Why Mr. Tickle?

You might have heard that the British Library wants people to record themselves reading Mr. Tickle. And you’re probably wondering why. We have an extensive collection of recordings that capture a variety of 20th-century voices. You can hear several examples in our Evolving English exhibition and on our Voices of the UK CD. The exhibition, which opened on 12 November, gives us a unique opportunity to capture contemporary English voices from around the world. This will enhance our collections and enable researchers now and in the future to describe accents of English and track changes in our pronunciation.

So how do we compare accents? UCL phonetician John Wells devised a system of using a single word to refer to groups of English words that contain the same vowel sound. He calls these word-groups lexical sets and uses a key word, such as BATH to identify them. The BATH set refers to the pronunciation of the vowel in the word bath and other words that share that same vowel, such as laugh, ask and dance. It’s a particularly important vowel set in the UK as we can divide speakers into northerners and southerners depending on their pronunciation of BATH words. We also associate different BATH variants with American English, Australian English and South African English. On the whole consonants vary less dramatically than vowels and are more resistant to change over time, but several local pronunciations exist. The <th> sound in words like think, for instance, has recognisable alternatives in London, the Republic of Ireland, Jamaica and on the Indian subcontinent and pronunciation varies considerably among non-native speaker groups.

Professor Wells recommends 24 lexical sets as the basis for comparing accents of English worldwide. Perhaps the simplest way to compare accents is to record speakers pronouncing a word list that includes all 24 vowels and a complete set of consonants. Although this method is useful, experience shows that it doesn’t always produce the most ‘natural’ pronunciations. When reading a list we often use a more careful, precise speech style. Pronouncing words in isolation also reduces the prominence of connected speech processes like intonation and rhythm, which are such a characteristic feature of many accents. Spontaneous conversation provides the most ‘authentic’ language and the most detailed data, but researchers need hours of recording to ensure each speaker under observation uses every vowel and consonant sound.

A good compromise is to use a reading passage of continuous prose. Previous studies have used iconic texts, such as 'The Parable of the Prodigal Son' or 'Aesop’s fable of the North Wind and the Sun'. For the VoiceBank we decided to use a children’s book – step forward ‘Mr. Tickle’. Dumbing down you might think? In fact a familiar text with intentionally straightforward language allows speakers of all ages to read confidently, including non-native speakers of all abilities. Pilot studies with the text confirm it also encourages a relaxed, informal speech style. Crucially, the Mr. Tickle text here contains almost all of Wells’ lexical sets, a comprehensive set of consonants and several connected speech processes. This will ensure the recordings we collect will be valid for research now and in the future. Our exhibition includes a representative sample of voices from all parts of the English speaking world. We’d be tickled pink if your accent, your town, YOUR English became part of our story.

Jonnie Robinson

Comments

[Julie in the North]

Sounds like fun! Problem is, how can you read a Mr Men book without shades of Arthur Lowe creeping in? What about the characters too? When I read them to my children I adopted a suitable accent for each character.

[Des Baker]

Trouble is, we don't retain our original accents. For instance,I don't any longer use the 'thee' and 'thar' of my youth in North Derbyshire (except for fun), and years of living in Germany,Cardiff and Bristol have produced a mishmash which may be a phonetician's dream - or nightmare. So I ask myself how I should now read Mr Tickle.

[Jonnie Robinson]

Thanks very much for your interest and for your observations. As you say, the way we speak changes over time and most of us make subtle (sometimes even quite significant) adjustments to our accent depending on our circumstances and surroundings.
We want to gather as many voices as possible here, but above all we want them to be an authentic record of people's pronunciation at the start of the 21st century.
We want your recording to be as a natural as possible, so please speak as you do now and don't attempt to 'recreate' how you might have sounded or how people talk 'back home'. Any information you provide to describe your accent will be extremely useful - e.g. I grew up in North Derbyshire, but haven't lived there for 20 years.

[Michael Young]

I've been trying, unsuccessfully, since November 2010 to get to the BL to participate in this interesting exercise, so this appears a good online opportunity to leapfrog my difficulties and make my modest mark.

[A. Ziemianski]

Will the 'map your voice' featur end in April? I think that you need more samples from around the world for the data to be an asset to linguists.

Also, actors could benefit from having a foreign accent to listen to. (I like the Spain, Italy, and Greece recordings).

The Polish recording doesn't sound like a polish accent, so I think the data is a bit skewed towards British people living abroad.

[C. Affleck]

I am very interested in this project! What a marvelous idea. Perusing the sound gallery, I have noticed a couple of things: so far, there's a pretty uneven representation of North American, and especially Canadian, English. There is such a variety of Canadian accents, and that is not really reflected (yet) in your map. I wish I could help find you more voices from Newfoundland (where there's a strong connection with both West Country and Irish dialects). Missing, as far as I can tell, are any aboriginal speakers or readers from the prairie provinces. The other trend I've noticed is a much more homogeneous accent from the younger participants. This makes me a bit sad. But - thanks for this project!

[Aiante]

Somehow, uploading a file, I didn't get a map window to mark my location! Can it be helped or should I re-upload it?

[JG, London]

Brilliant exercise. In years to come, it will be interesting to study the influence of foreign English speakers, for whom English isn't their first language, on the shaping of the English language.

[Paul]

I don't see how you will be getting a representative selection of society as the methods available to submit a recording are not that easy. I do not have a smartphone or a computer equiped with a microphone. I would love to contribute but am unable to do so.

[Jonnie Robinson]

This is an issue in terms of participation, but not linguistic validity. We've listened to a small selection of the recordings submitted and the voices seem to be restricted to a narrow social set. Linguistically, this isn't a problem and arguably even makes the speakers more comparable - i.e. the variation despite the fact most contributors are pretty middle-class means there is an element of control in the data. There is, of course, the opportunity to contribute on site if you can get to the Library before 4 April?

[James]

I agree with some of the above posts, in that accents change with time and may not reflect 'where you are from'. Think of the thousands of University students in the UK - unlike other countries, most students attend Universities far away from the place they grew up in and many never return.
I grew up in South England but then after University lived in Switzerland for 5 years before moving back to the UK. My partner is French, so we speak a mixture of French and English, and I worked exclusively with Germans and Swiss-Germans as well as 4 other European language groups - all these factors heavily influenced my accent. Now back in the UK people I meet have in the past commented on my accent, saying 'your English is really really good, how long have you been learning it?'

[adam]

but surely the biggest divider word is the word 'one'. Many people in england are insensible to the fact that it rhymes with 'fun' (not 'gone') in RP, Scottish, American, Canadian, Australian and foreign English . other accent distinctions they're aware of but not this. Many newscasters, actors e.g. eric idle, daniel craig, singers e.g. beatles cannot tell even though they americanise/RP-ise their accents.