England 46

Listen to England 46, a 62-year-old woman from Cranleigh and the Richmond area of Surrey, in southeast England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 62

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1940

PLACE OF BIRTH: Cranleigh, Surrey

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: retired

EDUCATION: finishing school

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

The subject grew up just outside Greater London in Ham Common, near Richmond, in Surrey, and spent several decades in the United States, which has led to a moderation of her dialect.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Katherine McRobbie (under the supervision of Paul Meier)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 16/04/2002

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 England; I was born in Cranleigh, Surrey, which is the biggest county in England, I think. And, uhhm [lip smack], so I grew up, umm, just outside London in a place called Ham Common, near Richmond in Surrey. And I went to, umm [lip smack], convent school. Uhh, my mother was a Catholic, and I was, eh, in convent school from the age of 19n to the age of 16. [sniff] [lip smack] And then I went to, uh, the convent school, had a finishing school, and so after that I went to finishing school, which I did not like at all …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Meg Saricks (under the supervision of Paul Meier)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/02/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: 

For more information on British dialects, visit PaulMeier.com.

COMMENTARY BY: Cameron Meier

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/06/2024

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).

 

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