I realised recently that I didn't know what the ten biggest languages in the world were, let alone how they sounded. So I thought it would be nice to make an MLN project to show them with a sample of their text and audio. So here it is. Just double-click on the Audio Sample to hear it!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The idea is excellent. I have friends who at times ask "what language is this", as they can't even tell between spanish or portuguese. It'd be good to point them to such sample list. But samples could be better though. The english speech quality is awful (understandably, considering the source) and it is not really representative of the language. Clip from BBC News would probably be much better. Also, Japanese speaker is clearly not native and writing sample, which is the transcription of the audio clip, is in katakana, while in reality such text would not be written in katanaka.
ReplyDeleteHi Aabram,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. I am glad you like it.
I see what you mean about the English sample; it's a nice speech but probably not a good example of spoken English. About the Japanese sample, I would never have known that the person wasn't native ;-)
If you want to have a go at making a new improved project like this, that would be great! Projects like this are easy to make with 'My Language Notebook'. If you make one, I will post it here or you can put it in your own blog or whatever.
All the best,
Jim
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI can't hear the samples as I don't have the Java plug-in. I'd be interested to know what the English sample is and where it comes from. But to say that it is not representative, Aabram, seems a rather bizarre statement to me. English is so diverse that it is an official language in at least 75 countries (British council stats), spoken by around 375m as a native language and around the same number as a second language. So how can anything be that representative? I can't agree that it is BBC English. I'm not convinved it's even that representative of British English, and even then that is a minority compared with all the speakers in North America or indeed India, for instance. I'm British by the way and not an offended American!
www.galidonia.blogspot.com
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteThe English sample is Neil Armstrong doing his 'one small step' speech. It's a good point though, that it is probably impossible to find a sample that represents English. If you go with BBC, then it won't be representative of how say people from the U.S speak. Also, I am British too, and I don't sound anything like the people on the BBC.
Will have a look at your blog.
Hi Jim,
ReplyDeleteIn that case, what can hope to be more representative than a native speaker from the largest English-speaking country on earth? Albeit with a slightly dodgy sound system perhaps. ;>)
Steve