England 32

Listen to England 32, a 49-year-old man from Appledore, north Devon, in southwest England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 49

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1952

PLACE OF BIRTH: Appledore, north Devon

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: fitter, former soldier

EDUCATION: N/A

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

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

He and his friend, England 31, reminisce about their childhood in this ancient fishing village and seaport. He talks about the change of Appledore from a fishing community to one dominated by tourism. He notes the effect of this change on the local dialect. He bemoans the loss of the traditional dialect and takes pride in it himself.

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): 2001

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 was born in Appledore, 31 Inn [unclear] Street. I, uhh, I spent a little of my time, very younger time, in a little village called Wesley across the river; umm, only as the crow flies about a mile mile and a half from here. Uhh, then, uh, came back to Appledore and my father was a — was a local publican, took a pub at the bottom of, uhh, uhh, 1 Inn Street. And where I was brought up … as Anne I spent the majority of my childhood on the beach where all the young kids did in the days, ehh, picking crabs, um [clears throat] you know, fishing. Anne’s dad was very, very good fisherman, the old school fisherman, sailing boat, so as kids we grew up going out on the boat, all the stay-ins all the old men would be there, you know, and, and, um, this really was the latter years; I mean the the old men on the key them were dying away were all sailing m-men, you know from the long deep-sea vessel and with the long tales they used to — we used to sit and listen in them days you know talk — telling about tales half, half the time I don’t know whether they’m true, probably not, but they made us happy at the time so it didn’t really make any different. Um, when I got to the age of 15, I, uhh, left and joined the army, where I, um, I went to a place called Purbright in Hampshire. Uh, done my training as a a junior leader, and, um, then basically went through uh seven years of army training. Uh, joining the senior, serving in, um, oh Norway, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, America, but nn-short periods of time. I got married then to a local girl who had the pub at the other end of Appledore. Um, and, uh, we’ve got three children; uh, we decided then that it was no, uh, place for the children to grow up, um, travelling around the world, so we decided that it was only fair that we sort of, uh, came back home and give them an education and and, uh, start again. Whence I found when it came back I must admit that a lot of the characters — my father still, uh  owned the pub then —but a lot of the characters had gone and died and and, uh, there are very, very few. And this is what I think makes, um, the art of what I call real Devon people, you know is, uh, is a dying breed, because, uh, people are now taught not to speak as we would speak. I mean I lost a bit, but I’ve got perhaps quite a bit of my accent back now, by, you know, the fact that I’ve come back and lived here for so many years.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Alex Haynes and Spencer Holdren

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 14/02/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Note the fairly uniform rhoticity and the higher front starting point for the diphthong of round, house, town, etc. Also note the grammar of his dialect (using them for those, etc.), and contrast his vowels with that of his friend, England 31. Lastly, note the very lip-round nature of the vowel in boat, nose, only, etc. For more information on British dialects, visit PaulMeier.com.

COMMENTARY BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 2001

The archive provides:

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• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.
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