Trinidad 9

Listen to Trinidad 9, a 28-year-old woman from Sangre Grande, Trinidad. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 28

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/09/1993

PLACE OF BIRTH: St. Vincent (but raised mostly in Sangre Grande, Trinidad)

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Afro-Trinidadian

OCCUPATION: actor and arts-resource manager

EDUCATION: master’s degree in performing arts

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject alternated between between St.Vincent and Trinidad until the age of nine, after which she stayed in Trinidad until the age of 25, when she moved to London to study for her master’s degree for two years.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She is a trained actor and has lived most of her life in Sangre Grande, Trinidad, but she says she has other influences on her accent from Western Trinidad because of her studies at the University of the West Indies. She says she is very proficient in code-switching between Trinidad Dialect and Standard Trinidadian as a result of her career and public speaking.

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

RECORDED BY: Chanel Glasgow (subject)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/11/2021

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 remember my first time playing Carnival. Now, as a child, I never got to play Mas; I wasn’t involved in Carnival because of my religion. But the first time I experienced it, I was a young adult, right? I think I was about 17 or 18, and I played Jouvert for the first time. And it was such a beautiful experience, going out on the square in Port of Spain, in the height of darkness — Sunday midnight, one o’clock in the morning. And just the pure energy of everybody around. It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter what you look like; no race, no class, nothing, none of that matters. But the moment you touch the road! And you feel the energy of everyone around you and the music is going, the rhythm section’s going, the flames going from the flambeaux. I remember we played Blue Devil that year, and the first time that paint touched my skin, and we was prepping, getting ready, it was such a beautiful and spiritual experience. The pure joy and energy and freedom that I felt!? I would never forget that for the world! Haha! And now you can’t stop me from playing Mas; honestly I love carnival!

Carnival is such — it’s so integral to our culture. And everybody have to experience that, at least once in their life, must, must, must; Carnival can’t come and I’m not in any Fete and no party? You know? I need to experience it; I need to be there. And I would never forget the first time I put on my Carnival costume for the first time to head out on the road. I mean, people does say, you know, “People just put on costumes to look pretty and look nice,” but it’s so much more than that; it’s so much more than that. When you see people coming from all over Trinidad, all over the world! And they’re all just sharing this common energy; they going down the road singing this one song, wearing the same costume, having a good time, not even caring about whatever worries they have with their loan, or their children or their friends or their families, you know? They just put all their worries aside and moving as one, enjoying that moment together. I would never exchange that for the world. Carnival is life!

TRANSCRIBED BY: Chanel Glasgow (subject)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/11/2021

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.