Trinidad 6

Listen to Trinidad 6, a 23-year-old man from Diego Martin, Trinidad. 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): 08/05/1990

PLACE OF BIRTH: La Puerta, Diego Martin, Trinidad

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Afro-Trinidadian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: university

AREAS 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: Dylan Paul

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/03/2013

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Cool, so I had this story, right? Ahm, from my Cadet Force days. Right? So we talking bout like, five or six years ago, right? When I was like a Lance Corporal coming up in Cadet Force boy, Dan boy. You understand what I’m saying? Your boy had to be a badass to make your name now, to get Lance Corporal. So anyway, I never tell you this story before though … You ever heard this one before? Now, back in the day first battalion and second battalion don’t … they don’t, they don’t cross; you understand what I saying? They don’t mesh; you understand what I saying? It’s real rab.

So here what going on: Them men bounce up some of my Cadets, right? [steups] Little privates and thing. On upper Frederick Street, now. Right? Walking from rehearsal that day because normally you walking from Tranquil you meet at that corner, they walking from CIC they meet at that corner. And it’s like a hub now. And they’ll decide well, “I don’t like your head, Hoss, so [steups], I going and fight that man dead, real licks!” You understand what I saying? Little privates get real beat up.

Them come to training Saturday real broken up, who limping, all kind of, I was like “What happen to you all, You went through a war, or what?” So the man was like, “[steups] Boy, thing, bulk of second battalion men, boy. And them men beat me up, boy. Thing Thing Thing.” I was like, “Nah, Dan, I, I can’t be going through that.” You understand what I’m saying? “All right, here what going on: The next training day I will wait for them.”

So next training day now, I rounds up all the other Corporals un- under my charge and we going up the road, now, and we waiting by Fedrick street corner. Them see we, they ain’t think nothing about it because I mean it was no privates; it was just lance corporal and thing and thought well, everything is everything nah, right? So they could just walk past through. We ain’t going through that; pick up big stone and bottle and we start a fight. Right?

When men realise that they getting licks they start to run.
So we running man now down, down through Port-of-Spain from upper Frederick Street pelting bottle and bit stone straight down through town, Dan. It run so far it reach as far as the lighthouse and heading up into uhm, on the, uhm, on the Beetham side, you know. Now first thing’s first; you don’t run into Beetham [laughs]. Yeah, like, what you can get away in town …You better not go into Beetham, Dan, because somebody is going to die inside of there, you understand what I’m saying? And it might never find your body and all kind of thing, Hoss. So, I’m not going to run into Beetham.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Dylan Paul

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/03/2013

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

“Steups” is a caribbean ingressive sound that can be articulated several different ways and for various durations.  In this instance, the speaker uses short steups to demonstrate displeasure.

COMMENTARY BY: Dylan Paul

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 25/03/2013

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).

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