Republic of the Congo 1

Listen to Republic of the Congo 1, a 23-year-old man from Brazzaville, RC. 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): 06/09/1994

PLACE OF BIRTH: Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: African

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: associate degree in science

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

The speaker moved from the Congo to the United States in his teens. He lived in Lancaster, California, for two years and in Big Rapids, Michigan, for seven years.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The speaker was raised in a home where French was spoken. However, he went to a school and lived in a country where the national language was Lingala.

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

RECORDED BY: Kyle Parsley (under supervision of Deric McNish)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/03/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

It’s, it’s very different, it’s very different. Um, when I first came in America, I was a teenager, so I was very young. And, um, you know, I came here with my mom, and everything was just new to me, ya know? Uh, the food was different, you know? The culture was different, the environment was different, the climate was different. Everything was different, so I had to adapt, you know, to, uh, to the culture and the environment here in America. And, um, you know it was, it was hard at the same time ’cause I had to learn a different language too, you know? That was not easy, and, um, you know it was also kind of hard for me to make friends here because of the, because of the language, so it was, uh, it was kind of hard for me to get around, you know? And, uh, it was hard to talk to people; it was hard to start a conversation people, with people; even though you wanted to talk to someone, it was kind of hard to do so, and, um, you know it was, it was, it was tough.

Um, but in, in Africa: Africa has its own difficulties as well, you know. It was, it was not easy growing up in Africa, you know? Uh, I also lived there with my family — with my mom, my sister, and, um, it wasn’t easy growing up, you know? And, uh, you know like here in America: Everything like the food is fresh, you know; a lot of stuff a fresh. Like comparing to, uh, um, in Africa. You know it was just — it was, um, you know — Africa had its own difficulties, ya know, versus America. So you know, and, uh, you know I went to school in Africa as a young kid, and, uh, it was not easy. You know we had to — uh, transportation were not easy; we had to walk like, um, for a very long distance to get to, uh, to school. Whereas in America, you know you have, uh, um, you have many options, ya know, to get, um, to be where you need to be, you know? Like I remember going to school here for the first time, you know? I took a bus, uh, from here. At, uh, from my place, um, um, to the school, you know? And um, it was free. And, uh, but in Africa, ya know it, it’s not, you know, it’s, it’s not really easy. Uh, you have to walk, and sometimes, you know, sometimes you would get the bus — but it wasn’t, it was not everyday because it was not very, uh, it wasn’t cheap, you know? It was, um, it was hard, you know. So it, it was, it was, it was difficult.

[Subject speaks French]: Vive, vive l’Afrique! C’est magnifique! Faut faire un tour. Ben, peut-être un jour toi et moi, on ira là-bas ensemble.

[English translation: Long live, long live Africa. It’s magnificent. You must go visit. You know, perhaps one day, you and me, we will go there together.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Kyle Parsley (under supervision of Deric McNish); translation by subject

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/03/2018

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:

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• 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).

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