England 89

Listen to England 89, a 47-year-old man from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 47

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 19/09/1964

PLACE OF BIRTH: Luton, Bedfordshire

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: project manager/recruitment consultant

EDUCATION: high school education (equivalent of college in the U.S.)

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

The subject has always lived within 10 miles of his birthplace; he was living in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, at the time of this recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject’s parents are from north London.

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

RECORDED BY: Barrie Kreinik

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/06/2012

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 South Bedfordshire, which is about thirty, forty miles north of London. Erm, my parents both came from North London, originally, erm, although, you wouldn’t s-s-say they were Cockneys, but definitely they had London accents, et cetera. Erm, I’m now I’m 47, and I’ve always lived within ten miles, erm, of where I was born. Bedfordshire is a very small county, erm, bordering Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, again, just north of London. Erm, it’s not really London, but people from the north of our country would probably describe me as a Cockney because I have a southern accent. Erm, my favorite hobbies are football, or soccer, erm, which I play two or three times a week, and, I’m a goalkeeper, which, uh, I’ve always done. Erm, my, preferred sport is rugby, which I don’t think you play too much of over in America, but I played for about twenty-three years, erm, until, unfortunately, I broke my leg and had to have operations, to, uh, put it all straight. Erm, so now I just stick to football and, erm, stick in goal, which, uh, I find quite enjoyable. And, I’ve, got two sons, Alexander, uh, and Matthew, who, uh, are great fun. Erm, even though they’re brothers they’re very different. Er, Alexander, uh, is very much into his music and a bit more arty, and, he’s 15. Er, Matthew’s 13, and he’s a very sporty person. He plays football, rugby, tennis, uh, athletics, erm, whatever you put in front of him, he’ll take up. So, with Matthew, erm, I like playing him at tennis. Erm, he likes to try and beat me, which he hasn’t yet, but it can only be a matter of time. Erm, whereas with Alexander, erm, it’s good to go out with him to the cinema or something like that, er, because he’s he’s a bit more thoughtful person, erm, and and, uh, doesn’t do sports or any other activities that I like to do, so, we kinda like share, uh, that like, kind of time between us.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Barrie Kreinik

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/06/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Some characteristics include: non-rhoticity; “ai” moving toward “oi”; upward inflection at ends of sentences and phrases; glottal stops on unvoiced endings (“not,” “sport,” “but,” etc.); “ei” moving toward “ai”; and L’s slightly swallowed.

COMMENTARY BY: Barrie Kreinik

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/06/2012

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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