England 70

Listen to England 70, a 21-year-old woman from Torquay, Devon, in southwest England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 21

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1986

PLACE OF BIRTH: Torquay, Devon

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: N/A

EDUCATION: university

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

The subject recently spent a year in Oxford and is now living outside London, but spent the first 19 years of her life in southern Devon.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

One parent was from Cork, the other from Devon.

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

RECORDED BY: Christina Smith

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 01/2008

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 live in England; um, I come from Devon; I was born there. I went to school. I actually went to a Catholic convent school, which was really good. I had a headmistress called Sister P, who was great, and she was a nun. Yeah, so I had the most amazing time there. I grew up in a local town called Torquay, and went clubbing with my friends, which was really cool. For my gap year, I went to Oxford and lived there for a year, retaking some A-levels, and I lived there with lots of international students, and it was really amazing: best year of my life. Then after that I got placed in London University called Brunel, where I study physiotherapy. I went there last year, and this year I turned 21 and my brother got married yesterday, so I’m suffering from shock at the moment. Yeah so that’s, that’s really good. And say I’ve got a year and a half left to go in my studies, and hopefully I’ll be qualified, and who knows where it will take me. But hopefully I’ll be able to go elsewhere and spread my wings and venture the world and experience lots of different things, and it will be cool.

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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:

She pronounces “territory” in three syllables: [taɹɪtrə̌ɪ]. She uses a non-rhotic postvocalic “r.” Note PALM = [a]. Lastly, she exhibits clipped, short sentences and repetitive rising intonations at phrase ends.

COMMENTARY BY: Christina Smith

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 01/2008

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).

 

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.