VASTA.ORG - Internet Resources for Voice and Speech Professionals

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Anatomy & Vocal Health

American Lung Association
Clear and useful site covering asthma, tobacco issues, and air quality, and featuring a Lung Disease A-Z. Includes links to state branches.

Canadian Lung Association
Information in English and French on asthma, chronic lung disease, sleep apnea, tuberculosis, lung diseases A-Z, etc. Includes links to provincial lung associatons.

Gross Anatomy Resources
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences presents a links page for resources on gross anatomy, including these Anatomy Tables, detailing every bone and its structure, with precise medical descriptions.

Human Respiratory System
Clarenville High School Biology Department presents a useful page including an explanation of gas exchange in humans and other respiratory system information.

Interactive Saggital Section
Daniel Currie Hall created this clever tool on the University of Toronto website. Select articulations and see them in action!

Journey of the Voice: Anatomy, Physiology and the Care of the Voice
Part of VASTAn Eric Armstrong’s website, chock full of interesting articles and links.

Maintaining Vocal Health
Sensible article by David Otis Castonguay, Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities, Radford University. Includes nifty flowchart illustration.

Pharynx & Larynx
From Emory University’s Human Anatomy Course, well presented information on the pharynx and larynx, with many clear line drawings of the structures of the throat.

Skeleton Tutorials
Useful pictorial examination of the skeleton, including the skull, from Maricopa Community College.

Voice Care Network (UK)
"Charity set up ... to help and advise teachers on keeping their voices healthy and on communicating more effectively. We support and advise other professions who use their voices extensively in the course of their work."

VoiceCare Network (US)
VoiceCare gives courses in "lifespan voice education for choral conductors, music educators, church musicians, singing teachers, singers and speech pathologists."

Voice Care FAQ
University of Pittsburgh Voice Center gives basic answers to Frequently Asked Questions about voices and vocal care.

Vocal Process
“Vocal Process was established by Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher as a training resource for vocal practitioners. Our vision is to pioneer new techniques in vocal training and to foster an environment where existing techniques can improve and develop.” Their resource page includes such helpful features as “Your Questions Answered”, articles, and a links page.

Voice Foundation
“The world’s leading organization dedicated to solving voice problems.”

Voice Problem Website
"Brought to you by The Watergate Voice Foundation, [whose] purpose is to support patients with voice disorders as they seek healing for the more complex, more intractable voice problems."

Other Organizations and Institutions of Interest

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
“ASHA is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for … audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists.”

British Voice Association
Charity established to encourage healthy voice, vocal skills, and communication in such areas as the performing arts, business and industry, medicine, and education.

Deutsche Gesellschaft fÙr Musikphysiologie und Musikermedizin e.V. (in German). Includes link to English version, German Association on Physiology of Music and Performing Arts Medicine.

H.E.A.R.
"H.E.A.R.’s mission is the prevention of hearing loss and tinnitus among musicians and music fans (especially teens) through education awareness and grassroots outreach advocacy."

International Speech Communication Association
Formed “to promote Speech Communication Science and Technology, both in the industrial and Academic areas, covering all the aspects of Speech Communication (Acoustics, Phonetics, Phonology, Linguistics, Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Signal Processing, Pattern Recognition, etc.).”

Internet Institute of Speech and Hearing
“Aims to be the best source of information about the science and technology of speech and hearing. It is run by professionals with a long involvement in the field, both in terms of teaching and research.”

National Association of Teachers of Singing
“Nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging the highest standards of singing through excellence in teaching and the promotion of vocal education and research.”

National Center for Voice and Speech
Interdisciplinary team of investigators studying the powers, limitations, and enhancement of human voice and speech. This site is one means of passing their discoveries on to other investigators, voice & speech practitioners, and the general public. Host of VASTA’s Annual Conference in 2007.

NIDCD: Voice, Speech & Language
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders maintains this health information page with links to several online publications of interest.

New York Singing Teachers’ Association
The first association of singing teachers in the United States, joined together in 1906 for the cause of promoting high quality singing in America.

SIL International
"By facilitating language-based development, SIL International serves the peoples of the world through research, translation, and literacy."

Speech

Dialects & Accents

Dialect and accent home pages and links pages are especially susceptible to rapid expiration. If you are looking for information on a particular accent or dialect and can’t find it here or through a web search, please contact Amy Stoller directly about her research service.

AUE Audio Archive
Sound samples from English speakers from around the world, using texts chosen for their usefulness in accent determination. Also has links to other resources. Check out the alt.usage.english homepage for more information on this sometimes contentious newsgroup.

