Panama 2

Listen to Panama 2, a 35-year-old man from Panama City, Panama. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 35

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1974

PLACE OF BIRTH: Panama City, Panama

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Panamanian (exact ethnicity unknown)

OCCUPATION: yoga instructor

EDUCATION: university in Panama

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

The subject has lived in New York; Portland, Maine; and Vancouver, and currently lives in Toronto, Canada.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject learned English while working as a flight attendant.

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

RECORDED BY: John Fleming

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 27/09/2010

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, I was what, 22 years old, and I got a job in an airline – Continental Airlines. And then… I had no job; I finished, like, university, and I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I apply. And I didn’t know… I have no idea what I was going to do, so I just apply because I really wanted to apply. But the funny thing is I didn’t speak any English, so my friend, who work in the airline, he gave me all the answers in English, and I memorized all the Engl-answers. And then, I went to the interview, and they answer every little thing that he gave me, so because I memorized all the questions, and all the answers, I knew what was coming. So not knowing English, I passed the interview, and they sent me to New York for two months for training. So… without knowing any English. So then, when I got to New York, I just, I literally met the crew from, like, Latin America, and I say “You guys have to help me, like, I have no idea what I’m reading, so I need to pass this test, otherwise I will kicked out of the [yo], of job.” So, it was hard, but then, you know, like, for two, for two months I just ate books, and try to translate everything, and it was, it was awesome. So I got a job in an airline for a whole year without not knowing any English at all. An American airline. I always tell my friends that story. It’s a… and they’re like “What?!” Yeah, and I… it’s just memorizing every little thing. It’s like, okay, study this for a week, and I literally went to the interview; they asked every single thing, and, and, I went home, and I was like “I’m not going to get this, I don’t think I’m going to be like, you know.” Like, like, I…there was some many people applying for that job. And then I got a call, like literally two days after: “Okay, pack up your bags, you’re going to New York, everything paid.” I’m like “Yeah!”

TRANSCRIBED BY: John Fleming

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 27/09/2010

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Final stop consonants are usually dropped, especially /d/. This can be heard in “district” and “lower back” in Comma Gets a Cure, and  – among many examples  – “years old” and “finished” in the unscripted speech. If they are not dropped, they are not released, heard in “strut around.” The first consonant in the consonant clusters [ʃ] is often dropped, heard in “much nearer” and “checked” in Comma Gets a Cure. The first consonant in [ʒ] is kept but weakens when in an unstressed position, heard in “I just ate books.” The “foot” and “goose” lexical sets, with both vowels further forward and with more lip rounding, can be heard in “unsanitary.” [ɪ] sounds also move forward in the mouth, becoming [i], heard in “territory” and “sentimental.”

COMMENTARY BY: John Fleming

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 27/09/2010

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.