South Africa 12

Listen to South Africa 12, a 21-year-old woman from Clanwilliam, Western Cape, South Africa. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 21

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1984

PLACE OF BIRTH: Clanwilliam in the Western Cape

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Black South African

OCCUPATION: N/A

EDUCATION: N/A

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

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Subject’s accent is typical of black Western Cape speech.

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 Clanwilliam.  It’s a little town where everybody knows everyone.  Um, I like it because there — there’s a real large dam the — the oliphants have — and I like it very much, to stay there.  My, um, influences comes from Namaqualand.  It’s like four-hundred kilometers away from Clanwilliam.  So that’s my story.  Thank you.

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:

This sample features a 21-year old Colored female from Kleinwilliam in the Western Cape. As she discusses her childhood in the Western Cape her dialect reflects certain signature sounds of the Cape Colored dialect. This includes replacement of the /æ/ with an /e/ sound. For example the /æ/ in “happy” became /hepi/. First language interference is also reflected in the /dʒ/ as in /huge/, which was pronounced as /juts/. Interestingly her production of the /R/ sound fluctuates between a trilled Afrikaans /R/ in pre-vocalic positions to an almost General American version in post-vocalic positions in words such as “bird.” This is often noted in young Afrikaans speakers who gain broad exposure to American English via the media and film. She has also been living and studying in Gauteng for the past three years and this too may have affected her dialect. Also note the use of concord (subject-verb-agreement in number and person). An example such as “my influences comes from” displays a concord “error” that is often noted in certain Afrikaans speakers, as the Afrikaans language does not include distinction in number or person.

COMMENTARY BY: Karina Lemmer

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.