Saudi Arabia 8

Listen to Saudi Arabia 8, an 18-year-old woman from Qatif, Saudi Arabia. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 18

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/03/1997

PLACE OF BIRTH: Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (but raised in Qatif)

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Saudi Arabian/Arabic

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: The subject is a Level 3 student and spent two months at an American university in Michigan.

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

The subject was born in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and lived there for five years. She then moved to Qatif, Saudi Arabia, where she was raised.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

At the time of this recording, she had spent two months in the United States studying English.

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

RECORDED BY: Deric McNish

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 09/02/2016

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Uhm, I like to go to the restaurants with my friends, or hang it out, hang out. I grew up in another city, but then I moved to my actual city for — I lived twelve years. It was good. I miss my family, my friends, my mother’s foods: rice and chicken. Uhm, pastas; it was almost rice. Arabic mean [speaks in Arabic]. Uhm, maybe. That mean “maybe.” Uhm [speaks in Arabic]. “I’m not in the mood.” Uhm, I don’t know. I haven’t been here for a long time, so I don’t know a lot about it, but hanging out with my cousin’s friends and other friends. Arab music, Arabic music, like what? You — the name of the song, or name of the song? [Arabic song title]: “Tonight.”

No, I don’t like animals. I don’t think that they are clean; that’s why I don’t like to touch them. So I don’t have any pets. Uhm, I think they are friendly; most of them are friendly. Uhm, I don’t know, I just — all I know is about so these students, Chinese, Koreans, I don’t know Americans ‘til now. But my partner that, uhm — What is it called? — that, uhm, we have to meet a partner. She’s American, but I didn’t met her yet, but we will meet, uhm, maybe I think next week or something. Partner? Uhm, it’s for the listening and speaking communicate — to communicate with other people from MSU students and, uh, it’s just to improve your speaking, listening, uh, skills.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Ryan Duda

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 14/02/2016

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Subject noted that, having been raised in Qatif, she believes her accent is closest to the accents in Kuwait and Bahrain. The subject’s mispronunciation of several words in Comma Gets a Cure is due to her lack of knowledge of English, not necessarily her accent.

COMMENTARY BY: Deric McNish

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 17/02/2016

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.