Netherlands 1

Listen to Netherlands 1, a 41-year-old woman from Bergen op Zoom and Rotterdam, Netherlands. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 41

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1964

PLACE OF BIRTH: Bergen op Zoom, Zuid-Holland

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Dutch

OCCUPATION: singer

EDUCATION: music conservatory

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

The subject was raised in Bergen op Zoom and has also lived in Utrecht, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam for lengths of time.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject’s command of English is almost complete, and she speaks with only slight traces of a Dutch accent.

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): 16/07/2005

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 and raised in Bergen-op-Zoom. Um, that’s the province in the province Brabant in Holland, the Netherlands. Um, I lived there until I was about 19. Then I left to Utrecht, which is * Utrecht in the middle of Holland, * to study * Arabic languages. * That didn’t turn out to be * a big success, so I left to Amsterdam, to pick up * youth welfare. And finally * I found what I was looking for in Rotterdam, at the Conservatory of Music, * where I studied, um, singing, pop and jazz. So now I’m a graduated * singing teacher and singer. And I still live in Rotterdam and now for almost, mm, seventy years, I think, seventeen. Um, I’ve always been * interested in the * English language. Um at, at home * my parents and * my two sisters and brother are also very, they have a, all we all have a feel for languages. Um, we * we used to * imitate everyone on the television, like * funny voices in Monty Python, or, um, speak English with a Dutch, with a German accent or a French accent. Um, in high school, I, um, I became best friends with my best friend * because of * the English lessons. We found out we both * really liked * to speak Cockney, so we turned everything we heard in English class into Cockney, * secretly of course, and we still learn a lot. Um, about Dutch. I don’t think the Dutch language is a particularly nice language to the ears. * It has a few very rough, um, sounds like, um, the “g” and the “schr,” which are very difficult for, um, * people who come to visit Holland * from from abroad. Um, it also has a few funny * vowels like the “ui” and “eu.” * “Eu” is also a bit * Scandinavian but the “ui” is really difficult to pronounce, it seems. Um, the only thing that’s really good about Dutch is that it has so many * different vowels and consonants that, um, it’s easier for Dutch people to speak foreign languages because we almost have all the sounds and vocals, * consonants.
[* = vocalic pause]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Kevin Flynn

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

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.