乡音苑 Phonemica, a panorama of Chinese dialects, painted by speakers through their stories

phonemica.net/

Submitted by Olle Linge on 13 March, 2014 11:02

Intermediate Advanced Listening Speaking Audio Web Resource-collections Dialects Cantonese

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From the about page:

Phonemica is a crowd-sourced project to record spoken stories in every one of the thousands of varieties of Chinese. We believe that each language and dialect is a priceless cultural treasure embedding history, social customs -- the knowledge of a people. The Chinese language today contains thousands of language varieties, with differences as wide as Mandarin and Cantonese, as nuanced as the different words of neighboring villages.

But with more and more people speaking Standard Mandarin with family members, coworkers, friends and schoolmates, many of these languages will disappear.

We can’t stop this change, but we want to preserve the cultural heritage. And we need your help. We are collecting stories from grandparents, aunts, neighbours, parents, teachers, friends, and you. They will be transcribed and shared on our site for others to hear.

The recordings will provide a way for future generations to hear the stories of those parents, teachers and friends, told using the language they shared in common. At the same time the recordings will help linguists study the history and development of the Chinese language, allowing us to better understand the rich history of China, with its many periods of mass migration and the spread of cultural developments.

We all have a story to share. Help us share yours.


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