I was wasting time in the vast hinterland of the Internet when I came across this website: http://accent.gmu.edu/

It is a database of more than 1400 voices around the globe reading the same paragraph:

“Please call Stella.  Ask her to bring these things with her from the store:  Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob.  We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids.  She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.”

Everyone speaks with an accent and there is no “correct” one, but that doesn’t mean we can’t analyze different accents, or just listen to them for amusement. No offense to our dear Australian readers, but your English sounds very funny! Don’t worry, you can laugh at my accent if you want, it’s this one: http://accent.gmu.edu/searchsaa.php?function=detail&speakerid=137

You can select a voice by native language or by region. It then takes you to a page with a voice recording (requires Quicktime), a phonetic spelling of the reading, facts about the speaker, and generalizations. There’s a wealth of information in these pages. Who knew comparing accents could be so scientific? Here is the phonetic transcription for the way I speak:

 

Facts about the reader who read this:

• Born in Wichita, Kansas, United States
• 21 year old male
• Other languages: Spanish
• English learning method: naturalistic

Seriously, I could waste a lot of time exploring this. Here’s a breakdown of where WikiTranslation’s visitors come from (click for larger image):

I suppose most of us have an American accent, followed by Indian and then British. What’s your accent?