accent & dialect collections

  • IDEA, the International Dialects of English Archive
    An outstanding collection of primary source recordings, in English, of speakers in both English-language dialects and accents of other languages. (I’m Associate Editor for NYC.)

  • Speech Accent Archive
    George Mason University’s highly useful collection of sound files of speakers from many backgrounds, each reading a short sample paragraph in English. Top tip: Use the Browse feature to search for target language speakers. (The Search feature is currently broken.)

warm-ups

  • Being in Voice Warm-up App
    My friend and colleague Flloyd Kennedy has devised this excellent app that gives you access to a guided warm-up wherever you can take your iPhone. An Android version is in development.

  • Voice Guy Warm-up Series
    My friend and colleague Eric Armstrong, the Voice Guy, leads you through three series of warm-ups plus a speech warm-up.

  • Diction Police Tongue Warm-Up
    Thorough tongue-strengthening and flexibility exercises—do these daily and you'll be ready for any lingual articulation, no matter what the language.

phonetics & ipa transcription

  • International Phonetics Association
    The official website of the IPA includes many useful pages of its own, plus a links page.

  • Introduction to Phonetics
    The University of Lausanne Institute of Linguistics presents this excellent internet primer on articulation of speech sounds, including IPA symbols with accompanying audio files. In English and French.

  • Interactive Saggital Section
    Daniel Currie Hall designed this interactive oral tract, allowing you to choose an articulation, see it in outline, and see its IPA transcription.

dynamic ipa web charts & apps

  • iPA Phonetics app (IOS)
    Outstanding phonetics app for iPhone and iPad, from the University of Victoria Department of Linguistics. Explore the phonetic symbols and sounds, voice qualities, and articulations, with audio and video. Test your knowledge with interactive games. Adjust playback speed, view full-screen, more. Highly recommended.

  • Interactive IPA Chart
    From the International Phonetics Association, with audio recordings by four different linguists and phoneticists.

  • Interactive IPA Chart
    From the UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive.

  • Interactive IPA Charts
    By my friends and colleagues, Paul Meier and Eric Armstrong.

  • IPA Handbook
    Dynamic IPA Chart from the University of Victoria Department of Linguistics.

  • IPA Vowels
    An interactive vowel quadrilateral, created and voiced by my colleague Eric Armstrong.

  • Multimedia IPA Chart
    Click on the IPA or SAMPA (ASCII character version of IPA) symbols to open popup window with audio clips.

  • Seeing Speech
    Clickable IPA charts give access to animated, ultrasound, and MRI videos of IPA sounds spoken by phoneticians.

voice & speech anatomy

  • Laryngology 101
    Dr. James Thomas shows you what happens during a laryngoscopy (examination of the pharynx (throat), larynx (voice box) and vocal folds (vocal cords). NOTE: I do not know Dr. Thomas, and this is not an endorsement of his medical practice.

  • Glottal Opera
    A laryngoscopic film by John Fink, of vocal group Kaya singing. The glottis is the space between the vocal folds when they are abducted (relaxed and apart).

  • Cords (hear us and have mercy)
    See and hear another a cappella quartet’s vocal folds (vocal cords) in action.

  • Anatomy & Physiology of the Larynx
    Get Body Smart presents this handsomely designed collection of online tutorials and quizzes.

sounds you can see

blogs & podcasts

  • Glossonomia: Conversations on the Sounds of Speech
    Glossonomia is a 44-episode podcast by my friends & colleagues Eric Armstrong and Phil Thompson. In each episode they focus on a specific speech sound or set of sounds. They have fun, and you will too!

  • John Wells’s phonetic blog
    Emeritus Professor of Phonetics, UCL, J.C. Wells is also the editor of the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (for English), and the author of Accents of English. The blog is no longer updated, but its many treasures remain to be enjoyed.

  • Language Log
    Founded by linguists Mark Liberman and Geoffrey Pullum, this blog features truly knowledgeable posts about language by many other linguists as well.

  • Sentence First
    An Irishman's blog about the English language. Smart and funny, just like its author.

need more?

Get in touch and let me know!