Guyana 1

Listen to Guyana 1, a 52-year-old woman from Mahaica and Georgetown, Guyana, and other areas of the Caribbean. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 52

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 05/12/1966

PLACE OF BIRTH: Georgetown, Guyana (but raised in Mahaica)

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Afro-Caribbean

OCCUPATION: artistic director, writer, artist, and educator

EDUCATION: university

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject lived in Guyana until her twenties. She then lived in various cities and countries around the world: one and a half years in Queens, New York City; eight months total in Toronto and Ontario, Canada; one year in Barbados; two years in Saint Lucia; 15 years on and off in Saint Vincent; and eight years on and off in Anguilla. At the time of recording, the subject had been living in Anguilla for the previous four years years.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject was raised by her grandparents in Mahaica, a rural community of Guyana. Her grandfather had a raw Vincentian accent (from Saint Vincent), and her grandmother was from Guyana but encouraged her always to “speak properly.” In addition, the subject says she tried to modify her accent after she moved to Georgetown, particularly to get acting roles.

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

RECORDED BY: Tshari King

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/08/2019

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 when I moved to Georgetown now to live with my father and step-mother, that was a different situation, a whole new ballgame, ‘cause town for me was like going to New York. It was big, and there were lights; because I didn’t grow up with a lot of electricity in Mahaica, so when you go to town is lights and the people speak differently and the little sing-song I had in Mahaica; like I would say, erm, “Every marnin’ I wan go down de road fi get something fi eat” right? But when you go to town, you can’t say “every marnin’.” You have to say “every morning, I go to town to get something to eat.” So it was a little different; so the children would laugh at me in school and call me country bumpkin; they call me, ah, wha, what’s, I can’t remember the name they would call me when I went to town, but they tease you because of the accent, and that used to annoy me.

But, still, I remember too, one time I went on stage for the first time doing a reading, and I got the part, but I thought I was reading proper English, not knowing, yes, I’m reading the English, but the accent — the song that it came with, that rhythm — was different from all the Georgetown girls who auditioned. However, I got the part. Got the part, did well, won the best actress award, but then the critic wrote up that the kid is, the kid has potential but has linguistic issues [laughs], that she needs to sort out, and I’m like, but I can’t understand what he mean by that. So I found where the critic lives; you’re not supposed to do that. I found where the critic lived and went and asked to see him and said to him that I liked the article whatever, whatever, I learned from it and stuff, but I would like you to please explain to me what do you mean by linguistic issues? Then he said, “Your accent is bad.” So I was like, bad? He said, yes, there are ways in which people in Georgetown pronounce their words, that you are not doing. You need to study how Georgetown people speak in order to get good parts and bla, bla, bla, bla, bla. Man, and I took it on. I took him on, and I won best actress for the next five years because I was bent on getting my accent correct so that I can get the part as — and also having variations that I can speak this way when I go to Mahaica, and I can speak that way in Georgetown; and then if I from Buxton, that’s another story ‘cause that a different accent altogether. If you go to Essequibo, it’s a different accent; Corentyne one different kinda accent too, so them a sound like them from Saint Vincent [laughs], so I wanted to learn this, so that’s what I did, and I don’t know now how my accent sounds, so it’s difficult, but, yeah [laughs] …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Tshari King

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/09/2019

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.