Jiangsu 42

Listen to Jiangsu 42, a 19-year-old woman from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China. 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: 19

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 21/09/1999

PLACE OF BIRTH: Wuxi, Jiangsu Province

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Chinese

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: currently an undergraduate

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

At the time of the recording, the subject had lived in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, for one and a half years.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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): 04/07/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

The city where I born and grew up is called Wuxi. It’s a part of Jiangsu province. It was — been rated by Chinese government, said it’s one of the top-ten best city for people to live in. It is a small city, very relaxing, but it’s very near to the big cities too, so it’s very convenient. It is a very historical city. It’s a city for — have more than 3,000 years’ history. It’s a city that is rich, and people have happiest life.

[The subject then recites a poem in Chinese (author unknown). Please note that some Chinese characters might not appear correctly in certain browsers, such as Firefox. We recommend Google Chrome.]:
安得广厦千万间
大庇天下寒士俱欢颜
⻛雨不动安如山
何时眼前突兀见此屋
吾庐独破受冻死亦⾜

[Transliteration:
ān dé guǎng shà qiān wàn jiān
dà bì tiān xià hán shì jù huān yán
fēng yǔ bù dòng ān rú shān
hé shí yǎn qián tū wù jiàn cǐ wū
wú lú dú pò shòu dòng sǐ yì zú

Translation:
How can I get thousands of tall mansions as shelters,
To delight all the world’s impoverished scholars,
Safe and sound even when there are storms around?
Alas! When this dream comes true one day, I rejoice,
Even if my hut breaking and me dying cold is the only choice.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Bryn Austin

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 09/08/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Many of the speaker’s /th/ sounds, particularly in final position, tend toward [s].  Initial /z/ (zoo) also tends toward the voiceless cognate.  There is an interesting volatility in her pronunciation of /t/: Often it is an aspirated [t] (vet, goat), but the sound can also be softened (jacket, right) or elided (deserted).  In a few instances, pronunciation in the diagnostic passage (futile, diagnosis, cost) seemed to arise from the speaker’s unfamiliarity with the English word in question.

COMMENTARY BY: Bryn Austin

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 09/08/2019

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.