Belarus 3

Listen to Belarus 3, a 62-year-old man from Gomel, Belarus. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 62

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 27/11/1954

PLACE OF BIRTH: Belarus

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Belarussian

OCCUPATION: facility manager

EDUCATION: technician

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

The subject was raised in Gomel, Belarus, but moved to Irvine, California, United States, when he was 30. He was living there at the time of this interview.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

He is still surrounded by the dialect and language because he lives with his family. His first language is Russian.

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

RECORDED BY: Sarah Ellsworth (under supervision of David Nevell)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 17/04/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Uh, I was born in 1954, and, um, ex-Soviet Union place called Belarus. It’s one of the 15 republics which belong to Soviet Union before 1990, and, um, my young years until I think 13, I was grow up in the same small city and after move to little bit bigger city called Gomel. For instance, uh, during the winter time, in the back of our yard, where have a house, uh, we have a small lake, and during the winter time, it’s always getting frozen because winter is quite cold and bitter and water was frozen — is become like a pond with where we skate and ski and had a great time.

Um, if we talking about celebration like birthdays and, uh, weddings, um, I would say similar — not similar, but very close what we have here in United States.

[Subject is asked a series of questions about sports, musical instruments, his favorite color, his favorite food and his pets.]

Well, I’m not sure about what is a sports, so I will probably skip on that question. Instruments? No, unfortunately not. Even one of the days at the, uh, school — I was in grade two — the musical teacher come, and, uh, she gives some lessons to everybody. And she mentions to me that I have quite good, um, music kind of listening and I can be good player on some instrument. Well, short story: This never happens.

Well, my favorite color is blue, even I’m colorblind, but it is my favorite color.

Probably potato, because I was brought up with potato. So, any kind of potato, cabbage, and of course pickles is my favorite.

I do have a cat in the house, and, uh, I never had, uh — I had a dog when I was very small. So I would say, uh, I have the same feelings for the cats and for the dogs.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Sarah Ellsworth (under supervision of David Nevell)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 17/04/2017

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.