The Cervantes Institute launches a sound sample of the different Spanish Accents. This is an audiovisual project open-minded citizen participation to collect on their website Spanish accents from around the world and from different social profiles.
The Hispanic voices catalog contains samples twenty-eight time of Spanish spoken in seventeen countries of Latin America, but will grow in the coming months to reach at least 106 samples preset, including the accents of speakers of other languages when using the Spanish (Japanese Chinese, Arabic, French, Russian, …).
“These samples will be very useful for teachers of Spanish, whether native language as if second or foreign language. So the recordings are accompanied by transcripts of what they say, cultural information in your area of sources and links for more information on each of the areas included, “explained from the Instituto Cervantes.
It also provides explanations for the different linguistic features and maps and data on demographics and culture.
Thus, for example, from Argentina are now an architect of Buenos Aires, a craftsman, a popular singer gaucho and a Ranger of the Big Island of Tierra del Fuego who put voice to the accent of the country. And uses lexical features are explained as “to fart” with “useless, in vain,” and common expressions and exclamations Dress! or Che.
The project, in which Cervantes Institute has been working for over a year, would be presented publicly at the V International Congress of the Spanish Language in Valparaiso, which was suspended due to the earthquake that struck the country last February 27 and that has become virtual.
The display of accents in Spain will be dealt with, initially, from Seville, Jaen, Granada, Zaragoza, Palma de Mallorca, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Burgos, Valledoli, Ciudad Real, Barcelona, Valencia, Badajoz, Murcia Santigo de Compostela, Bilbao and San Sebastian.
Also, as stated on the website of Cervantes, attention will be paid “language border territories” as Benasque (patois) or Ansó (Ansotana) and also the co-official legunas areas, including the Aran Valley (spiders).
How to participate
In order to participate must be sent to the Instituto Cervantes, through a form on its website, a sample video length and quality similar to the samples already published (three to five minutes, with good image quality and sound).
You should also detailed speaker’s linguistic history that appears (place of birth, parental origin, place of residence) and send the text transcript.
As indicated by the Instituto Cervantes, preference is given to the recordings from places that are native speakers themselves. Similarly, people preferred to talk about topics related to their place of origin.
Currently, there are 500 million native Spanish speakers, which must be added those who speak it as a foreign language and those who study it. The Cervantes Institute has more than 160,000 students worldwide.
