Dominica 1

Listen to Dominica 1, a 45-year-old man from Dominica. 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: 45

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 25/10/1972

PLACE OF BIRTH: Mahout River, Dominica

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Dominican

OCCUPATION: stagehand with Royal Caribbean International

EDUCATION: completed secondary school

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

The subject had been living in Costa Rica for seven years prior to this recording. (His wife is from there, and they have a child together.)

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject worked on Royal Caribbean ships from 1995 to 2008, and then again from 2014 to 2017. Most of the ships he worked on sailed back and forth from the United States to the Caribbean.

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

RECORDED BY: Sarah Maria Nichols

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/11/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

So it was story about Sarah that I thought was very interesting: There was — I did all my, mostly all my careers on ships. I started with this company [Royal Caribbean International] in ’95. And then from there I make my way up. And then I went to Costa Rica to make a living. I have a family in Costa Rica. I live in Costa Rica now for seven years. And it’s a beautiful place to be, Costa Rica. Very beautiful. Whenever, whoever get chance to go to Costa Rica should do it, because it’s a beautiful place. It’s worth seeing, and I love it there. And I have no intention of leaving right now to go anywhere else. So Costa Rica is very beautiful. I love it.

[Subject speaks French]: Bonjour, koman sa va? Sa kap fet? Zot bien? Mais, oui. [The non-traditional spelling reflects Haitian Creole rather than French.] [English translation: Hello, how are you? What’s up? Are you all good? But, yes.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Sarah Maria Nichols

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/12/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The primary language in Dominica is English, but the subject says they also speak a type of broken French that it is closer to Haitian Creole than actual French.

COMMENTARY BY: Sarah Maria Nichols

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/12/2017

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.