THE British Library has launched a new interactive website that celebrates many different accents, dialects and vocabularies of the English language. It is called “Sounds Familiar” .
Three years ago, the British Library established an online resource that looked at traditional English dialects. With the support of the Innovations Unit of the Department for Education and Skills of UK, they decided to create a website that had a more contemporary feel. That resulted in “Sounds Familiar” .
With over 600 audio clips, “Sounds Familiar” contains some long interviews as well as three case studies that give an in-depth look at three varieties of English: Received Pronunciation, Geordie (a native from the Tyneside region in northeast England) dialect and English as spoken by black and Asian communities in the UK.
“The new site looks specifically at contemporary British accents and dialects,” said Jonnie Robinson, who works in the Library’s Sound Archive. The objective of “Sounds Familiar” is to create a “comprehensive sound map of the UK.” It includes English as spoken by black and minority ethnic communities, including first generation British Jamaicans, first and second generation British Asians, and first generation British Chinese.
Robinson said that “Sounds Familiar” is seeking contributions from young people: “We are hoping that A level English language students and undergraduate linguistic students will use the site quite heavily and contribute their own recordings so that we can constantly update the map.”
The dominance of English worldwide is a result of colonization, with the colonial rule imposing English as an administrative language. But in many cases the local population still held on to their native languages, speaking English as a second language. The website does make reference to this, Robinson added.
