England 99

Listen to England 99, a 22-year-old man from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 22

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 25/03/1995

PLACE OF BIRTH: Wolverhampton, West Midlands (but raised in Buckinghamshire)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: white (Polish-British)

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: Scottish MA undergraduate degree (2013 – 2017)

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

The subject was born in 1995 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, but moved to Dunstable, Bedfordshire, the following year. In 1998, he moved to High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. He lived there until 2013, so that is the region that has influenced his dialect the most. He has lived in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 2013 until the time of this recording, in 2017.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Both parents were born, raised, and educated in North Warwickshire in the villages of Dordon and Warton. Some of his vowel distribution reflects this, particularly TRAP/BATH sets. The subject went to a grammar school for seven years in High Wycombe and has a slight RP accent in certain formal contexts. He volunteered for a year in Edinburgh and has adopted some slight rhoticity, which has become part of his everyday speech.

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

RECORDED BY: Subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/04/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

So, I’m sat here at the moment, uh, in my kitchen in Edinburgh, and it’s a lovely day, I have to say, um, and, uh, I’m staring out the window, and I’m just looking at the bricks on the wall outside, and just — it’s nice how they kinda reflect the sunlight. It’s April, and, uh, we’re getting some of the nice kinda spring summer weather right now, so it’s quite pretty when you look outside. And, um, it’s an OK day. I’ve got two essays to write at the moment, and as you can imagine there’s a lot of, uh, stress; as a student, you find yourself in a situation where you have a lot of work to do all the time. Um, but, yeah, it’s gonna be hopefully a nice day if we continue having this, um, this nice warm weather. I just hope it stays this way. Um, I’m not a big fan of hot weather, if I am totally honest. I was in Tunisia — uh, how long ago was it? Three years ago, three, four years ago. And it was forty degrees Celsius every day, and that was unbearable. But you know, something around 20 degrees Celsius, and you know, it’s a bit windy as well, you get a nice cool breeze; I think that’s perfect for me. Uh, I wouldn’t want anything more than that frankly; I start melting otherwise. But, uh, yeah, I mean, it’s a shame that I can’t go outside that long; I have got some work to do: two essays that are quite important; they have to be done as soon as possible. And, uh, at the same time I’ve got five exams to worry about, so there’s a lot, a lot to worry about. But, no, I’m looking forward to, uh, looking forward to getting this all over with, and enjoying the weather as it is now. And then maybe I can just, uh, sit back and spend time with friends and just, uh, enjoy the weather, and enjoy the freedom that’ll come eventually, before I, before I graduate. Nice weather out there. And then I’ll be visiting family, and that’d be nice, nice kinda spending some time with them, back in the south, and just enjoying, enjoying the summer holiday. We’re going to Naples this year, so I’m looking forward to drinking wine and, um, eating pizza, and all the typical touristy things you can do in Italy, so it should be fun. I look forward to it.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Subject

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION: 15/04/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

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

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.