Serbia 4

Listen to Serbia 4, a 36-year-old woman from Vranje, Pčinja District, in southern Serbia. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject. 

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 36

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/07/1987

PLACE OF BIRTH: Vranje, Pčinja District, Serbia

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Serbian/White

OCCUPATION: freelance childcare worker

EDUCATION: master’s degree from the Academy of Arts (Serbia)

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

The subject has lived in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, for eight years.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Phyllis Cohen

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/04/2024

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Comparing with, uh, with this life here [in Canada], everything is much easier. Like, you don’t have that much responsibility for everything. So you just have to take care about your education, and, uh, you have more free time. Um, you have more, uh, time, um, for a lot of free activities. Here, it’s just like a math. You know exactly when you have to wake up. You know exactly when you have to go to work. I mean, that’s, that’s, uh, adult life. The life back home and here: It’s much relaxed because you, you don’t have to spend time that much in trafficking [sic]. Here, you spend like an hour at least to go for work and then to come back. And then at the end of the day, you just ended up, uh, like just preparing for the next day. Even having coffee is, is just for to go, like you don’t sit properly having really coffee. Even if you just plan your vacation, so you have to go away for 10 days. That’s a different story. But, but the whole routine is just fast. You have to — a lot of things to finish. You’re more stressed. It just being an adult.

Here in Canada, you have a lot of opportunity, which I love it. You have to face yourself in the mirror, and you know how strong you are. Um, I love Canada. People appreciate your work. Uh, it’s a lot of respect. It’s a lot of opportunity. Um, you can change your career if you don’t like it anymore. You can find a job easy. You can work for minimum wage. You can, uh, change your career. And here at the government also, um, uh, you have a lot of things that stands for you. Like you can apply for a lot of things that can help you. Um, even for example, for COVID, like, we had a lot of help, uh, here. So, uh, you have your rights. The only, uh, difference between here and back home: Here your resume is very important. Back home it’s, uh, a little bit different. It’s, it’s important your degree if you want to like get a job and anything and everything. But at the same time, it’s, it’s more, it’s more relaxed.

[The subject reads a short passage from the play Jovca, by Borisav Stanković, who was born in the subject’s hometown of Vranje. The play is in Vranjanski]: čovek, ceo vek žedan, traži nešto. Ne nađe to. Pa … digne ruke, pregori. Ali, žedan, bar hlad da nađe! Ni to nema. Sam on uzme, posadi drvce, čuva …te ako je zedj a ono bar lad da nadje! Biva li da toj drvce odsecem! Vezem ga za sucku. Biva li?

[English translation: The man, he’s thirsty his whole life. He’s looking for something. He doesn’t find it. So he gives up, he burns out. But being thirsty, he looks for shade. He doesn’t find that either. He makes it for himself. He plants a tree, takes care of it, and if it’s not to quench his thirst, then it’s to find shade. Is it fine to cut down the tree? Is it?]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Phyllis Cohen

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/05/2024

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The native language of this speaker is Vranjanski, which is a subdialect of the Serbian dialect Prizren-Timok. It’s closer to Macedonian and has its own unique vocabulary, pronunciation patterns, and grammar.

This speaker is quite expressive with varied intonation but displays lots of regularity of syllable stress. Her jaw and body of the tongue are quite high. Additionally, there’s strong engagement of the buccinator muscles, with little lip-rounding.

Plosives /t/ and /d/ are dental with the full blade of the tongue very low on the upper teeth and the body of the tongue high, particularly notable in /st/ blends. Voiced and unvoiced /th/ are often replaced with dental /d̪/ and /t̪/, respectively. Her /l/s are velarized, and her approximant /ɹ/ is quite tense with the tongue pushed up and forward toward the hard palate. You can hear it most notably in r-colored vowels. Occasionally, the voiced labial-velar approximant /w/ and labiodental fricative /v/ are replaced with the labiodental approximant /ʋ/.

The DRESS sound drops to TRAP most of the time, and the subject most often substitutes the FLEECE sound for the KIT vowel sound. Her GOAT diphthong is replaced by the monophthong CLOTH with some additional cupping and less lip-rounding, even in combination with velarized /ɫ/.

COMMENTARY BY: Phyllis Cohen

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 31/05/2024

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.