Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 2

Listen to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 2, a 26-year-old man from Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 26

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 09/10/1992

PLACE OF BIRTH: Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: African-Caribbean-Vincentian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: tertiary

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

At the time of this recording, the subject had been living for about a year and a half in Kingston, Jamaica.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Vincentian schools give great importance to the use of Standard English. In his social environment, though, he uses Creole. At home, he has to speak both. But in Jamaica, he never speaks his Creole language.

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

RECORDED BY: Elizabeth Montoya-Stemann

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/01/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Oh right, so, I am from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. I am 26 years old. I am ten of ten. [Subject giggles.] My mother had ten children from my father; father had outside children, though. I went to a Catholic school, both primary and secondary, so English for me had to be, you know, on the ball. You, you had to speak well; you had to carry yourself with a, with a sense of grace and a sense of poise, as a gentleman. Um, our motto actually is “Boys will be boys, but Saint Martin’s boys will be gentlemen.”

Um, so coming to Jamaica I, I had to speak English, you know, because I, I tried to get people to understand what I am saying because I don’t wanna be talking and then they can’t understand anything, so, I tried my best to speak, you know, fluent English so that they can understand, though there are some things that might be slightly different if I decide to speak, um, our Creole: like, like we, we take up a lot of things at the end of the word, you know, so instead of saying “singing,” we say “singin’,” yeah. So you go down and up singin(g), you know?

Umm, I grew up with my friends, am always with my friends, you know? Umm, like we go to youth group on a Friday, and we will leave and go home Saturday morning, you know, ’cause we always want to be together. And like after church on a Sunday, we will go out and spent the entire day together and probably had to go home and at night to scribble our homework ’cause you know if you failed, our parents wen(t) kill you, you know, so, because I went to one of the top schools in Saint Vincent, you know, so you had to keep your grades above a certain GPA, um or, you know, you gonna be in a lot of problems with your parents.

Let me see, we, well: I like farine; that’s a, that’s a, a food that’s from Saint Vincent; it’s made from cassava; yes, is like little, finy grains, but they are very hard, and it is kind a “what a petite” sometimes, you know? [Subject giggles.] But they are very good; like I love them, you know? Um, you put them in your tea, and they does actually swell, um. Then they tend to get wet; it will swell, so like sometimes you put them in your tea, and then they would always sink to the bottom of the tea. So you pouring out farine, and you thinking that, oh, you know, you have enough and then, well, you thinking it, oh, I need some more because you hasn’t seen the farine, you know. And then you pour it, and then you end up pouring all the farine, and then it sucks up all the tea, and all the farine is in the cup because everything just sinks to the bottom so you don’t see it, so you need to know how to measure it like, you know, how much a want because eventually it would swell, um, and it fulls [sic] you really fast; so if you are not careful, like you going throw out a lot of farine, and then you end up wasting it because you are ready — you are already full, you know, aahh …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Elizabeth Montoya-Stemann

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/01/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The subject is a lively person with a vibrant energy when speaking, and he wants to express himself as clearly as possible. He uses a French phrase (“what a petite”) that is not present in Jamaican speech. Also notice the use of the word “farine” (his spelling) and “finy grains.” Lastly, sometimes there is grammatical interference from his Creole when he says “how much a want” and other similar phrases that are easily identifiable.

COMMENTARY BY: Elizabeth Montoya-Stemann

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/01/2019

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