Spain 7

Listen to Spain 7, a 28-year-old woman from Barcelona, Spain. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

Both as a courtesy and to comply with copyright law, please remember to credit IDEA for direct or indirect use of samples.  IDEA is a free resource;  please consider supporting us.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 28

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1978

PLACE OF BIRTH: Barcelona, Spain

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian/Catalan/German

OCCUPATION: doctoral student

EDUCATION: When recorded, subject was a doctoral student.

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

The subject lived in Barcelona until age 23, then lived in Boston, Massachusetts (United States), and Brussels, Belgium, for one year each, then Oxford, England, for more than three years.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject had a German father and Catalan mother, and was educated in German. She learned English at a German school. She also speaks Catalan. She submitted this sample herself, as she had been told she had a “strange accent” that was difficult to place. (She is cross-listed as Germany 9.)

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

RECORDED BY: Subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 07/11/2006

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

So, my accent is supposed to be funny as a result of being both Spanish and German. Um, I was born in Spain; as a matter of fact I was born in Catalonia, which is a different region from Spain. We like to think it’s a different country sometimes. Um, my father is German and my mother is Catalan. I went to a German school until I was 18, to a German school in Spain, so that means I would receive education in almost every subject in German, except for Spanish literature of course. There I started my English classes at the age of 10; of course the translations would always be German so that explains largely my German accent when I speak English. Um, at home we speak all three languages, meaning Catalan, Spanish, and German. Ever since I left university, um, which was when I was about 23, I studied in English-speaking countries. So, I spent a year in the United States, more completely near Boston and, um, thereupon I moved to England where I’m now in Oxford, um, and this is my fourth year here. It’s funny that, um, all the international people that I’ve met so far, very, very few of them have been able to place me, as either Spanish or German. They most frequent thing I’ve heard about my accent is that it sounds like an Eastern European, um, person who is trying to speak English. Of course, um, some people would deny that, um, and, um, two or three people have placed me rather in the United States, as in, she has a United States accent rather than a British accent, which I wouldn’t mind because I don’t really like the British accent. Oh well, so I guess, um, so much for myself and, um, the funny sounding of my accent. I apologize that I don’t have English as a second language; it’s actually my fourth language, but nevertheless, it would be great if you could make some use of this recording. If not, well it’s very easy to hit the delete button. OK, bye.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Karina Lemmer

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 04/06/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

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.