Japan 17

Listen to Japan 17, a 43-year-old man from Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

Both as a courtesy and to comply with copyright law, please remember to credit IDEA for direct or indirect use of samples. IDEA is a free resource; please consider supporting us.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 43

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 12/11/1975

PLACE OF BIRTH: Chiba Prefecture (east of Tokyo)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Japanese

OCCUPATION: college faculty

EDUCATION: master’s degree

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

The speaker has also lived in Kobe, Japan (two years); Australia (one year); and Boston, Massachusetts, United States (18 years).

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The speaker believes that his speech has been influenced by both the Kobe dialect of Japanese and the Australian-English dialect.

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

RECORDED BY: Bryn Austin

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/11/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

The weather lately is not that great. I don’t really like rain that much. Well, I can’t complain about the rain, because we don’t have a wildfire. But nonetheless, I love sun; I miss the sun; I love grilling outside. I love having a, having a pork, grilled pork outside. But, it’s been raining; it’s been even snowing. It’s cold; it’s just too cold outside to grill a wonderful-smelling pork.

[The speaker recites the poem “String” by Shuntaro Tanigawa, in Japanese]:

ひも
うまれてからこのかた
ひもにはあたまもしっぽもなく
ふたつのはじっこがあるだけだった
いろあせたこいぶみのたばを
くくっているあいだはよかったが
わけあってこいぶみがもやされ
もうむすぶものもしばるものもなくなると
ひもはすっかりじしんをうしなった
ひきだしのおくでひもは
へびになるのをゆめみはじめる
ちゃんとあたまとしっぽがあるへびに
へびになれたら
ぼくはにょろにょろとおかにのぼろう
そしてとおくのうみをながめよう
しっぽがもうかえろうといいだすまで

[Transliteration:

“Himo”

Umarete kara kono kata
Himo ni wa a tama mo shippo mo naku
Futatsu no hajik ko ga aru dakedatta

Iroaseta ko ibu minota ba
Kukutteiru aida wa yokattaga
Wakeatteko ibumiga moyasare
Mō musubu mono mo shibaru mono mo nakunaruto
Himo wa sukkari jishi n o ushinatta

Hikidashi no okude himo wa
E bininarunowoyumemihajimeru
Chi yantoatamatoshippogāruhebini

Hebi ni naretara
Boku wa ni yoronyorotōkaninoborō
Soshite tōku no umi o nagameyō
Shippo ga mō kaerō to īdasu made

English translation:

“String”

Since it was born, there
was no head and no tail
of heading in this string

I love you
It was good while I was sick
There is no reason to worry about it
When there is no more stuff and nothing to decide
The string was completely worn out

Let me draw out the strings
I start to dream of becoming a snake
To a snake with a proper head and tail

If you can go to the snake
I’m going to be a snake
Let’s look down on the sea of the city
Until the tail is ready to return ]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Bryn Austin

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 06/12/2018

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.