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English Audio Request

TomBushaw
62 Words / 16 Recordings / 19 Comments
Note to recorder:

I am interested in recordings of this short quote, spoken in English. I am particularly interested in any strong American English or British English accents. For example, deep south (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi), New Orleans, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Boston, Brooklyn, "Valley Girl" :), as well as British accents (e.g., Welsh, Scottish, Yorkshire, Cockney).

Also, if you speak English reasonably fluently but have a strong accent from your native language, I would be very much interested in your version of this as well.

If others have already recorded their version, please still add yours!
Finally, please add to the end of your recording (or in the typed comments), where you are from and if you consider your accent to be of a particular type (e.g., one of those mentioned above).

Thank you so much for helping with this little project!!!

It’s no trick to get the right answer when you have all the data. The real creative trick is to get the right answer when you have only half of the data in hand and half of it is wrong and you don't know which half is wrong. When you get the right answer under these circumstances, you are doing something creative.

Recordings

  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by _undertoad ), American English (Pacific Northwest)

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by lenfesty ), Canadian

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by jdawinslow ), unspecified accent

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by j_powell1973 ), United States (Midwestern)

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by ldavidwillis ), American

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by Owain78 ), London, Neapolitan

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by kee ), Yorkshire, north of England

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by Cornas ), Australian

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by scarlete ), Upper Midwestern

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by Pianista ), California (northern)

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by filesendit ), North American Male

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by Arunne ), USA, NY

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by theothinker ), General American

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by nervebrain ), United States

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  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by Spee ), Scottish

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    Corrected Text
    more↓

    It’s no trick to get the right answer when you have all the data. The real creative trick is to get the right answer when you have only half of the data in hand and half of it is wrong and you don't know which half is wrong. When you get the right answer under these circumstances, you are doing something creative.

    Hi, my accent is Scottish. Scottish accents vary quite a bit depending on location. Mine is from central Scotland. Hope this helps your project.

  • Melvin Calvin Quote ( recorded by ShoLouie ), Newfoundland English

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Comments

kee
May 29, 2018

What's the purpose?

TomBushaw
May 29, 2018

Kee, thanks so much for doing the recording! Some friends in Italy who are learning English want to see if they can detect different English accents. I'm trying to learn Italian and am a LONG ways from being able to pick up on different Italian accents (e.g., Northern vs. Southern Italy).

kee
May 30, 2018

Right. I normally tidy up my pronunciation on here, as I think you'd have to be very fluent to understand this, with all the glottal stops and dropped aitches. I think even Americans might struggle on a first or even a second listen!

I guess it's not the easiest accent. https://twitter.com/2000kalorier/status/1001895697162162177

TomBushaw
June 9, 2018

Thank you Cornas!!! 😊

TomBushaw
June 9, 2018

Thank you, Scarlete. Thank you all (Kee, Cornas, and Scarlete, so far) for taking the time to do this. It’s very much appreciated.

TomBushaw
June 24, 2018

Thank you, Pianista! Very helpful!

TomBushaw
June 25, 2018

And thank you, too, FileSendIt! Keep 'em coming! Still looking for some strong southern, northeastern, or other accents! But any and all are welcome!

TomBushaw
July 30, 2018

Thank you Arunne! Very much appreciated!

Owain78
Aug. 4, 2018

Hi Tom, I'm from East London, saw that there was a lack of "cockney"-style voices on your list so thought I'd give it a whirl. Hope it helps! I also live in Italy and confirm that it's hard for many Italians to pick our accents. A tip for you and Italian accents is if you're in the north trying learning to pick out another northern accent first before trying to understand the difference between south and north. Although I can tell the difference between south and north, I have trouble to understand which part of the north someone is from because I live in the south! I just know that it sounds different, but I often can't tell if it's an accent from Lombardy, Piemonte, Veneto, Alto-Adige or sometimes even Tuscan, Umbrian or Genovese! They all sound the same to me. One of the easier ones to hear and pick out is the Roman accent. Sicilian can be quite easy to understand after a while, but Neapolitan, Calabrian and Pugliese for me just blend into each other!

Owain78
Aug. 4, 2018

Saying that if you can get to the point where you can distinguish between Milanese and Neapolitan then you've made it. For a few tips, I recommend watching the film "Benvenuti al sud", particularly the restaurant scene where they teach the guy from Milan how to pronounce words in Neapolitan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFdFHaONMZU

TomBushaw
Aug. 4, 2018

Owain78: Thank you so much for the recording and for the tips regarding deciphering various Italian accents! Very helpful!

Thank you also to Arunne and filesendit for your recordings. Great stuff!

TomBushaw
Sept. 1, 2018

Thank you, theothinker!

theothinker
Sept. 1, 2018

No Problem TomBushaw, wish I had a more exotic English accent for you, but growing up the mid-west of the US didn't give me that. :) Hope the recording is of help!

TomBushaw
Sept. 4, 2018

And thank you, too, nervebrain!

Still looking for a variety of English, American, Australian, East Indian and any other accents! Keep ’em coming. Thanks to all who have contributed so far!

TomBushaw
Oct. 18, 2018

Thank you Spee for your contribution! And for the well wishes.

TomBushaw
Oct. 29, 2018

Thank you ShoLouis. Very much appreciated!

TomBushaw
May 18, 2019

Thanks for the contribution ldavidwillis!

TomBushaw
June 9, 2019

Thank you j_powell1973! And thanks for including the "footnote"!

TomBushaw
June 24, 2019

jdawinslow, Thanks for recording the Melvin Calvin quote for me! Can I ask you where you live?

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