Montenegro 1

Listen to Montenegro 1, a 32-year-old man from Bijelo Polje, Montenegro. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 32

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 21/03/1985

PLACE OF BIRTH: Bijelo Polje, Montenegro

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian/Montenegrin

OCCUPATION: lounge technician for Royal Caribbean International

EDUCATION: partial college degree in applied computer studies

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

The subject has spent about a year on a Royal Caribbean ship sailing from the United States (Florida) to the Bahamas.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

He lived in his hometown in Montenegro (Bijelo Polje) for the first nineteen years of his life; he then moved to Podgorica, the capital of the country, and lived there for eleven years.

The subject learned English partially by watching English-language cartoons. He also speaks a little German.

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

RECORDED BY: Sarah Maria Nichols

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 12/12/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

When I was, uh, little kid, like sss — I had, uh, 6 years old, when we got a satellite dish. And, uh, I started watching foreign programs. Uh, I — mainly I watched Cartoon Network, and, uh, I watched the same cartoons as I watched, uh, that, th — as I watched on our television programs, in our language, that were synchronized. And that way I could learn some of my first English words, because I was watching the same cartoons in original English language. And, uh, that’s how I started learning English. By the age of nine, when we were — when I was with my mother and my brother on our summer vacation — on the coast — there were — there was a basketball team for — from Sheffield, England, that was there playing a game with the local team. And, uh, after the game they, they handed out to the audience some stuff with their — with the logo of the, of their team. And, uh, when I, I saw that they were hanging [handing] out yoyos, and it — and then, I approached the team players and asked in English do they have any more yoyos left for me? And, uh, the guy said he was sorry that they ran out of yoyos, but he gave me a badge. Uh, during that time, my mother was — she was amazed because she didn’t know that I can speak English. And, uh, until then, she was — she wasn’t really happy wit [with] me watching that much cartoons and everything, but, when she saw that I am learning English by watching cartoons, after that she, she let me watch cartoons all that — all I wanted. And that’s how I — that’s my first English teacher.

[Subject speaks Serbian]: Drago mi je što mogu da pomognem mojoj prijateljici Sari. Nadam se da će nekome biti od koristi ovaj snimak što sam napravio.

[English translation: I’m glad that I’m able to help out my friend Sarah. I hope this recording that I made is going to be useful to somebody.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Sarah Maria Nichols

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/12/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

This subject, a friend of mine, was nice enough to make sure that the letters I used in his language were correct. He also informed me that the people of Montenegro do not have their own language. They merely speak a dialect of Serbian.

COMMENTARY BY: Sarah Maria Nichols

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/12/2017

The archive provides:

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