American Dialect Society
"Dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it."

BBC Radio 4: Routes of English
Access to sound files from the radio series on English language history.

Survey of English Dialects (Formerly Collect Britain)
Access to more than 650 regional speech samples from the British Library’s collection. Also worth exploring: Millennium Memory Bank, Oral History, and other Archival Sound Recordings.

Dictionary of the Scots Language
Searchable electronic editions of the 12-volume Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST) and the 10-volume Scottish National Dictionary (SND).

English Around the World
E. L. Easton’s links page is one of many interesting features on this extensive website.

Harvard Survey of North American Dialects – Results.
Bert Vaux’s original survey used a series of questions designed to identify regional peculiarities of USA English. Results for each state, though not conclusive, can be useful for fine-tuning details in dialect writing, performance, or instruction.

Hiberno-English Archive
John Loftus and Terence Patrick Dolan provide a smallish (but growing) online archive of Irish English words and phrases. Click on “Archive” to search for specific pronunciations and definitions or to investigate the archive, letter by letter. Site also contains other useful and interesting related features, including a links page.

History Channel: Great Speeches
"Hear the Words that Changed the World." Extensive sound archive.

International Dialects of English Archive
IDEA is the brainchild of VASTAn Paul Meier of the University of Kansas, with assistance by Shawn Muller. Unique collection of primary source recordings for actors and others, in English, of native speakers in both English-language dialects and accents of other languages. Downloadable and playable on Mac and Windows. Updated frequently.

New Zealand English
Sound files of a native speaker of New Zealand English. Links on the left side of chart are to AIFF files; on the right, RealAudio files. Part of a larger site containing interesting supplementary information.

Organization of Dialect Diversity in North America
Slightly enlarged version of a presentation given by William Labov at the Fourth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing at Philadelphia in 1996.

Pittsburgh Speech & Society
A site devoted to Pittsburghese, including speech samples and podcasts.

Russian Alphabet
A guide to pronouncing Cyrillic letters, with audio files for their names.

Scots Online Resource Centre
“The Scots Language Centre was founded to do everything possible to promote the Scots language. Our main aim is to give people that speak Scots the chance to learn more about their own language.” First-class source of online information, plus purchasing access to books, CDs, and so forth.

Scots-Online
“Pittin the Mither Tongue on the Wab” through some very helpful external and internal links.

Speech Accent Archive
George Mason University’s useful site includes streaming sound files of speakers from many backgrounds, each reading a regrettably short sample paragraph in English. (Note that IPA transcription, where provided, is of variable accuracy.)

Speech Internet Dictionary
Concise definitions of technical terms used in phonetics, phonology, speech and hearing science and allied disciplines. Examples, illustrations, sound clips, and references.

Story Corps
One of the largest oral history projects of its kind, creating a growing portrait of the American people.

Tejano Voices
Mexican-American oral history project at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Telsur Project
Survey of linguistic changes in progress in North American English; creator of the Atlas of North American English [ANAE] (formerly the Phonological Atlas of North America).

Tongue Twisters
Thousands of tongue twisters in hundreds of languages.

UC Berkeley Lectures & Events
Audio and video files of speeches and poetry readings at the University of California, Berkeley.

UNIL Course in Phonetics
The University of Lausanne Institute of Linguistics presents an internet primer, in English and French, on articulation of speech sounds, including IPA symbols with accompanying audio files. Follow the links in the menu at page left.

Pronunciation Guides

ABC Book
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress, provides a pronunciation guide to commercial names.

Say How?
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress, provides a pronunciation guide to names of public figures.

Voice of America Pronunciation Guide
Pronunciation guide for names in the news. Slow to load on dial-up connections. The faster-loading Short List includes RealAudio files.

Phonetics and Phonetic Notation

Interactive Charts of the IPA
Superb resource designed by VASTAn Eric Armstrong and voiced by VASTAn Paul Meier, and accessible at either link. Includes Flash animated IPA charts (1996 version) plus diphthongs and triphthongs of Received Pronunciation and General American.

Interactive IPA Vowel Quadrilateral
Voiced by John Wells, Susan Ramsaran, and Peter Ladefoged.

The International Phonetic Alphabet in Black Print and in Braille. Claude Chaunier authored this useful page, as well as its companion, Phonetic Transcription of French / Transcription phonétique du français.

International Phonetic Association
Website of the IPA includes many useful pages of its own, plus a links page.

