Dr Dominique Estival interviewed on FIVEaa Radio

The MARCS Institute is pleased to report that Dr Dominique Estival (pictured right) was recently interviewed on FIVEaa Radio, Adelaide. 

Dr Estival discussed the AusTalk project, a large state-of-the-art audio-video database of spoken Australian English from all around the country. 

In the interview, she explained that linguists recognise not only class-based variation (the earlier grossly simplified distinction between uneducated outback and educated city) but also geographic variation such as between Adelaide and Brisbane, and variation according to age and the native language of your parents. 

Dominique also touched upon the methodology of recording 1000 speakers for the AusTalk project, such as asking people to read a story aloud and then re-tell it in their own words. 

Dominique is the Project Manager of AusTalk, and University of Western Sydney (MARCS Institute) is the administering institution. 

Eleven universities across Australia have been collecting voices for the national AusTalk database. 

More information about the AusTalk project can be found on the AusTalk website.