Kenya 6

Listen to Kenya 6, a 23-year-old woman from Migori, Kenya. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 23

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/12/1993

PLACE OF BIRTH: Migori, Kenya

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Luo/Kenyan

OCCUPATION: student of community development

EDUCATION: college

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

The subject has never lived outside Kenya. (In addition to her birth city of Migori, she has lived in Nyakach and Kisumu.)

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

In primary school, she spoke mostly Luo. Her grandmother influenced her to speak clearly. She says she loves English and was the best student in her class in English.

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

RECORDED BY: Betty Moulton

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/06/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Um, I was born in Kenya, in a town called Migori. Yeah, we were two. I’m the last born — my older sister and I. Um, yeah. My parents died long ago when I was still very young, but I was not very young to see, and you know, feel the pain. But after that we struggled into life; we lived a little bit with my grandmom, but she was too weak to take care of us, so we came to Kisumu. So I’ve been staying in Kisumu after the post-election violence in 2017, and till now here I am. …

Personally it didn’t affect me much, but for the things I used to see in the television, hear from the radio, it really affected people; some people lost their homes, some people lost their parents, some people, you know, your parents are being murdered where you are seeing, so it’s a very traumatizing situation. …

Um, first and foremost I enjoy acting. I begin, I began acting when I was still in primary school. That’s when I discovered my talent. After high school, I went into acting with a small group in Kisumu. We are doing, uh, films; we are doing stage plays. But I also model. I am the current Miss Kisumu National Polytechnic. I love modeling so much. I, I do skates; my, that’s my choice of sport, and I also do basketball. Yeah.

So my source of finance usually is promotions. I do promotions for companies. They come once in a while, so when the promotions are there, I go. We are being paid, like, uh, 500 bob per day, 500 Kenyan shillings a day. Yeah.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Betty Moulton

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/09/2021

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.