Wales 4

Listen to Wales 4, a 20-year-old man from Treharris and Afon Taf, Wales, United Kingdom. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 20

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1987

PLACE OF BIRTH: Treharris, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: Subject was a student at Central School of Speech and Drama, London.

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

When recorded, the subject was living and studying in London.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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): 26/12/2007

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 was born in Merthyr Tydfil; erm, I grew up in Treharris. I went to school in Afon Taf, which is in Troedyrhiw. Ahm, I played a lot of football and a lot of basketball and a lot of rugby while at school. I used to play a lot of tennis. Um, we had quite a lot of tennis courts at school, so it was not hard to get a court. We used to go in early every morning. Um, and then every lunchtime we’d grab a sandwich and run straight out, start playing tennis. Um, didn’t have that many basketball facilities in school though which was a bit rubbish, um, and none of the teachers knew how to play basketball, so I ended up being the coach and the captain of the team. Erm, didn’t really play many games because the teachers were too focused on rugby, which was all right because I liked playing a lot of rugby as well.

Um, I live on top of a valley, so whenever there was a lot of rain, we — I could still go into school, because nothing was flooded around me, ‘cause up on the top and all the water would just run down. And everyone in the lower part of the village would get flooded and wouldn’t be in school, and I’d be in school in uniform, and all the people from the other areas on top of the valley would be in school as well, and we’d be the very few there.

Um, I can remember I used to play for Wales for basketball. I played for about a year and a half. And then I broke my wrist, broke a lot of bones. When I was younger, erm, I broke — well, I’ve broken twenty-five bones, erm, up until now. Erm, falling out of trees, and down stairs; erm, playing cricket I got hit with a bat. Um, playing football playing rugby: not really a good sport to play when you’re breaking so many bones, but, um, just really clumsy things. I used to like going out ‘cause we used to have a lot of fields around me, so we used to go out into the fields and build dens, or try and build a tree house and then fall out and break a wrist or break a leg or chip a finger bone or, um, yeah. So, growing up in Wales was, er, bit of a treat, and now I’m stuck in London with, er, awful air.

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:

This sample offers a good contemporary contrast to the previous Treharris speaker, Wales 3. Features include: neutralised STRUT vowel; clear release with aspiration of final /p, t, k/, though some /t/’s are dropped; close, lip rounded NURSE vowel; backed first element for GOAT and PRICE; and /n/-ending on “ing” verb endings, such as “likin(g)” and “waitin(g).” Regarding that last feature, the speaker also uses a more open final vowel on the unstressed syllable in these words. Also note: slight suspension of the “hold” (closure) stage of the plosives in “lett-er,” “water,” “sentiment-al,” “strut around the office like a lunatic”; elision of /t/ in “can'(t) imagine”; CURE realized as a diphthong; and /j/+/u/ sequence replaced by a diphthong on words such as “tune” and “beautiful.”

COMMENTARY BY: Marina Tyndall

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 26/12/2007

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.