Dialects and Accents of France
The archive provides:
In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).
The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages, Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage), and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings), may be accessed from the menu bar to your right.
To access IDEA's sound files and documents, you will need an mp3 player, and Acrobat Reader, available free from Acrobat Reader.
If you are interested in specific information about France, please go to Yahoo's website at dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/France/
For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here
please go to
Other Dialect Services
Dialect Samples
To properly play a sound sample, you may first need to save it to your own computer. To do so, right-click on the desired sample and save it. A high-speed connection to the internet may allow you to play the file simply by clicking it.| Sound Sample | Basic Information | Text Files |
|---|---|---|
| France One | Male, mild accent. Speaker has lived in US for 30 years | France One Transcription |
| France Two | Female, 20's, Paris | France Two Transcription |
| France Three | Female, 20's, Besancon | France Three Transcription |
| France Four | Female, 20's, Northern Belgium, text-book accent | France Four Transcription |
| France Five | Female, 20's, Besancon, text-book accent | France Five Transcription |
| France Six | Male, 50's, Alsace. First language was the Alsatian dialect of German | France Six |
| France Seven | Female, 50's, Metz, Alsace, text-book accent | France Seven |
| France Eight | Female, twenties, Paris, strong accent | France Eight Transcription |
| France Nine | male, twenties, light accent, learned British English | France Nine |
| France Ten | male, born 1963, fluent English speaker, very little accent | France Ten |