England 102

Listen to England 102, a 63-year-old woman from Birmingham, West Midlands, England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 63

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 07/08/1954

PLACE OF BIRTH: Birmingham, England

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: retired

EDUCATION: “A” Levels

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

The speaker has never lived outside Birmingham.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject was raised in Birmingham by her grandparents. Her grandmother was from Newcastle, and her grandfather was from Folkestone, Kent.

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

RECORDED BY: Bryn Austin

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/08/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I don’t think I have a typical “Brummy” accent because being raised by grandparents in Birmingham — but one of them came from Folkestone in Kent and talked a bit like that, and my grandmother came from Newcastle. And I can’t do a Newcastle accent, but she was always picking us up on our diction and getting us to talk properly. But when her relatives used to travel down from Newcastle and visit, I was about 6 years old, and my party-piece was to stand up and talk in a proper “Brummy” accent. There was a comedienne at the time called Beryl Reid, and she used to pretend to be a Brummy and introduce her friend and say, “Ooo, this is Marlene, and she’s from Birmingham!” And that was like a “proper Brum.” And they used to laugh and think it was funny. But a lot of people think Brummy accents — the people who speak with a Brummy accents that are a bit thick and stupid and derogatory, and they take the mickey, but I’m proud to have a “Brummy” accent.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Bryn Austin

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/02/2018

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.