A method and apparatus for providing personalized information content over telephones is described. The creation of a voice portal is supported by the invention. Embodiments of the invention use telephone identifying information such as the calling party's number to identify, or create, user profiles for customization. The personalized content is specific to that user based on her/his telephone identifying information and may be further customized based on the current time, current date, the calling party's locales, and/or the calling party's dialect and speech patterns. In some embodiments, the dialect is selected from a range of common American English dialects according to the locale of the calling party. For example, callers from the Northern Midland will automatically hear a Northern Midland dialect, while callers from the Coastal Southeast will hear that dialect, etc. Individuals can change the dialect to better suit their personal tastes.