Karaoke method

Cut n paste method

Indian English vs British RP case, the script was recorded using a bi-dialectal speaker who spoke both standard received pronunciation British English (RP), as well as Indian English. We recorded the RP-version first and then used a karaoke-like method to ensure that they were identical (including pausing, uhms and ahs etc.). We also used digital manipulation to align speech rates and intensity levels of the recordings ​

In the Youth Language case we used a cut-and-paste technique first developed by Labov et al. 2011. Here the same recording was used to produce the two versions of the script. We targeted manipulations to phonological markers of ethnic identity that particularly signalled accentedness of non-European L1 influence from languages of Middle Eastern and North African origin, such as Arabic, Persian and Somali. In the manipulated version we identified replaced these with recordings of manipulated vowel sounds  - replacing [ʉ:]-sounds (as in ‘hur’) with the more rounded [u:]-sound (‘hor’), for example. The Praat software allowed us to make very accurate replacements.

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