The International Dialects of English Archive
IDEA was created in 1997 as a free, online library of primary source recordings for the performing arts. Its Founder and Director is Paul Meier, author of the best-selling Accents and Dialects for Stage and Screen, and a leading dialect coach for theatre and film.
The Technical Advisor and Founding Webmaster Emeritus for the archive is Shawn Muller.
The Department of Theatre and Film at the University of Kansas, USA, where Meier is a professor, is home to the archive; while the Associate Editors form a global network.
All recordings are in English, are of native speakers, and include both English language dialects and English spoken in the accents of other languages. The archive also includes extensive Special Collections
New recordings and text files are added daily. The recordings consist of a standard reading — Comma Gets A Cure, or (our earliest recordings) The Rainbow Passage — and some unscripted speech, about four minutes in all.
The development of this website is supported, in part, by grants from the University of Kansas General Research Fund and the Kimbell Faculty Enrichment Fund.
Contact Us
Professor Paul Meier
Founder, Director, and Webmaster
pmeier@ku.edu
