Wales 2

Listen to Wales 2, a man in his 20s from Pontypridd and Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 20s

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

PLACE OF BIRTH: Pontypridd, South Wales

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: university exchange student

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

At time of recording, the subject had been attending the University of Kansas, in the United States, for eight months. Prior to that, he had attended the University of Wales-Swansea, located about 60 miles from Pontypridd.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Erica Reisig

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/03/2000

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Um, perhaps one of the most bizarre things I think I’ve ever been involved in was last year when I was in my sophomore year in Swansea. I* … there was a charity event they run every year called the Beer Race, an’* it involves everyone getting in f … into fancy dress and obviously racing round the bars, drinking and trying to get to this place as fast as possible. And, y’know, we sort of got drunk before we went out. Um, we entered the Beer Race and we went dressed as the Three Musketeers and Cardinal Richelieu, and it was, there was five of us, f … there was four musketeers, sorry, and *Cardinal Richelieu, obviously. And I have to be honest and say it was one of the most bizarre things I have ever been involved in, like* walking down main roads that are deserted, obviously, and pedestrianized, in the middle of Swansea, having sword fights, and threatening people, and saving women, who were also part of the Beer Race, from being* from being kidnapped by Cardinal Richelieu, and talking to people, talking to people dressed as dominoes and orange juice cartons and* it was ki … it was a bizarre experience. And the rest of my house mates who weren’t musketeers were* went as aliens, with papier-mâché things on their head, and it rained so it all melted, it’s all sort of turned to mush and fell on their heads and it was, it was a bizarre, bizarre event, but it was one of the best nights I’ve had out since I’ve been in college. But I don’t think I’ll ever kinda get over having to fight with cowboys between two pubs, them trying to shoot us and us trying to stab them with plastic swords. It was* a bit bizarre and the sight, ’cause it was an, it was a nasty day and it was, like, a s … really strong wind blowing in off the sea and it was raining, and the sight of one of my friends who had the musketeer hat on, chasing the hat down the sea front for about two, for about a hundred yards, chasing after it and then picking the hat up after it rested in a puddle, putting it putting it on his head and looking like a scarecrow because it had all fallen apart. And it was bizarre, and got a bit blurry towards the end as well. But it was one of the most f … I think it was probably one, one of the actual silliest things I’ve done with actually full knowledge of what I was doing before I did it.
[* = vocal pause]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Kevin Flynn

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 07/2005

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

This subject’s speech is typical of the population living in the valleys around Cardiff. Note the glottal stops in words such as “beautiful,” the elongation of stressed vowels and diphthongs in most words, and the occasional tendency to front what is usually an /a/ (back vowel) in other areas of Wales (typical of the population around Cardiff). Here, the subject discusses his participation in the annual “beer races” at the university in Swansea.

COMMENTARY BY: Erica Reisig

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/03/2000

The archive provides:

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• 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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