Poland 12

Listen to Poland 12, a 21-year-old man from Luboszewy, Poland. 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: 21

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/03/1997

PLACE OF BIRTH: Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian/Polish

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: completing bachelor’s degree

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

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

At the time of the recording, he had spent four weeks with American students so may have picked up some of the way they speak English. He is training to be an actor in Poland but, based on our conversations, has had little to no training in American accents.

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

RECORDED BY: Kris Danford

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/10/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

OK, so I was born in Tomaszów Mazowiecki. It’s a small town in Poland, central Poland. And I raised in a small village, uh, Luboszewy. Then I, um, when I started to, uh, study, uh, I moved to Krakow. This, uh, it was the second capital of Poland; now it’s Warsaw, and um, stud-studying, um, uh, acting. Actually this is my last year, so I’m going to graduate after this year. Um, I, uh, like, four weeks ago I arrived to U.S. to do a, a show with students from University of Michigan, and now we’re, like, two days before opening night, so I’m really excited about it. And, well, we’re going to see what, what’s gonna – wha-, how it’s gonna be.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Kris Danford

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/04/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

• • • • It is noted that [s], in many medial and final positions, shifts to [z], as in “fleece,” “goose,” and “diagnosis.”

• • • • Voiced “th” and unvoiced “th” change respectively to dentalized [d,z] or [t,s].

• • • • In final positions, voiced consonants tend to become unvoiced, as in “dog,” “bird,” “administered,” and “expensive.”

• • • • The speaker utilizes the “liquid u” (e.g., “duke”).

• • • • [æ] remains in some words but occasionally shifts to [ɛ].

• • • • [ʊ] (as in “woman”) shifts closer to [u].

• • • • [u] in Gen Am shifts closer to [ʏ] (e.g.,”duke”).

• • • • [aɪ] tends to accentuate the first vowel and de-emphasize or eliminate the second, moving closer to [a:], as in “right,” “price,” and “side.”

• • • • This could be an inconsistency, but on the word “near,” the speaker uses [ɜ˞].

• • • • [I] shifts to [i], as in “expensive,” “picked,” and “lunatic.”

• • • • [ʌ] in Gen Am shifts to [ɑ].

COMMENTARY BY: Kris Danford

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/04/2019

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.