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It is a common accusation that Britons are sounding more American these days, but new evidence suggests that may not be so after all. Try saying aloud these words: controversy, garage, neither, scone, schedule, attitude.
The British Library holds recordings of thousands of people saying those six words and early conclusions cast interesting light on the way English is spoken.
As part of the Map Your Voice project, library curators have also listened to many thousands of people reading extracts from Mr Tickle (part of the Mr Men children's books) – "tickles are small and round and have arms that stretch and stretch and stretch" – in an attempt to provide a log of contemporary spoken English.
More than 10,000 English speakers from across the world have so far contributed to the project. "We've had an extraordinary response, we're delighted," said the library's curator of sociolinguistics, Jonnie Robinson.
One early conclusion is that Britons are not necessarily pronouncing their words as Americans do. Take "controversy". Americans tend to put the stress on the first syllable – which the Oxford English Dictionary says is correct – while a majority of Britons now emphasise the second.
"This is something that linguists have been tracking for some time but this is wonderful evidence," said Robinson. "It is a pronunciation that is changing in the UK but not in America. It is good evidence to show that British English is diverging from American English, and scotches the myth that we're all sounding more like Americans. It seems British English speakers are changing the way they speak and Americans aren't."
Why Britons are increasingly stressing the second syllable on some words – applicable and harass are others – is another question.
Another word being studied is "garage", which for the vast majority of British English speakers rhymes with "marriage", but for Americans still mostly rhymes with "mirage".
Then there is "neither", which most British people still pronounce as in "scythe" while most Americans "seethe".
On the scone (gone)/scone (bone) debate, all the American speakers said the latter while two-thirds of British English-speakers said the former.
The project is part of the library's exhibition Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices, which runs to 3 April. Robinson said: "We have had lots of non-native speakers, which is important because they are thought by linguists to have an increasing influence on the way English will develop. Non-native speakers hugely outnumber native speakers."
So far 10,000 people's voices have been recorded for the British Library collection and curators hope there will be significantly more over time.
"I think we will have a collection the like of which does not exist anywhere else; that number of voices reading the same passage is going to be great for linguists to work with and is a great snapshot of the way English was spoken in a huge number of places at the start of the 21st century."
As well as many thousands of recordings of Mr Tickles and the six words, contributors also say a word that is special to them. One man from the Yorkshire dales offered "brozzen", meaning full after a meal. But one of the most popular offered is one not yet in the OED but which will probably be known to anyone under 16: "peng". As anyone down with the kids will know, it means attractive.
• Add your voice at http://www.bl.uk/evolvingenglish/mapabout.html
