England 4

Listen to England 4, a man in his 20s from Stratford-upon-Avon and Birmingham, England. 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): 1977

PLACE OF BIRTH: Birmingham, West Midlands

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: university

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

The subject was raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject attended boarding school at Abberley Hall, Worcs, and attended Eton College Windsor and Exeter University; he was attending university in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, at the time of the recording.

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

RECORDED BY: N/A

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

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 1999

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Born in Birmingham in the West Midlands in England. *Lived in Stratford-up… well, the family home’s been in Stratford-upon-Avon, all of my life. Um, went to boarding school when I was 8, to *Abberley Hall in Worcestershire for five years. And then *went to another boarding school, Eton College in Windsor for another five years. And then I’ve *went to Exeter University and I’m on my exchange program. Well, I’m doing American and Commonwealth Arts; it’s a, you do kind of have a look at everything from photography, films, literature. And *our third year we take a y… take a year out. It’s actually my fourth year ’cause I’ve changed courses. But *our third year, we take a year out ‘n’ we get a choice of Australia, Canada, or the States. And I chose the States, and then they choose the appropriate university depending on what kinds of things you want to learn over here. So here I am. Eton was excellent, I loved it. I real…, I think it’s one of those places you either love it or you hate it. But *I d’know, I’ve played lots of sports. I was always busy. And *I’ve, I’ve got quite used to boarding school, which some people when they first arrive, specially ’cause it’s got so many strange traditions and customs and things. People calling for “boy.” So like the senior boys in the house stand at the top of the stairs, scream “boy,” and when you’re in your first year you’ve all got to come running and the last person has to go off and do some errand or something, and just there, there are loads of things like there’s funny little rules, like no eating in the streets and having to “cap” masters, which means like kind of sticking your finger in the air ‘n’ waving it about, and *it’s just the funny names: Teachers are called “beaks” and *kind of recess is called “chambers,” and *tea’s called “messing.” It is it’s a completely different world, but Exeter University’s really good fun. Obviousl… do a lot of work too, but *it’s good fun. And *it’s kind of lots of small little villages, ‘n’ it’s not unlike where I live in Warwickshire.
[* = vocal pause]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Kevin Flynn

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:

The subject has a faint Midlands dialect.

COMMENTARY BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 1999

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.