South Africa 17

Listen to South Africa 17, a 21-year-old woman from Nelspruit, 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): N/A

PLACE OF BIRTH: Amesfoordt, a small town in Mphumalanga, South Africa

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian South African

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: studying drama

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

Subject grew up in Nelspruit and was living in Pretoria at the time of this interview.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Her dialect seems to reflect her generation, which has had broad exposure to English, American English specifically.

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

RECORDED BY: Marth Munro

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

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born in Amesfoordt; it is a small town in the high-veld, Mphumalanga. My father was a farmer there, and when I was 3 years old, he decided, no farming, he doesn’t like it, and we went to Nelspruit and he went into the building business, and he built some schools and houses there. And, um, I basically grew up in Nelspruit. I went to school there, it was lovely, very hot there but nice. And then, um, I moved to Pretoria to study, to study drama. So, I’m now an actress in training. And, um, my mother is still living in Nelspruit and my brother, I have a younger brother, he is two years younger than me. He is living in London at the moment, working there; um, he says it’s very cold and not nice; the people are very not friendly. So, ja, I hope it’s going well with him now. Um, what can I tell you more about myself? I love studying drama; I think it is the best thing I can do for myself, to be happy and to enjoy my work for the rest of my life. I was in Nelspruit this weekend, my mother, my grandmother got married. Ja, can you believe it? Grandmother’s getting married. It was a lovely wedding; lots of family and friends were there, old people, but it was nice, an ag she looked pretty, very elegant lady. Ja, and that’s about it.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Karina Lemmer

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/01/2007

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The final /R/ almost reflects the General American phoneme. This possibly also affects certain vowels, as the /ɒ/ in “comma” became an /ɑː/. Other final consonants display a favoring of voiceless consonants. For example, the /v/ in “expensive” becomes a /f/, the /d/ in “married” becomes a /t/ and the final /z/ in “disease” becomes a /s/. Articulation typical of the Afrikaans dialect in English can also be noted in the way in which she uses in the /ɒ/ in “dog” and “territory.” In these words, she reverts to the shorter, tenser /ɔ/. Typical patterns are also noted in her use of the /ʊə/ as in “cold,” which is shorter and less rounded than the RP counterpart.

COMMENTARY BY: Karina Lemmer

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

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.