England 107

Listen to England 107, a 51-year-old man from Brighton, East Sussex, in southeast England, who has also spent considerable time in New Zealand. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 51

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/03/1968

PLACE OF BIRTH: Hong Kong (but raised in Brighton, England)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: retired businessman

EDUCATION: college

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

The subject, in his early childhood, lived briefly in Hong Kong, Belize, and France. For the twenty years prior to the recording, the subject has been resident of Queenstown, New Zealand.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject has lived in a New Zealand community that has a high number of ex-pat British people. This, and the fact that his wife is British, partially explains why there is little or no trace of a New Zealand accent in his speech.

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

RECORDED BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/07/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH:

wɛ ˈhɪːz ə ˈstɔɹi fɔ̜ jə | ˈsɛɹi ˈpʰɛɹi wəz ə ˈvɛtn̩ɹi ˌnɜːs hʉz bin ˈwɜːkʰɪŋ ˈdɛ̞ɪli ətʰ ən ˈɐʊd ˈzʉ ɪn ə dəˈzɜˑtʰɪd‿ˈdɪstɹɪkt əv ðə ˈtʰɛɹətɹɪ̆i | sɤ ʃi wəz ˈvɛɹi ˈhæpʰi tʰə stɑtʰ ə njʉ d͡ʒɒb ə ˈsʉpʰɜːb‿ˈpʰɹa̹ɪvət̚ pʰɹæk̚tʰɪs ɪn‿ˈnɔːs‿skwɛː nɪˑ ðə ˈnɔːθ stɹiʔ ˈtʰæwə |

TRANSCRIBED BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/08/2019

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born in Hong Kong. Lived there for a couple of years. And then we moved to Belize, uhm, ’til I was about, uhh, five or six years old, then moved to Paris for a couple of years, and then, uh, was brought up in Brighton, England. Uh, so I went to primary school there, and, um, a college called Brighton College. And then, uh, studied English, and, um, I learned to be a TEFL teacher as well at, um, uh, Brighton University. Then about twenty years ago, um, I, went on a — met my lovely wife and went on a holiday around the world, round trip, came to Queenstown and, um, ended up settling down here, had two kids, and, er, ran an English college for quite a long time as well, um — selling that at the end of last year — and then, um, both of us have become, um, I guess, kind of full-time actors, just, er, run a theatre company here called Remarkable Theatre and, um, just love being semi-retired.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/08/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The subject, a retired businessman, owned a language school and specialized in offering instruction in the English language. Had he been born fifty years earlier, R.P. would have been the accent one would have expected from a successful professional in this field. That his accent is definably Estuary documents the substantial replacement of R.P. by Estuary as a new prestige pronunciation. Notice the weakening of post-vocalic /l/ as in [wɛ]; the diphthongization of unstressed FLEECE syllables, as in [ˈtʰɛɹətɹɪ̆i]; the unrounding of GOOSE vowels, as in [ˈzʉ]; and the monophthongization of the diphthongs of SQUARE and NEAR. For more information on the Estuary dialect, visit PaulMeier.com.

COMMENTARY BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/08/2019

The archive provides:

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• 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).

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