England 90

Listen to England 90, a 19-year-old woman from Billericay, Essex, in southeast England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 19

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 16/12/1988

PLACE OF BIRTH: Billericay, Essex

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: white British

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: BA

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

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

At the time of the recording, the speaker was in year two of a BA in Acting at a London drama school. She may intermittently show the influence of having recently studied RP as year 1 accent, though more in consonant distribution than vowel realizations.

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

RECORDED BY: Marina Tyndall

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/10/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY):

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born in Billericay in Essex, 18 years ago now. Er, Essex is quite a big place, but Billericay’s a small sort of town within Es- er- within Essex. Er, it’s near a place called Chelmsford, which you might, you might also have heard of. Or Romford, but Romford’s kind of going back into London. But Billericay is a lovely pl- I’ve loved living there, I’ve really enjoyed myself living there, and I now commute. I lived in London for a year, and now I live back in Billericay, and it’s my absolute home. Home is where the heart is, after all, er, and I’m happy to be there.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Marina Tyndall

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/11/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY):

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

There are especially close, front realizations of unstressed syllables in Essex, liking, jacket, porridge, headed, surprising, expensive. These vary between slightly lowered [i] and somewhat raised, advanced [ɪ]. This is a feature popularly associated with modern South Essex accents, giving rise to common humorous re-spellings such as “Essiiiiix.” It should be noted that this respelling is crudely indicative of vowel placement, but not necessarily vowel duration within conversational speech.

Other features include: 

l-vocalisation to [ʊ] in felt, small, animal, feel, old, able

Lateral release [tˡɫ] in sentimental

Intermittent use of [n] in liking, morning, living, in variation with [ŋ] elsewhere

Yod-coalescence to [dʒ], [tʃ] in duke, tune

FACE [ɛ̞ɪ]

GOAT onset vowel varies in degree of openness, particularly between set passage and unscripted speech

PRICE [ɑɪ̆] and sometimes [ɑə]

HAPPY [ɪi] has a more central onset at the end of a phrase group: [əi] in finally(,),  immediately(,)

Glottal reinforcement of [t] in different idea and epenthetic [p] in Chelmsford

Glottal replacement of [t] in sort of, part of

STRUT → [ɐ̟]

FLEECE [əi]

NEAR is usually monophthongal→ [ɪː]

COMMA and LETTER are open central at end of phrase group in “Comma, Comma”(,) and lawyer(,)

COMMENTARY BY: Marina Tyndall

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/11/2012

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).

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