Somalia 1

Listen to Somalia 1, a 42-year-old man from Bardera, Somalia. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 42

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 04/06/1972

PLACE OF BIRTH: Bardera, Somalia

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Somalian

OCCUPATION: Student

EDUCATION: undergraduate degree

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

Subject has spent the last 18 years in the United States.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Stephanie Wilborn (under supervision of David Nevell)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 07/04/2014

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Um, I’m originally from Somalia, which is part of the African continent, the east African continent. It’s also called the “Horn of Africa.” I, I, was born in Bardera, Somalia — grew up there, immigrated here 18 years ago. Pretty much I immigrated because there was a war, uh, a clan-based the civil war in Somalia, so. Well, other than growing up, um, in a different environment than where I am right now, most of, um, my school-age years was spent in school, and then as soon I became a teenager, the country erupted into a civil war, so I don’t have much of anything to tell you other than something horrible that happened in the war, other stuff like that. Well, I am looking forward to, um, getting my degree, probably going back there and helping the impoverished populations in Africa pretty much be someone who is useful to society.

I am a Muslim, so the dress code where I come from and here are two different; the foods are different, cultural basically, traditions and cultures are different, and so, yeah, there’s a huge disparity from between where I came from and here, so, and then here it’s more Westernized than from where I come from it’s a third world country an- and that has something to do with it too – the vast differences. Our food has more spices than it is in the United States, and so when rice is made we a-add some herbs to it, natural herbs; we, um, basically have a food that is basically a combination of rice and beans, and then we have something called chapati, um, and then what else? What else? We have samosa, injera, which is also made of like sort a like tortilla, but it’s for breakfast, um, yeah. Well, I miss all those, by the way. The cultural differences between here and where and the United States and Somalia, where I come from, it’s a lot different, and it takes a lot for someone to assimilate, so it’s not an easy thing to do; it’s not easy for anyone to get rid of their accent. I love keeping my accent, but, ya know, people will say, “Oh you’ve been here for this s-long, this number of years; why is your accent?” And I-I say first of all I-I don’t want to get rid of it, and second, um, I, it kind of reminds me of my background. I have not had an experience of anyone telling me to or encouraging me to get rid of it, no, nobody does that anyway.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Stephanie Wilborn (under supervision of David Nevell)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 07/04/2014

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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• 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).

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