South Africa 19

Listen to South Africa 19, a 20-year-old woman from Tzaneen, 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: Tzaneen, a small town in the Pulekwane Province

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian South African

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: Subject was in school at the time of this interview.

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

Subject was living in Pretoria at the time of this recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Although she was living and studying in Pretoria at the time of the interview, her spoken English reflects typical pronunciation and syntax patterns of someone who has grown up in a predominantly Afrikaans-speaking environment.

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

RECORDED BY: Marth Munro and Karina Lemmer

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 born in South Africa, in a small country or town actually, in Tzaneen. I grew up in Tzaneen. Tzaneen is a very beautiful town. It’s … there’s not many people staying there, mostly black people and they are very traditional. So, when you go to Tzaneen, you have to drive through the Magoebaskloof, (um) the mountain, it’s very dangerous to drive there if you don’t know the road, but it’s a very beautiful place, and I like to go home. I study drama and last year I went to Cape Town for my first year, and then I came back to Pretoria. This is much closer to Tzaneen, it’s about four hours’ drive to Tzaneen from Pretoria. So, I can go home much more often than last year and I like being at home with my family. I grew up with my mother and younger brother which is still in school, he is going to matriculate next year and I don’t know what’s he going to do or what his plans are, but I think he wants to become a sound engineer. I like being here in Pretoria, because I have lots of friends and I like my studies and I’m happy.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Karina Lemmer

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 19/01/2007

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Note the trilled /R/ in pre-vocalic positions such as “area” and even occasionally in post-vocalic positions in words such as “their” and “nearer.” This is, however, inconsistent, as not all final /R/ sounds are articulated in this manner. Another feature of her dialect is the voiceless /θ/ as in “south” and “with,” which becomes /sɑf/ and /wəf/. Other consonant replacements that occur are the /v/ as in “give,” which is replaced with /f/, the /b/ in “job” that becomes /p/, and the /d/ in “made” that becomes a /t/. Her production of the /o/ in “old” also resembles the typical Afrikaans accent. Interestingly, she inserts a sound into the word “bowl,” causing it to sound like “bowel.” This could reflect her limited exposure to spoken English, as does the way in which she applies syllable stress at times. Example: /futile/ became /fuTILE/.

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.