As a narrator or voice-over artist, your voice brings stories, scripts, and characters to life. But with this creative power comes the responsibility to ensure accuracy in pronunciation, accents, and even the finer nuances of speech. Whether you’re narrating an audiobook filled with names from other cultures or voicing a character with a specific regional dialect, thorough research can make all the difference.
This guide compiles a list of trusted websites and resources to streamline your research process, boost your confidence, and ensure consistency across projects. Not only will this help you deliver stellar performances, but it will also make you a reliable team player in the eyes of producers and production teams.
General
Onelook: https://www.onelook.com/
An excellent look-up tool that will search in all major online dictionaries and provide links to the results.
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary: http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Currently serves as the primary source for American English pronunciations.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/
A good primary source for British English pronunciations, also has American English pronunciations, with audio samples included.
Cambridge Dictionaries Online: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/
Another good primary source for British English and American English.
MacMillan Dictionary: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/
Both British and American audio pronunciations are provided.
Youglish: https://youglish.com/
This site will search YouTube videos for instances of the word.
Forvo: http://www.forvo.com/
Forvo is a collaborative website that features pronunciations of words in many languages by native speakers.
Voice of America Pronunciation Guide: http://names.voa.gov/
Phonetic transcription and audio pronunciations for a variety of personal and place names.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Wikipedia is a good source for background information on a variety of topics and often provides phonetic transcriptions, audio samples and links to outside resources.
Provides IPA pronunciations for many words. Audio and IPA pronunciations often provided for common foreign words.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ YouTube
Particularly helpful for referencing pop culture, current brands, and current events should traditional resources fail you.
Audio Eloquence: http://audioeloquence.com/
Pronunciation, dialect and speech resource maintained by audiobook narrators.
People, Places, Names and Things
Phonetic transcription of Biblical names, places, people and terms.
Brand Names or Acronyms Pronounced: http://www.loc.gov/nls/other/ABC.html
This National Library Service resource provides phonetic pronunciations of common brand names and acronyms.
Encyclopedia Mythica: http://www.pantheon.org/miscellaneous/pronunciations.html
Phonetic transcriptions of mythical people and places with a Greco-Roman focus.
First Nations in British Columbia: http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100022848/1100100022849
Phonetic transcriptions of tribe names of First Nations people in British Columbia
Hear Names: http://www.hearnames.com/
Collaborative website of given names featuring audio pronunciations from around the world.
Internet Resources for Voice and Speech Professionals: http://www.vasta.org/internet-resources-1#dialects
Extensive database of dialect and pronunciation resources compiled by VASTA.
The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library: http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/resources/pronunciations/index/a.html
Audio guide to medical and pharmaceutical terminology.
Voice of America Pronunciation Guide: http://names.voa.gov/
Phonetic transcription and audio pronunciations for a variety of personal and place names.
You Say It How?: http://www.sos.mo.gov/wolfner/SayHow/
Audio or phonetic pronunciations for many 20th and 21st century politicians, authors, actors, etc.
Pacific Northwest Place Names: http://www.stevensauke.com/say/northwest.html
Accents and Dialects
Phonetics:
Wikipedia - International Phonetic Alphabet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet
Article detailing IPA, with history, usage and symbols.
JBDowse - IPA Chart: https://jbdowse.com/ipa/
Full chart with audio to hear each symbol.
UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive: http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/
Complex research database. Audio recordings illustrate individual words and sounds from over 200 languages, together with phonetic transcriptions. Quite a few obscure languages represented.
Merriam-Webster Pronunciation Guide: http://www.merriam-webster.com/pronsymbols.html
Quick and easy reference to American English phonetics with audio links.
English (North American Dialects):
American English Dialect Recordings: http://www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/linguistics/
Directory of American speech samples collected from the US and Canada.
International Dialets of English Archive: http://www.dialectsarchive.com/north-america
Clicking on any location or region yields a list of samples of representative native speakers.
English (UK):
British Accents and Dialects: http://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects
Lengthy audio clips of a variety of British accents and dialects from the British Library’s “Sounds” collection.
Sounds Familiar?: http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/
Another wonderful resource from the British Library featuring an interactive map and audio samples of various regional accents. (Including Northern Ireland.)
The Voices Recordings: http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/
A dialect/accent resource from the BBC . Features include an interactive map, including Scotland and Northern Ireland with audio samples.
English (Worldwide):
IDEA – International Dialects of English Archive: http://www.dialectsarchive.com/
Lengthy readings by global English speakers.
The Speech Accent Archive: http://accent.gmu.edu/
Various native and non-native speakers of English from all over the world all read the same English paragraph – audio and phonetic transcription provided.
Culture and Language
North American Cultures:
Native Languages of the Americas: http://www.native-languages.org/guides.htm
Phonetic pronunciations for many Native North, Central, and South American languages ranging from Abenaki to Zaparo.
Pennsylvania Dutch: http://www.wandabrunstetter.com/amish-life/amish-words/
A quick phonetic guide to Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish).
Tejano Voices: http://library.uta.edu/tejanovoices/gallery.php
Extensive audio interviews with Mexican-Americans throughout Texas.