IPA Handbook
The University of Victoria (B.C., Canada) Department of Linguistics offers this useful guide to the IPA, including sound samples for American-English, Amharic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, French, Galician, German, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Igbo, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Sindhi, Slovene, Swedish, Taba, Thai, Tukang-Besi, and Turkish.

Peter Ladefoged
Peter Ladefoged (1925-2006) was a professor in the UCLA Linguistics Department from 1962 to 1991, and thereafter a Research Linguist. He created these two websites to accompany his books, A Course in Phonetics and Vowels and Consonants. Explore!

Phonetics Discussion List
Subscription page for Karen Chung’s internationally-oriented list; for anybody learning, teaching, or just interested in phonetics.

Phonetics Flash Animation Project
This University of Iowa site contains animated libraries of the phonetic sounds of American English, German, and Spanish. Includes animated articulatory diagrams, step-by-step descriptions, and audio-video illustrations of sounds spoken in context, plus an interactive diagram of the articulatory anatomy. (Note: Uses the Kenyon and Knott convention that notates American FACE and GOAT diphthongs with monophthong symbols.)

Phonetics Group Audio Demonstrations/Project `Ontsluiting Geluidsdemonstraties'
Site available in English and Dutch. The aim of this project is to distribute audio demonstrations used in Phonetics courses, so that students can consult these demonstrations for private study. To this end, the necessary software has been developed, and audio demonstrations were digitised, adapted, renewed or made from scratch. Demonstrations include Introduction to Phonetics, Unknown Language, Singing, and Cardinal Vowels demonstrated by Daniel Jones, among others.

Phonétique et Phonologie: Documents de travail
Vue en coupe des organes phonatoires; Schéma des points d’articulation; Articulation des consonnes du français standard; Système phonologique des voyelles du français; Le Système phonologique; Alphabet Phonétique International (API): transcription des sons du français. You don’t need more than a rudimentary knowledge of French to reap some benefit from the links on this page, especially the IPA (API) vowel (voyelle) and consonant (consonne) charts.

SAMPA Computer Readable Phonetic Alphabet
In plain English, this is a guide to using standard American or European keyboard symbols to “stand in” for IPA symbols – very useful for email and other media where IPA fonts may not be available to the user. Scroll down for phonemic notation of individual languages, plus extensions to the basic symbols.

Shaw Phonetic Alphabet
When George Bernard Shaw died in 1950, his will provided for the development of a new alphabet for the English language, an alphabet of at least forty letters that could be used to write English without the vagaries of English spelling.

Sounds of the IPA
Order page for CD or cassette demonstrating all the sounds in the exact order in which they are shown on the current IPA Chart. Spoken by John Wells, Professor of Phonetics at University College London, and Jill House, Senior Lecturer in Phonetics at UCL.

IPA Fonts

IPA Fonts
New to using IPA Fonts? Start with this helpful page by VASTAns Michael Barnes and Eric Armstrong, prepared for Windows and Mac users.

IPAPhon Font at Henry Rogers Fonts
The IPAPhon family contains the complete set of phonetic symbols as set out in the 1995 [sic] revision of the IPA. This phonetic font contains the usual upper- and lower-case letters, numerals, and punctuation marks, plus the symbols. For Mac and Windows.

IPA-SAM Phonetic Fonts
TrueType fonts that allow you to display phonetic symbols on the screen and print them out in any size. For Mac OSX and Windows.

SIL Encore IPA Fonts
Download these useful freeware IPA fonts from SIL International. Keyboard translation programs available at the bottom of the page. For Mac and Windows.

Software

Amadeus Pro
Shareware, fully featured, user-friendly multitrack editor for Macintosh only. Its predecessor, Amadeus II, is also available for earlier versions of the Mac OS.

Audacity
Freeware open source software for recording and editing sounds. Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, others.

Praat
Multi-functional program for speech analysis and synthesis, written by Paul Boersma and David Weenink of the Department of Phonetics at the University of Amsterdam. Available for many platforms. Complex, but homepage provides a handy link to a beginner’s manual. Freeware for Mac OSX and OS9, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, SGI, Solaris, and HPUX.

Wavesurfer
Open Source tool for sound visualization and manipulation, designed for novice and advanced users; can be used as a stand-alone tool for a wide range of tasks in speech research and education. Typical applications are speech/sound analysis and sound annotation/transcription. Can also serve as a platform for more advanced/specialized applications. Freeware for Mac OSX, Linux, and Windows.

