France 4

Listen to France 4, a 22-year-old woman from Aubenas, France, and also Belgium. 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): 1977

PLACE OF BIRTH: Aubenas, France

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Belgian-French

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: university

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

She was raised in northern Belgium and lived for six months in London, England. She was living in Kansas, in the United States, attending university there, at the time of this recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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): 1999

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, uh, actually I’m born in France, in Aubernas, in the side of France. Both of my parents are Belgian, and, um, they went in, uh, France for like two or three years. And, um, they have me there and then they come back in Belgium – so I grew up in Belgium – and I did all my studies in Belgium. And, um, last year I went to England for six months to learn my English. And then I came here in Kansas to perfect it. Actually I’m uh living uh on the board [sic] of the sea, um, just, uh, my town is Santidas Bell [spelling?], Santidas Bell in Dutch, and it’s a Dutch town actually. We speak Dutch there, um, but both of my parents talk to me all the time in French, so my mother language is French. It’s a little town where there is, uh, a lot of, uh, touristic, uh, attraction – like museum and, uh – the most important is, of course, the, the beach and the sea. All of it – it’s beautiful there and I miss it – like the [unclear] of the wave, and I like to walk, uh, when it’s the evening on the beach – it’s beautiful and, uh – it’s pretty quiet also – not during the rush season. You know, uh, during December, there is lots of people in the street and everywhere, and, uh, but during the rest of the year it’s pretty nice – pretty quiet – uh – people are very nice there – and, um – we eat of course the moselen [spelling?] and fritten – it’s french fries with moselen [spelling?] – you know that? It’s very famous in Belgium.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Tim Hansen

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:

If you are a dialect researcher, or an actor using this sample to develop your skill in the accent, please see my instruction manual at www.paulmeier.com. As the speaker in this sample is a unique individual, it is highly unlikely that she will conform to my analysis in every detail. But you will find it interesting and instructive to notice which of my “signature sounds” and “additional features” (always suggested only as commonly heard features of the accent) are widely used by most speakers of the accent, and which are subject to variation from individual to individual.

COMMENTARY BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/11/2016

The archive provides:

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• 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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