Anyone know any good accent audio archives?

[JimmyCracksCorn]

I'm really interested in accents. Not for school or anything, just as a hobby. I love hearing different accents from English speaking populations around the world, especially from remote areas in the colonial and post colonial world.

Like for instance I just became interested in hearing what a white Bahamian would sound like... since most are descended from Loyalist Americans, I would assume there would be some kind of connection with a late 18th century American accent... either from New England or the Carolinas. It would be fascinating to hear one. However there is very very very little literature on this, and its almost impossible to find any way to hear one without actually going to the Bahamas. This is just one example.

Over the years I've found a few sites which have audio clips of different people from around the world reading various passages from books, etc... just so people can hear their accent. However, the ones I've found are very limited and don't have much selection, especially from smaller countries.

So does anyone know of a similar site/database which they've found useful... or am I just not making any sense?

[Dinner]

Some of the isolated islands off the coast of Virgina and North Carolina have accents stuck in time. Some of these islands are very isolated and the people there still speak in 18th century English accents which long ago died out in England. I saw a PBS special on it a few years back.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Some of the isolated islands off the coast of Virgina and North Carolina have accents stuck in time. Some of these islands are very isolated and the people there still speak in 18th century English accents which long ago died out in England. I saw a PBS special on it a few years back.

Yeah, I've heard them too. They actually have accents which sounds alot like outport Newfoundland accents. Like "hoi toid" for High tide... pretty interesting stuff.

Also, further south you have the Gullah/Geechee people who speak a mixture of 17th century English and West African. Thats a crazy dialect.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Some of the isolated islands off the coast of Virgina and North Carolina have accents stuck in time.

Just the accents?

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Dauphin


Just the accents?

Lifeways as well. Although they're probably not much different than any other isolated coastal people anywhere.

Listen to the "Ocracoke Brogue" here, pretty thick:

http://www.ncsu.edu/project/linguistics/ocracoke_audio/1track.rm

[Dauphin]

Sounds more like an average Somerset accent.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Dauphin
Sounds more like an average Somerset accent.

I know... thats why its so unique. It would be like finding a community in the UK where everyone has a Bronx accent.