VASTA Members’ Voice, Speech, and Dialect Materials

Many good commercial resources can be ordered through the Book Stores, Publishers, and Licensing Organizations listed on this page. Those which can be ordered direct from their creators are noted here.

Accent Help
Downloadable instruction materials for accents, dialects, and “accent reduction” by Kate DeVore and Jim Johnson.

Dialect Accent Specialists, Inc.
Audio and video instruction materials for accents, dialects, accent reduction, and voice improvement by David Alan Stern.

DialectResource.com
Audio instruction materials for accents and dialects by Gillian Lane-Plescia. Also custom materials and research assistance.

Paul Meier Dialect Services
Audio instruction materials for accents, dialects, and accent reduction by Paul Meier. Also custom materials and instruction services.

Vocal Process
Vocal Process was established by Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher as a training resource for vocal practitioners. Books, CDs, and downloadable videos.

Voice and Speech Training.com
Print and audio instruction materials for accents, accent reduction, and S drills by Ginny Kopf.

Book Stores, Publishers, and Licensing Organizations

American Theatre Works - Dorset, VT
Non-profit corporation for performing arts encompasses three programs including publication of annual Theatre Directories and articles for theatre professionals and students.

Applause Theatre & Cinema Books - New York, NY
Stocks approximately 20,000 theatre books; also publishes several hundred titles of their own.

Baker’s Plays - Quincy, MA
Publisher and comprehensive theatrical book store.

Broadway Play Publishing - New York, NY
Specializes in full-length, contemporary American plays; publishes some musicals and one-act plays. Also acts as the authors’ agent in the licensing of professional and amateur production rights to these plays in the US & Canada.

BSP Gallery Bookshop - Victoria, Australia
Old and rare theatre books page.

Currency Press - New South Wales, Australia
Independent publisher of performing arts texts and other media. Theatre, music, and film & television catalogs, regularly updated, plus a collection of educational resources including study guides, speeches, and other materials.

Drama Book Shop - New York, NY
40,000 titles dealing with all aspects of performing arts from scripts to technical books, videos, labels, etc. Accepts orders from anywhere in world.

Dramatic Publishing - Woodstock, IL
Theatrical publisher.

Dramatists Play Service - New York, NY
Publishes and licenses the work of new and established playwrights. You must enable cookies to use excellent PlayFinder feature.

Internet Theatre Bookshop
Comprehensive catalog of plays in English. Click on "Browse by Genre" for synopses and basic casting requirements.

Music Theater International - New York, NY; sister organizations worldwide.
Major dramatic licensing agency, specializing in Broadway, Off-Broadway & West End musicals. Particularly dedicated to the idea of theatre as education, supplies many support materials & resources.

Playscripts, Inc.
Independent publisher of new plays.

Playwrights Canada Press - Toronto, Ontario
Canada’s oldest, largest, exclusive publisher of plays. Distributes own publications and unpublished titles available through Canadian Plays Catalogue. Canadian distributor for Icarus Press, Aurora Metro Publications, Nick Hern Books and the Theatre Communications Group.

Plural Publishing
Publisher of academic, scientific, and clinical books, journals, videos, and electronic and virtual media in speech-language pathology, audiology, and otolaryngology, as well as oncology, gastroenterology, pediatrics, and the neurosciences.

Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization - New York, NY
Administers and promotes entertainment copyrights through stage productions, orchestral and vocal performances, and music publishing. Exclusive owner of Rodgers & Hammerstein musical properties worldwide.

Samuel French - New York, Hollywood, London, Toronto
Theatrical publisher and bookseller. Plays, monologues, audition material, classroom guides, technical books, cast recordings, etc.

Tams-Witmark Music Library - New York, NY
Licenses rights to perform complete, live stage performances of many Broadway musical shows to professional and amateur companies worldwide.

TheatreBooks - Toronto, Ontario
Stocks plays in English from Canada and around the world, plus books on all aspects of theatre production, opera, dance, Drama and Theatre in Education, all aspects of film and filmmaking, including screenwriting software.

Theatre Communications Group - New York, NY
Publisher of Theater Profiles and other books and plays; distributor for other publishers from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Offers membership discount.

Used, Rare, & Remaindered Books

Daedalus Books
Outstanding source for remaindered books, tapes, and CDs. Web selections updated almost daily. Print catalog updated monthly.

Dover Thrift Editions
Dover Publications offers affordably-priced print editions of works in the public domain.

The Strand - New York, NY
Largest used-book store in the world.

