The British Library has embarked on a project to map accents and pronunciation of words by English-speakers worldwide, as part of its Evolving English exhibit. To that end, they have asked any English-speaker world-wide to record themselves reading aloud the children’s book Mr. Tickle for the benefit of their collection.
The idea is that reading prose aloud tends to be more natural and conversational than simply reading lists of words, and also Mr. Tickle includes some words that have interesting variant pronunciations, like “mischievous” or “extraordinary”.
Readers can take part in the project at the British Library website, or by using an Audioboo mobile app. The website includes a downloadable or printable copy of the book, and instructions on how to tag the recording.
(Found via ReadWriteWeb.)
