Bangladesh 5

Listen to Bangladesh 5, a 36-year-old woman from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

Both as a courtesy and to comply with copyright law, please remember to credit IDEA for direct or indirect use of samples. IDEA is a free resource; please consider supporting us.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 36

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/01/1984

PLACE OF BIRTH: Dhaka, Bangladesh

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Bengali

OCCUPATION: public service

EDUCATION: bachelor’s degree

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject had been living in Australia for nine years at the time of this interview.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Up to high school, the subject studied in an English-version school that followed the national curriculum but taught in English, which is different from other schools that prepare students for Cambridge O and A level exams.

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

RECORDED BY: Amin Rahman

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 16/10/2020

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Hello, I’m from Bangladesh. I grew up in Dhaka. I studied in Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, and then I studied in North South University. My mom and dad are from Dhaka. My mom was born in Dhaka. My dad was born in Chapai Nawabganj [in northwestern Bangladesh].

I came, uh — I moved to Australia around eight to nine years ago and working with Australian people in their with, uh, Australian people and interact in English, uh, with the native, native Australian people.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Amin Rahman

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 16/10/2020

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The subject until recently spoke English without stressing syllables in multi-syllabic words and also without using the different suprasegmental features of English speech. She said that her colleagues would often not understand her speech. She also said that she did not know of the English consonant sound /ʒ/ and pronounced words containing this sound with /z/. Recently she attended a course on English pronunciation and learned about these, as well as about the vowel quality and quantity in English pronunciation. Now her colleagues have less difficulty in understanding her.

COMMENTARY BY: Amin Rahman

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/10/2020

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.