England 113

Listen to England 113, a 27-year-old man from Maidstone and Ashford, Kent, in southeast England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 27

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/11/1993

PLACE OF BIRTH: Maidstone, Kent

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: voice coach

EDUCATION: university

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

The subject was born in Maidstone, Kent, and lived there until he was 13. He then lived in Ashford, Kent, for four to five years, and then Winchester, Hampshire, for five years for his bachelor’s degree at university. At the time of this recording, he had been residing in Oxfordshire for three to four years.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

He has been a performer and singer since age 15 and also trained in voice coaching for two years in London.

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

RECORDED BY: subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/06/2021

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 I was born in Maidstone, and I remember spending pretty much thirteen, fourteen years of my life there. Uh, I went to primary school in Barming, and then sooner or later got old enough to go to secondary school, which was at Oakwood Park, I believe. Uh, my b- my best memories there would probably be running ’round the field opposite the train station, um, just, just down the road from the hospital actually and just playing football with my brother; and when I got to fourteen, I, uh, my parents actually moved to Ashford, so they took us with us, and I started a secondary school up there in year nine. So that was two years into my prior secondary school, and things were a bit odd, things were different there, as in the kind of people changed or at least I thought they changed. But more it was just about learning about myself and how I was around different people, but the area seemed pretty similar, considering they were only just down the road. So, yeah, Kent was always fun.

Um, we went on holiday quite a lot as well, if I’m honest, they would al- my parents would always take me away to either Spain or France or Cyprus or somewhere, somewhere strange. Um, don’t have really like the strongest of memories, but when I did go out to Cyprus, I remember my brother and I would always spend every day at the pool table just shooting some snooker, uh, playing the arcade games. Erm, and I remember quite vividly whilst we were out in Cyprus, me and my brother, mum, and dad, uh, we were all sat around, uh, a table doing bingo for some strange reason, and they, uh, thi- this was the first time I actually started doing karaoke, ’cause during the break of the bingo ’cause it was like a two-hour stint or three-hour stint, um, they brought out a little stage with a microphone, in the- on the front, like a lit-up stage at front. And my brother egged me on and said, “Go on, do it, do it, do it. You know you can sing. Go on.” So I said “OK, fine, fine.” Erm, so I went up there — I was only twelve, thirteen, or whatever — and I started singing some Queen, and I remember quite well that everyone started dancing and having a bit of a boogie in their chairs, and it was quite fun actually. That just got me a little bit more, um, relaxed. I was bricking it the entire time but hey ho, and by the time I got back to my table, um, some other English people had gone over to my parents and started chatting to them and bought them a round, so my mum and dad said to me, “Well done, son, thank you very much.” [Subject laughs.] Yeah, that, that was quite a solid memory, yeah.

TRANSCRIBED BY: subject

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/06/2021

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:

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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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