England 105

Listen to England 105, a 29-year-old man from Reigate, Surrey, in southeast England. 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): 18/08/1989

PLACE OF BIRTH: Redhill, Surrey (but raised in Reigate)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: white/Indian

OCCUPATION: sound production/ engineer

EDUCATION: university degree (bachelor of arts)

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

The subject lived in North London while attending the University of Westminster, specifically the campus in Harrow.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject describes his influences: “I’m a native of the town of Reigate, which is situated in the southeast of the county of Surrey. I suppose my accent is pretty close to RP (Received Pronunciation). It is my natural speaking voice: a combination of environment and geographical location, and an archetypal accent for the region. Maybe the fact that I used voice-recognition software for many years may have had some bearing on the reason I try and speak with clarity. And have listened to audiobooks since childhood and continue to do so. That could have had an impact on my natural speaking pattern and dialect.

The maternal side of my family hails from the southeast and the paternal side from the northeast (the Newcastle area). My grandfather on that side was originally from India and originally came to the United Kingdom in the early ’50s to practice medicine and settled in the northeast. So I’ve always been exposed to a number of different dialects, but as I have only ever lived in Surrey and London, my accent has not changed much, if at all.

Everyone in the UK picks up a lot of American inferences in their speech pattern through the exposure to a lot of American films and TV. I’m not sure if that has influenced my speech, but I think I have a pretty fair representation of a general Southeast accent.”

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

RECORDED BY: Sam Kalbag (subject)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 25/01/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I come from a town called Reigate, which is situated in the southeast of Surrey. I’ve lived here pretty much my entire life, the only exception being a stint in London for university. Um, so my accent is pretty typical of, of that of someone from Surrey. It’s quite close to Received Pronunciation. Uh, Reigate itself is quite a sought-after town for bringing up children, uh, and I suppose transport links to London.

It’s quite a conservative area. Um, it’s quite interesting being from a liberal family in the middle of a conservative heartland. It’s sort of very “Home Counties.” Our most famous resident is Margot Fontaine, I, I, I guess. Uh, my background: My mother is mainly from Reigate; my father is from Newcastle, but as he came down here when he was a student, he lost the accent pretty quickly; um, his father’s from India, but then again he was always quite well spoken, so I suppose my accent is a bit nature, a bit nature. And I do listen to a lot of radio and audiobooks, you know, and have done since I was very small, so I suppose my accent has been influenced by that a little bit, and I speak naturally quite quickly, um, when I’m speaking when I’m just talking, rambling like this. Um, it’s quite, it’s quite, you know, a neutral accent; I suppose it’s quite good for speaking. Or, you know, I, I think, um, it’s, it’s a very interesting place — it’s not a very interesting place to live, but it’s sort of in the middle of, in the middle of — you know, one way you’ve got leafy, leafy woodland, and the other way you’ve got city, or the city. Can’t speak now.

Um, so, yeah, I think generally it’s quite interesting; my background is, you know, it’s fairly common for this, for this area. I went to a state school. Um, but it’s quite a well-to-do area, I think. A bit snobby. But, uh, yeah, and Surrey is most famous for now being the place where Harry Potter fictionally grew up with his evil aunt and uncle, so take from that what you will.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Sam Kalbag (subject)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION: 25/01/2019

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.