South Africa 10

Listen to South Africa 10, a 20-year-old woman from Kuils River, South Africa. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 20

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1985

PLACE OF BIRTH: Cape Town (but raised in Kuils River)

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Coloured/South African

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: Subject was in her third year at university, studying drama, when recorded.

AREA(S) OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

During her childhood, she lived in several small towns in the Western Cape before moving to Pretoria.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Karina Lemmer and Marth Munro

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/2005

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born in Cape Town, um, in a small place called Lavis (Bishop Lavis). Then we moved to Kuils River, where I grew up all my years. I went to school there and I did my first year as a drama student at Tygerberg College. And then I came over to do my second year in Pretoria. And I’m now doing my third year. And, um, well, Cape Town is a very, very nice place. It is a nice scenery.  About our language, the way we speak or our accent, should I say.  It’s, it’s very slang, lots of slang. Um, we speak — when you’re Afrikaans-speaking, you mix your English with Afrikaans, as well.  And, um, especially the way the gangsters speak, there’s some stuff that we use as “Nai, it’s duidelik,” which means, um, “No, it’s cool.” And we say, um, “Nai, my bru” [broer = brother];“No, my brother,” stuff like that. So, ja.

TRANSCRIBED BY: John Wright

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/08/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Her articulation of vowel phonemes is quite typical of the Cape Coloured dialect, despite the three years that she has spent in Pretoria. Also typical and evident in her speech is the trilled /R/. This is most notable in initial and medial pre-vocalic positions. Another feature of the Cape Coloured dialect is displayed in her use of word-stress in certain words. She favors emphasis on final syllables, especially in words that span three to four syllables. For example, “unsanitary” was stressed as “unsaniTAri.”

COMMENTARY BY: Karina Lemmer and Marth Munro

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/2005

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.