England 63

Listen to England 63, a woman raised mostly in Surrey, England, but with international influences, who speaks English with a Received Pronunciation dialect. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: N/A

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1954

PLACE OF BIRTH: East Asia

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: N/A

EDUCATION: N/A

AREA(S) OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject was born in East Asia but attended boarding school in Surrey, England, at age 11.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Subject’s father, a diplomat, was from Cornwall, England, and her mother was from Berkshire, England, and neither had regional dialects.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was fascinated to find this site, as I have always been intrigued by accents and dialects. This may have something to do with the fact that I was born in the Far East in 1954 and led a fairly nomadic life until the age of 30, thus never putting down roots or acquiring a specific dialect of my own. My father, who was a diplomat, hailed from Cornwall and my mother from Berkshire. Neither of them had regional dialects. I was dispatched to boarding school in Surrey, in Southeast England, at the age of 11, and most of my peers were similarly rootless. For the most part we all spoke “Received English” akin to the recording by the gentleman on “England 1.” People attempting to imitate a middle-class English accent are so often prone to making it too “plummy” and a bit nasal, which is more typical of an aristocratic accent (the Queen, for example). I therefore felt compelled to make a recording, although Dame Judi Dench and Emma Thompson could have done a far better job of it! I actually found this site whilst looking for a typical New York Jewish accent for a part in a play, and I’ve found it most useful. I hope I can do it justice.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Subject

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

The archive provides:

• Recordings of accent/dialect speakers from the region you select.
• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.
• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.
• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

 

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.