South Africa 21

Listen to South Africa 21, a 23-year-old woman from Malmesbury, South Africa. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 23

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1982

PLACE OF BIRTH: Malmesbury, near Cape Town, South Africa

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: N/A

OCCUPATION: N/A

EDUCATION: N/A

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

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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 come from Cape Town, which is in the southern part of South Africa. I live on a farm near Malmesbury. From there the distinct R in my, in when I speak English sometimes. I enjoy reading and I love voice, and I hope this is of some help to you. Thank you very much.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Kevin Flynn

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

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

It is interesting to note the difference between her reading and spontaneous speech. When reading, she displays typical patterns of the Malmesbury dialect. This includes the bray /R/ and the short tense vowel in the word “dog.” She also replaces the /θ/ in “cloth” with a /f/. Word-stress patterns are also affected. For example, /diagnosis/ becomes /dIAgnosis/. Her spontaneous speech, however, displays a more neutral articulation that resembles South African English. This is possibly because of the three years of training that she has received as a drama student, which could have enabled her to control her pronunciation for performance purposes.

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.