California 15

Listen to California 15, a 54-year-old woman from Los Angeles, California, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 54

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/01/1967

PLACE OF BIRTH: Los Angeles

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: White American with Brazilian ancestry

OCCUPATION: secretary

EDUCATION: three years of college

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

The subject has lived all her life in California except three years in São Paulo, Brazil (from age 13 to 16), and four years in Lexington, Kentucky, as an adult. Most of her life in California has been spent in Los Angeles (specifically Hollywood, West Hollywood, and Marina del Rey), but she also lived in the San Fernando Valley (specifically Canoga Park) for about 20 years (from her late teens through her 30s), in San Diego for six months, and briefly in Northern California.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Her father is Brazilian, and she speaks fluent Portuguese with a mild American accent.

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

RECORDED BY: subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 27/05/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

OK, so I’m just gonna give a brief overview of my background. I was born in Los Angeles in 1967 to an American mom from Minnesota and a Brazilian dad, who had been in the United States since he was 15 at the time when I was born, and he didn’t speak English fluently growing up. But, um, I was raised in Los Angeles, went to school in L.A. At 12 years old, we moved to Northern California for a short time, moved back, lived in Simi Valley for a while, and then we moved to São Paulo, Brazil. And we lived there until I was about 16 years old. I went to school there — Brazilian schools and American schools — came back; then, um, as a teenager, we lived in the Valley, lived in the San Fernando Valley, Reseda, Canoga Park, Winnetka area, and I went to high school there and spent most of my 20s, early 30s, there. Uh, lived briefly in San Diego during that time too. Um, when I turned, let’s say, 38, we moved — I moved — to Lexington, Kentucky, to study interior design at University of Kentucky. I went there for three years and ended up moving back before finishing my degree, moving back to Los Angeles, and I’ve been in L.A. since then.

TRANSCRIBED BY: subject

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 27/05/2021

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:

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• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.

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• 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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