France 7

Listen to France 7, a 55-year-old woman from Alsace, France, who has also spent time in England, Italy, Canada, and the United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 55

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1944

PLACE OF BIRTH: Metz (but raised in Alsace)

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: French (exact ethnicity unknown)

OCCUPATION: N/A

EDUCATION: N/A

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

She moved to Alsace, France, at the age of 2. She has lived (with her husband, France 6) in England; Ottawa, Canada; Italy; and Kansas, United States, where she was recorded.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She speaks the Alsatian dialect of German.

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): 16/03/2000

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, um, many years ago. Fifty-five years ago exactly.  I was, uh, born in, uh — in, uh, Metz, which is not a town in Alsace.  My parents moved to Alsace when I 2.  Uh, there, I, uh — because my parents …  I — because I was born in a place where French was, uh, speak —was — was spoken language.  Uh — I — my very first languages was French.  And in addition, uh, my, uh, I had a — my best friend was from Paris.  So my, uh, second language was French, too.  Even if I was listening every day to, um, uh, to Alsatian and I was able to understand, it was not my language.  And I — I rarely expressed myself in language — and it’s when, uh, in, uh — in Alsatian.  And it, uh — when I, uh, met my husband, when I came into his family, uh, where the spoken language was Alsatian, I really had to start to come back to, uh, Alsatian.  But it was something funny, though, with for me.  And, uh, for instance, the structure is totally different, uh, in Alsatian or German, uh, from, uh, the French-speaking, uh, structure.  So it was not so much a problem for me.  After that, when we — as my husband said — we, uh, we traveled the — we, uh, we went into, uh — to, uh, Canada for two years.  Our son was born there.  We came back then to France for thirteen years. And after that, we traveled — we started to travel again.  Three years in England, four years in, um, in Italy where each time when we had to — well, I had to catch up with the language, even if it’s really not my cup of tea to speak another language.  And so, uh, here I’m, uh, Michel, my husband, this year for six years.  I’m for five years.  It was a great experience, but on the other hand I’m very happy and very glad to go back to France.  I can tell you about my experience.  Very — um, when I — the very first time I came, uh, to, uh, to Montreal, I had a teaching position in, um, in, uh, Ottawa.  And so I had to start at the beginning of September.  Uh, Michel, he — he did his Ph.D. only at the end of September.  So I went to Canada, uh, uh, on my own.  It was my very first, um, travel abroad.  And when I — when I arrived in Montreal, I realized that I missed the connection to, uh, Ottawa.  So I went to the — to the — the office of Air France and, uh — and I tried to find another plane.  I couldn’t — just couldn’t understand what this guy was, uh, telling me.  And, well, he felt really offended, also, because he got nervous.  He had a very strong accent I never heard about.

TRANSCRIBED BY: John Wright

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/08/2008

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

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