Brazil 5

Listen to Brazil 5, a 33-year-old woman from Assis (São Paulo) and Porto Alegre, Brazil. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 33

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1976

PLACE OF BIRTH: Assis, São Paulo, Brazil

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Brazilian (exact ethnicity unknown)

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: bachelor’s degree in theatre

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

At the time of the interview, the subject had lived in the United States for nine years, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and in Los Angeles, California.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

At the time of the interview, the subject was studying and performing as an actor. She was raised in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and São Paulo.

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

RECORDED BY: Phil Hubbard

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/01/2009

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Well, uh, I’m a Brazilian student here at University of Nevada, uh, living in the United States for about nine years now, and uh, coming from São Paulo, uh, Brazil, where I used to, uh I was raised, of course.  And uh, here I lived in Los Angeles first, stayed there for about five years and now I’ve been living in Las Vegas, Nevada, for about four years. Well uh, Brazil is pretty much different from uh, uh, the United States, uh, weather-wise and also, like, uh the people, uh, usually, people from America when they come to, to Brazil they, they’re, they get a lot of fun and they have a lot of fun with us. We are very friendly. We like to talk to people a lot, uh, party a lot, to go to the beach all, everybody together.  Um, and I think like people from other countries they, they like that – they appreciate that cause we bring the, uh, the people close to us. We are very nice in, in, in welcoming people to our country, and I think it’s, uh, it’s, it’s really nice. People appreciate that. Uh, well, I, here, um, I, I enjoy being in the United States. I like to study here, uh, learn the language and, uh my favorite things, of course, is like, uh, studying, reading, um, I love dance cause I’m, uh, uh, previously, I was, like, a professional dancer, and now I do theatre, which helps me also with my body and, and other things, acting-wise and uh, yeah, in Brazil I did that for awhile too, uh, dancing and also theatre, uh, what else would I say; um, I enjoy going to the movies, um, I enjoy, like, uh, being outdoors, and uh, oh yes, uh, I have a small family. I don’t have, like, uh, brothers or sisters. I have, uh, my mother with me right now and, uh, my father he passed away, uh, when I was about 16 years old, uh, but I was always very close to the family; when I moved here was really hard because I would be calling my mother like, uh, every single day for forty minutes each phone call, so was very expensive for me to be, uh, calling and everything.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Phil Hubbard

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/01/2009

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Stress, intonation and speech pattern are influenced by the subject’s native language, Portuguese. Elements of General American speech pattern for nine-year residency in the United States are evident. Significant features and sound substitutions include: strongly rhotic accent with very tense r-coloration in all vowels and diphthongs (with r-coloration); tense or retroflex initial r, a remnant of r-trills in native Portuguese; shift from ð/θ to d/t or sometimes v, in “th” words, especially in the initial position (the, they, with, etc.); substitution of ʒ for the affricate dʒ (judge, gently etc.); un-aspirated initial/medial p (superb, private practice); z substituted for s (goose, diagnosis, Los Angeles, small) and the reverse with s substituted for z (was, those, these); “ing” endings sounded as ŋɡ-adding a “hard” g (singing, etc.); l tends to be “velarized” in initial position (letter, liking, etc.); nasality in vowels and diphthongs prior to and following m and n; substitution of i for ɪ (kit, itchy, give, different, etc.); substitution of æ̃ə or possibly ɛə̞̃ for ɛ (this is also especially nasalized, as in dress, happy, expensive; substitution of u for ʊ (foot); and substitution of ɑ̃ for ʌ in stressed positions (mother, other).

COMMENTARY BY: Phil Hubbard

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/01/2009

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).

 

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