Asian Languages:
Cantonese Pronunciation Guide: http://cantonese.ca/pronunciation.html
A brief guide to Cantonese phonetics. No audio.
Mandarin Chinese Phonetics: http://www.zein.se/patrick/chinen8p.html
A brief guide to Mandarin phonetics. No audio.
Online Japanese Dictionary Service: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C
When searching, check box “Search using Romanized Japanese”. Audio pronunciations provided, but results are displayed using characters. No phonetics
Dutch:
WikiWoordenboek: http://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/Hoofdpagina
Dutch wiktionary. Search using Dutch words. Phonetic transcription provided for many terms.
French:
Larousse Dictionary: http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french
A good primary source for French language pronunciations. Audio and phonetics provided for most entries.
German:
Dict.cc: http://browse.dict.cc/ An English/German dictionary. Audio pronunciations included.
Larousse German Dictionary: http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/german English/German and German/English dictionaries include phonetics and audio samples for most entries.
German Pronunciation of Names: http://www.nordicnames.de/Aussprache.html Common German given names with audio pronunciations.
Italian:
Dizionario italiano multimediale e multilingue d’Ortografia e di Pronunzia: http://www.dizionario.rai.it/
This dictionary is in Italian, so you must enter an Italian word as a search term. Audio and phonetics provided.
Larousse Italian Dictionary: http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/italian
English/Italian and Italian/English dictionaries include phonetics and audio samples for most entries.
Irish:
Pronouncing Irish for Beginners: http://angaelmagazine.com/pronunciation/introduction.htm
Extensive guide from An Gael magazine featuring phonetics with some video and audio clips.
Placenames Database of Ireland: http://www.logainm.ie/
Irish geography search and interactive map with some audio.
Latin:
Wheelock’s Latin: http://www.wheelockslatin.com/index.html
Under “Wheelock’s Latin Audio Files” there are several links to audio pronunciations of various Latin words featured in the textbook. Audio files can also be downloaded for offline listening.
Scots-Gaelic (NOT THE SAME AS IRISH GAELIC/IRISH):
NOTE: all of the following resources can be summarized the same way, but it is a combination of several sources, and trying to say each vowel and consonant using the various English comparison examples given across the different web sites, that will provide the most accurate pronunciation.
Breaks up broad and slender vowel pronunciations and presents the rules about when each pronunciation would be used. No audio.
Cambridge University Hillwalking Club Unofficial Guide to Pronouncing Gaelic: http://www.cuhwc.org.uk/page/unofficial-guide-pronouncing-gaelic
Rules of reading Gaelic, as well as letter/diphthong pronunciations. No audio.
IPA charts for Scots-Gaelic, but does not provide the necessary pronunciation rules. Use with another site. No audio.
Orthography of written Scots-Gaelic, showing a clear split between different kinds of vowels and consonants and their IPA pronunciations. Helpful in conjunction with the Wiktionary IPA chart, more helpful for the links to other resources at the bottom of the page. No audio.
House Barra: http://www.housebarra.com/EP/ep05/16gaelic.html
Basic alphabetic phonology shown, this is more useful for the vocabulary lists and the “list of handy phrases” that is mostly medieval and has a good breakdown listed next to each vocabulary word
Quizlet: http://quizlet.com/1954036/scottish-gaelic-simplified-phonetic-pronunciation-guide-flash-cards/
Don’t use the audio, it is computerized and inaccurate. But the vowel/consonant and rule breakdowns listed beneath the “flashcards” are a good quick resource, and it’s a good simplified phonetic guide.
Spanish:
Dictionary is in Spanish. Audio pronunciation provided.
Larousse Spanish Dictionary: http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/spanish
Dictionaries include English/Spanish, Spanish/English. Phonetics and audio pronunciation provided.
Swedish:
Introduction to Swedish: http://www2.hhs.se/isa/swedish/chap9.htm#introduction
A resource with phonetics and audio from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Welsh:
Welsh/English, English/Welsh Online Dictionary: http://www.geiriadur.net/
Audio samples included for some entries.
Wiktionary Appendix – Welsh Pronunciation: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Welsh_pronunciation
A quick guide to Welsh phonetics.
Yiddish:
Yiddish Dictionary Online: http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/
An extensive Yiddish glossary with phonetic pronunciations.
Traditional (Non-Internet) Resources
Dictionaries/Atlases/Encyclopedias
Professionals (in the field you are researching)
Libraries
Colleges/Universities
Town Halls/Chambers of Commerce
Museums/Historical Societies
Genealogical Societies
Consulates/Embassies
Conclusion
Research is the foundation of excellence in voice-over and narration work. By leveraging these reliable resources, you can approach your projects with precision and professionalism, impressing both audiences and collaborators. Producers and production teams value artists who prioritize accuracy and consistency, and by using these tools, you’ll demonstrate your commitment to those standards. Explore these links, integrate them into your workflow, and watch your performances reach new levels of authenticity and impact.
Please add links in the comments to any other resources you find helpful! Let's create the best research-y help-y list ever!!!
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