Book Search & Price Comparisons

BookFinder
Excellent meta-search page; especially useful for used or out-of-print books. Searches major listings services and online book stores, combining the inventories of more than 80,000 booksellers. Partner sites include Abebooks, Alibris, Amazon.com and its UK and German sister sites, Barnes & Noble.com, BiblioDirect, Biblion, Global Book Mart, Half.com, Powell’s Books, and many others.

BooksPrice
Meta-search site compares book prices in major online stores.

Chambal.com
Meta-search site compares new and used book prices across major online book stores.

Fetchbook
Offers "one-click" comparison of book prices (new and used) at 126 book stores, 60,000 sellers in Canada, the UK, and the USA.

Indexes

Find a Play
Searchable database includes author, title, and publisher information for plays and musicals licensed by many of the major publishers listed above, plus others. Service provided by Playscripts, Inc. (see Book Stores, Publishers, and Licensing Organizations ).

Inter-Play
"An on-line index to plays in collections, anthologies and periodicals"© ... in a variety of languages. Separately-published plays are not included as these can be located through local library catalogs. Contains approximately 17,647 citations.

Irish Playography
Comprehensive database of New Irish plays produced professionally since 1904.

Plays with Roles Requiring an Accent and Plays with Roles Requiring a Dialect
VASTA wikis in an early stage of development, designed to aid accent/dialect teachers and coaches in finding useful practice and performance material for their students and clients.

Small-Cast One-Act Guide Online
Site owner based in UK. Site accesses playwrights worldwide, one-act scripts for four or fewer actors in many languages, and related material. Includes source directory for scripts, cast breakdowns, etc.

Libraries and Reference Works

Ask Oxford
Free online dictionary resource from Oxford University Press.

Bartleby.com
Use the search feature for directed or meta-searches of a wide variety of public domain reference works. Some complete public domain fiction and verse also available free online, plus an online book store.

Bibliomania: Reference
Fully searchable copies of some favorite language reference books, including dictionaries, books of quotations, synonyms, thesaurus, and literary sources. May take a long time to load on dial-up connections.

British Library
One of the best libraries in the world. If you can’t visit in person, you can still ask the librarians for help.

Dictionary.com
Online access to a variety of dictionary definitions, thesauri, and much more.

Internet Public Library
"The IPL is a public service organization and learning/teaching environment at the University of Michigan School of Information." Excellent multi-layered resource.

Library of Congress
An American national treasure. Catalog of holdings, special exhibition pages, copyright registration and information, and more.

New York Public Library
Another American national treasure. The Library’s collections and services are available to the public, mostly free of charge (non-residents are charged an annual fee for a library card). Access to catalogs, some of the collections, and various electronic resources is available on line.

Project Gutenberg
Huge (and growing) collection of "Plain Vanilla" ASCII electronic texts of Public Domain literature and reference works.

Virtual Library - Theatre & Drama
Pointers to resources in more than 50 countries around the world, multi-cultural and multi-lingual. Visit the Virtual Library home page for resources in other disciplines.

Language Matters

Ask a Linguist
"Service provided by The LINGUIST List ... Ask-A-Linguist is designed to be a place where anyone interested in language or linguistics can ask a question and get the response of a panel of professional linguists."

How Language Works
Michael Gasser’s book on linguistics for beginners is available in its entirety on the Indiana University website.

Language and Linguistics Links
Karen Chung has put together an excellent list of links for those with an interest in the topic.

Just Desserts

Anti-Pedantry Page
Singular "they/their" construction in Jane Austen and others.

British Dialect Translator
Delightfully silly translations into various UK dialects (courtesy of whoohoo.co.uk), including such unique varieties as "Ali G" and "Yorkshire Chicken Run."

The Chaos
Popular poem on the impossibility of mastering English, by Gerald Nolst Trenite; with a discussion of its history. Note that it is written in British, not American, English.

Extras
Karen Chung’s exceptional wide-ranging list of links created for ESL/EFL students.

Linguistic Atlas of the World
Maps showing the names of the world’s countries written in the primary language spoken there. Labor of love by Michael Colley, a Linguistics graduate student at the University of Georgia.

Spelling Reform And The Real Reason It’s Impossible
Enjoyably cranky essay by Justin B Rye on the Pros and Cons of proposals for English spelling reform.

Travails of English
Links to poems and essays on the vagaries of the English language, from Anu Garg’s A.Word.A.Day. Includes an alternate version of "The Chaos."

The Word Detective
Online version of Evan Morris’s newspaper column, answering readers’ questions about words and language. “Updated monthly except when it isn’t.”

Internet Resources for Voice and Speech Professionals

SHORTCUTS