England 53

Listen to England 53, a 56-year-old woman from Gaydon, Warwickshire, England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 56

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1947

PLACE OF BIRTH: Gaydon, Warwickshire, 30 miles from Birmingham

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: house cleaner

EDUCATION: She left school at age 15.

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

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Apart from seaside holidays, the subject engaged in very little travel outside her area.

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): 30/05/2003

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 Gaydon.  First place I lived was Rose Cottage.  That’s at the back of our church.  And then we moved to St. Giles’s Road, where I lived there until I got married and then we lived at St. Mark’s Close.  I had two sons, and then when they began to get older we moved into St. Giles’s Road, where we’re living now.  And we’ve lived there ever since.  Been there 18 years.  Went to a school in Gaydon, and it is at the top of the village. Um, do you know where the conker tree [horse chestnut tree] is that they’ve started to cut down?  Well, where there’s a house being built there, we had school there that was the school, and we went to a infant’s school there, and that’s where I went from when I started at 5 until I went to Kineton School, Kineton High School — that’s in Kineton — a big school, mixed school, and that’s where I went till I left school at 15. [Interviewer: Tell me about places you have visited.] The only places I been is the seaside.  Breen [?], in, um, Dorset, um, Weymouth, but I’ve only visited Blackpool.  I haven’t been to many places at all, not abroad or anything.  I’ve had the options but I never have. [Interviewer: Could you list some of the towns and villages around here?] Well, there’s Gaydon, there’s one called the Lighthorn Heath, that’s just up where the motorway, all that roundabout; have you been there?  All round there. There’s a Lighthorn Village. There’s Avon Dassett [?].  There’s Combrook [?]  Northend.  C.A.B.A.D. Kineton down there where there’s a camp (ammunition dump) there’s Banbury, and then there’s out that way there’s Stockton, Southam, Rugby, Leamington; there’s Cubbington [?], Kenilworth; oh I could keep on for evermore.  Warwick. [Interviewer: Tell me about some of the animals and birds that you find in the countryside around here.] Owls you only hear at night, don’t you.  There’s bluetits, finches, blackbirds, woodpeckers; er, we’ve heard the cuckoo, but I haven’t seen it.  And over way from us, we’ve got somebody that’s got a parrot.  That’s out there morning to night that talks.  We’ve got a cockatiel of home [at home] that talks. [Interviewer: What were some of your activities when you were a child?] Well we used to scrump apples [steal apples].  Used to go scrumping apples up a big lane, up the … what they call the Pimple Lane, we used to go scrumping apples in fields, and, oh, we used to go on picnics … go for a day … all out, you know, but I mean you couldn’t do that now … ‘cause of things happening, could you?  But we used to go, oh, all day long.  We used to take our food, have a picnic, and all sorts.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Paul Meier

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

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

• There is no rhoticity. Note: square, north, cure, conker tree, church.
• /h/ is nearly always dropped. Note: I never have, Mrs. Harrison, Lighthorn
Heath, huge.
• Note the quality of post-vocalic /l/, sometimes heard as [ʊ]. Note: fowl, official, older.
• STRUT set. Uses [ʊ]. Note: much, scrumping, us, suffering, Rugby, once, sons.
• PRICE set. Uses [ɔɪ]. Note: liking, price, right side, five, surprising, idea, finally.
• MOUTH set. Uses [ɛʊ]. Note: mouth, now, out, Southam, roundabout.
• FACE set. Uses [aɪ]. Note: made, name, able, day.
• TRAP set. Uses [æ]. Note: back, married, happy.
• LOT set. Uses [ɒ]. Note: conker, dog, sorry.
Note also the yod-dropping in ammunition [æmunɪʃən].

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

COMMENTARY BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/05/2003

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