North Wind and the Sun in English.
English is a West Germanic Indo-European language. It is spoken as a native language by an estimated 400 million people and this makes it the third most widely spoken language in the world. Other West Germanic languages are Frisian, Low German/Low Saxon, German, Dutch and Afrikaans. It is the official language (or one of the official languages) in 60 countries.
The recordings below illustrate three varieties of English: RP, Scottish English and American English. The recordings were made in the University of Edinburgh Phonetics laboratory in the 1950s. The RP text is read by David Abercrombie.
• Recording.
• References.
Roach, Peter (2004). "English, British: Received pronunciation". Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34/2, pp. 239-245.
Hillenbrand, J.M. (2003). American English: Southern Michigan. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33/1, pp. 121-126.