About
English is many things at once: fascinating, strange, unruly, beautiful, melodic, monotone…
And nowhere is its huge diversity and weirdness laid more bare than in the place it was born: England.
Travel for half an hour in any direction in England and you’ll probably notice some changes in the local accents. In some cases you’ll be staggered by the difference.
In London you might speak to one person who speaks in an accent several centuries old, and the next moment you’re speaking to someone with an accent barely a couple of decades old. These two people might well be related.
Such is the richness of English. Born out of the fusion of several languages at a time of great social upheaval, it has never stopped changing. A fertile pasture for drama and comedy, with almost infinite scope to create wordplay and puns, modern English is also the language of science and technology.
But all this diversity and constant change presents learners of English with some unique challenges. Which accent to study? How to understand people with different accents? How to get your head around the vast number of sounds, weird spellings and awful jokes?
The Sound of English is all about these challenges. It’s a place to explore English in all its weirdness. Whether you are looking to teach pronunciation or accents, or to improve your own pronunciation, the materials and courses here can help you on your way.