South Africa 29

Listen to South Africa 29, a 38-year-old woman from Durban, South Africa. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 38

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1970

PLACE OF BIRTH: Elgin, Illinois, in the United States, but raised in Durban, South Africa

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: sales assistant

EDUCATION: N/A

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

She moved to England in 1995 and has lived in London and Brighton since that time.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject has spent considerable time outside South Africa and has tried to “lose the accent.”

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

RECORDED BY: Marina Tyndall

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/01/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Right. I was born in erm, America, in Elgin, Illinois, America and I lived there for a year. And then I we got a we family got a ship over to South Africa where I spent the rest of my life, and I grew up there for the next, er, 25 years- 24 years and then, I moved from, I lived in one little house, one town, Durbin, and then moved over her to England, er in 1995. And erm I’ve been here ever since. And ah [laughter] and erm actually prior to that I had lived, I came over to England, er for 3 years before 25, for 3 er for 3 years. And I thought the streets were paved with gold in London [laughter]. I loved it. And ahm, anyway so I’m back. So erm and yeah I’ve been here now I live in Brighton wh- I live- I was living in London for 4 years and I- when I fell pregnant with my first son I moved down to Hove, Brighton-Hove which I’ve been here now 10 years. And unfortunately…I did try to lose the accent. Um but there’s no hope I just resorted it sounded too fake it felt too. It-found it-too odd to try and change this words although I’d love to speak…properly, proper English, like public school English. But um, it never [laughter] never materialised.

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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:

Note the following features: fronted monophthongised PRICE vowel; close fronted GOOSE vowel; raised THOUGHT vowel, close to Primary Cardinal 7; raised and monophthongised SQUARE vowel; retracted KIT vowel; raised DRESS vowel; KIT vowel neutralized, including in unstressed positions (`headEd’, `rElaxing’); raised NURSE vowel; and long, close HAPPY vowel.

COMMENTARY BY: Marina Tyndall

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/01/2008

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.