RESEARCH AND PRONUNCIATION SITES FOR AUDIOBOOK NARRATORS
Email me or post changes / updates on the ABC Green Room forum and I’ll add them here.
From Lyssa Browne:
The Pronunciation of 10,000 Proper Names.
http://www.archive.org/stream/pronunciationof100mackrich#page/n7/mo…
Associated Press Pronunciation Guide http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/591782/posts
Mid-Wales dialect guide: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/voices/
Latin sounds guide: http://wheelockslatin.com/chapters/introduction/introduction_conson…
From Jeffrey Kafer:
1. Call an ethnic restaurant!
2. Don’t forget the Speech Accent Archive (words pronounced by native speakers): http://accent.gmu.edu/browse.php
From Leanne Eleff: http://www.bahaiglossary.org/ (Audio and written pronunciations / definitions for Baha’i words — good source for Persian and Arabic words)
http://www.naturalreaders.com/index.htm (text-to-synthesized speech site)
From Kyle Stich, proofer at Blackstone Audio:
http://www.dict.cc/ – For German pronunciations http://www.instantspeakchinese.com/dictionary/ – For Mandarin Chinese pronunciations, special thanks to my high-school son http://cantonese.ca/pronunciation.html – For Cantonese Chinese pronunciations, phonetics only http://www.pantheon.org/miscellaneous/pronunciations.html – For pronunciation of mythic figures
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Google “[word] + pronounce”
YouTube / Google video
Call embassies or national airlines
Call public offices / libraries in region for place-name pronunciations
www.virtuallanguagetutor.com (enter word and click “speak” to hear pronounced;
allowed about 6 searches per visit)
www.reverso.net (will translate and then pronounce foreign word for you)
www.godchecker.com (gods, saints, demons, mythological names)
www.npr.org (search NPR to find audio of interviews to get name pronunciations)
www.bbc.co.uk (search as for NPR)
www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/ (“The Voices Recordings,” BBC’s archive page with
access to voices from regions throughout the UK)
www.aschmann.net/AmEng/ (American English dialects)
www.inogolo.com (pronunciation of people, places, and stuff)
www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/linguistics/ (American English
Dialect Recordings, the Ctr. for Applied Linguistics Collection)
www.names.voa.gov/ (Voice of America. Lots of foreign dignitary and government
official names)
www.text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/ (Type text and hear in various accents)
www.mimeo.com/6276909 (Man in Van. Video of New York guy, authentic regionalism)
www.web.ku.edu/~idea/dialectmap.html
www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/
www.bookbrowse.com/authors/author%5Fpronunciations (author names)
www.courvo.biz/2009/03/global-spoken-words.html
www.csupomona.edu/~pronunciation/index.html (Asian name pronunciations)
www.loc.gov/nls/other/ABC.html (pronunciation for brands and companies)
www.loc.gov/nls/other/sayhow.html (names and public figures)
www.merck.com/mmhe/resources/pronunciations/index/a.html (Merck medical
pronunciations)
www.onelook.com (searches over 1000 dictionaries)
www.vasta.org/resources/internet_resources.html#dialects (VASTA)www2.research.att.com/%7Ettsweb/tts/demo.php (type text and hear in various accents)
2 comments
Amy Rubinate says:
March 14, 2011 at 6:40 pm (UTC 0)
Thanks so much for putting this invaluable resource where I can easily access it!
Kyle Stich says:
March 25, 2011 at 8:56 pm (UTC 0)
What an incredibly comprehensive list of resources, Heather. Thanks for sharing it!