' * Meier, Paul (2001). ''Accents & Dialects for Stage and Screen.'' Lawrence, Kansas: Paul Meier Dialect Services. . * Meier, Paul (Spring/Summer 1999). "IDEA: An Online Database of Accent and Dialect Resources." ''VASTA'', p. 6. * Parkin, Lin (June 17, 2008). "Got an IDEA of How English Dialects Sound?" ''Voice Over Times.'' * Roberts, Sam (January 16, 2006). "Mayor's Accent Deserts Boston for New York." ''The New York Times.'' * Singh, Anita (January 12, 2009). "Unknown British Actress Set for Holywood Stardom After Becoming New Ally McBeal." ''The Telegraph.''

External links

* {{Official website Sound archives in the United States English language Dialects of English English phonology Online archives of the United States