– the Accents and Dialects resource from the Centre for Voice in Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
As a world leading Performing Arts Institution, we attract students from every corner of the globe. Our wonderful International community gives us the opportunity to record a variety of contemporary accents and dialects of English. All recordings are authentic voices– gifted by our students (and occasionally, staff!).
Why is MEDEA different?
This living archive is designed to complement existing web-sites such as www.dialectsarchive.com and spi:ki:zi, but also offers additional features:
Heritage Dialects will be the repository for dedicated collections and currently houses conversations on the language and dialect of the Show People community in Scotland and a series of podcasts reflecting accents from the African Diaspora: click here to listen to i-DARE (Identity: Dialects, Accents, Race explored) – released on World Diversity Day 2021. This section of MEDEA is part of our commitment to equality, inclusion and diversity.
Conversations is a series of dialogues between accents that share similar features – and which often get confused! Listen to Australia and New Zealand, Edinburgh and Glasgow, Canada and Standard American. Speakers discuss their differences and offer tips to help you develop and embody these dialects for yourself.
Dialects in Performance contains visual recordings of contemporary monologues written in specific dialects. Grateful thanks go to the playwrights who have contributed their work in support of this project.
Research contains a digest of articles that reflect the latest thinking on dialects.