Curaçao 2

Listen to Curaçao 2, a 29-year-old man from Curaçao, and the United Kingdom. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 29

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 16/06/1990

PLACE OF BIRTH: Penarth, Wales, but raised in Curaçao

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Black-Caribbean

OCCUPATION: management consultant

EDUCATION: master’s degree

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

The subject was born in Wales but moved to Curaçao at six months old. In his adult life, he has lived in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for four and a half years; Cardiff, Wales, for a year and a half; and Bristol, England, for five years.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject speaks four languages: Papiamentu, Spanish, Dutch, and English. He grew up watching American television, which might have influenced his spoken English. He says that working in a corporate environment has affected his speech also.

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

RECORDED BY: Tshari King

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/09/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

All right, um, so I was born in Wales, uh, and I moved as a baby to Curaçao; and then always living there, we went on holidays in the Netherlands, but we never came to the UK. Er, so as soon as I moved from the island to go study abroad in Rotterdam, er, um, I wanted to come back. Um, so in 2012, I managed to find someone who could take me, and we went and do like a UK tour. So I really like the nature, really like the environment that I saw and things I saw, so I met with a school as well, as I was planning to go to university. And then after I finished — I graduated my bachelor’s in Rotterdam — I then decided I’m gonna to move to, to England. Um, was a stressful application, but I managed to get in [laughs], so, yea, and I always wanted to come here and live, ‘cause it, in, ah, when I was younger people used to tease me because obviously in Curaçao you don’t know what Penarth means, or you don’t know where it comes from. So every third day, my brothers used to tell me I’m adopted, erm, so that’s why I thought I can come and then show them I’m from here, and then I will shut up all of those discussions for the rest of their life ‘cause I managed to, you know, become a English, a British citizen.

[Subject speaks in Papiamentu]: Mita gusta Kòrsou paso Kòrsou ta un isla bunita, kaminda tur hende ta papia kwater idioma i nos ta siña foi na chikitu di interaktua ku diferente kultura, I esei ta hasi nos uniko. I lomi ke bai biba Kòrsou bek of Sint Maarten, ku ta un otro isla foi Kòrsou. Kaminda ku e bida ta un tiki mas relax i chill i kaminda bo por enjoy un tiki mas miho.

[English translation: I love Curaçao because Curaçao is a beautiful island, where everyone speaks four languages and we are learning from small to interact with different cultures, and that makes us unique. I want to go back to Curaçao or Sint Maarten, which is a different island from Curaçao. The life is a little more relaxed and chill, and you can enjoy it a little better.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Tshari King

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 09/04/2020

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.