THE NORTH WIND AND THE SUN IN PHONETICS
EUROPEAN LANGUAGES
These pages contain historic recordings of the North Wind and the Sun in a wide range of languages of the world to illustrate the principles of the International Phonetic Association. These recordings were made in the phonetics laboratory of Edinburgh University in the 1950s and 1960s. The phonetics of many of these languages were included in the 1949 IPA Handbook. I have arranged them according to the continent where they are spoken. At the moment you can already listen to all the recordings ... but there is more work to do. These recordings (and more) are also available from the database below:
Text in English:
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger when a traveller came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveller take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other. Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew, the more closely did the traveller fold his cloak around him; and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shone out warmly and immediately the traveller took off his cloak. And so the North wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.
Abercombie, David. (2013). The North Wind and the Sun, 1951-1978 [sound]. University of Edinburgh. School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences. Department of Linguistics and English Language. https://doi.org/10.7488/ds/157.
