South Africa 24

Listen to South Africa 24, a 72-year-old woman from Vredendal and Gauteng, South Africa. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 72

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1933

PLACE OF BIRTH: Vredendal, in the Western Cape

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: N/A

OCCUPATION: retired teacher

EDUCATION: We can assume a degree in education or a similar field.

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

She had been living in Gauteng for 30 years at the time of this interview.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

There is no doubt that her profession has influenced her speech somewhat. Also, although she has lived in Gauteng for a long time, the “bray,” which is characteristic of her West Coast roots, is still significant.

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

RECORDED BY: 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 on the West Coast, small little town called and (um) Vredendal, it’s a … (Um) during the last days, it was, fairly a big place nowadays, but in my days it was very small; the school we were only twenty in matric. And (um) … but I enjoyed being there; it was a nice place, have a lot of friends; it was very, very nice.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 26/10/2007

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The “bray,” typical of the West Coast roots, is still significant. This occurs mostly in pre-vocalic positions. She also tends to de-voice voiced consonants. Example: “friends” became “frients.” Another observation is the upward inflection pattern that she uses at sentence ends. This too could be a by-product of her West Coast dialect.

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.