diagnostic passage for accents

[Doug Honorof]

We have devised a diagnostic passage for use by field researchers
investigating accents of English. The passage follows the text of the
present message. We believe it contains all the Wellsian lexical set names,
all the consonants of English accents (in all interesting positions?), and a
number of other words and phrases intended to expose interesting phenomena.
We wrote it in part as a replacement for the Rainbow Passage. We are aiming
at a text that flows well, follows international usage wherever relevant and
sounds fairly colloquial in as many varieties of English as possible insofar
as a read passage can.

The International Dialects of English Archive (www.ukans.edu/~idea) has
expressed interest in adopting the passage for use by its editors. We are
hoping that other scholars will find it useful, too. Our intention is to
allow anyone to use the passage in their work (even commercial work) without
royalty (and, in fact, without bothering us about permission) as long as
they reproduce the copyright notification in print and in the recording
itself (even if in the researcher's own voice) before distributing their
work. If a researcher customizes the final version (which I will post to
this list when it is ready), our lawyer says the changes should be noted and
our copyright to the derivative work also given.

Any comments on the passage from fellow ADSers would be received with
gratitude. We are hoping to have a final version of the passage in a final
form next week.

Doug

Douglas N. Honorof
Haskins Laboratories
270 Crown Street
New Haven, CT 06511/USA
Tel. 203-865-6163


"Comma Gets a Cure" (a diagnostic passage for accent study)
written by Jill McCullough & Barbara Somerville, edited by Douglas N.
Honorof
© 1997-2000 Douglas N. Honorof, Jill McCullough & Barbara Somerville

"Well, here's a story for you: Sarah was a nurse who had been working in the
newest area of the territory. She was very happy to start another new job,
this time in North Square near the Duke Street Tower. On her first morning,
she washed her face, put on a plain white dress and a furry fleece jacket,
picked up her kit and headed for work. When she got there, there was a woman
with a goose waiting for her. The woman gave Sarah a letter from the vet.
The letter implied that the animal could be suffering from a rare form of
foot and mouth disease, which was surprising, because normally you would
only expect to see it in a goat. Sarah was sentimental, so this made her
feel sorry for the bird.

"The goose began to strut around the office like a lunatic, which made an
unsanitary mess. The goose's owner, Mary Harrison, kept calling, " Comma,
Comma", which Sarah thought was an odd choice for a name. Comma was strong
and huge, so it took some force to trap her, but Sarah managed by gently
stroking the goose's lower back with her palm and singing to her. Her
efforts were not futile. Very soon, the goose began to tire, and Sarah gave
her a relaxing bath and washed her. Then she laid Comma on a cloth for
diagnosis. Almost immediately, Sarah remembered an effective treatment that
required her to measure out a lot of medicine. The treatment was very
expensive, but Mrs. Harrison--a millionaire lawyer--thought it was a fair
price for a cure."