Bangladesh 4

Listen to Bangladesh 4, a 77-year-old man from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 77

DATE OF BIRTH: 1943

PLACE OF BIRTH: Kolkata, India, but raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Bengali

OCCUPATION: retired teacher

EDUCATION: tertiary education in engineering and master’s degree in computer science

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

The subject was born in Kolkata (Calcutta), in undivided India in 1943 and moved to Dhaka, Bangladesh, four years later. He lived there for all his formative years and then moved temporarily to Scotland to to get his master’s degree. He then moved back to Bangladesh, where he lived for three years. The subject then started his “international journey,” as he phrases it, living in Pakistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Kuwait, and Australia, where he resided from 1980 until his retirement in 2003. At that point, he started dividing his time between Australia and Bangladesh.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject has a personal interest in speech sounds and teaching English Pronunciation. Indeed, he says his current project involves “building a corpus of English speech by Bangladeshis from different regions so that I could find out and study the different types of regional and standard English pronunciations  in Bangladesh.” In this respect, his advanced English skills and his British English pronunciation might not be typical of Bangladeshi citizens.

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

RECORDED BY: Amin Rahman (subject)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/10/2020

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: 

wel, hɪəz ə ˈstɔː.ri fə ju: ˈsæ.rə ˈper.i wəz ə ˈvet.nər.i nɜːs huː hæd biːn ˈwɜːk.ɪŋ ˈdeɪ.li ət ən əʊld zuː ɪn ə dɪ.ˈzɜːt.ɪd ˈdɪ.strɪkt əf ðə ˈterɪ.tᵊr.i, ˈsəʊ ʃi wəz ˈver.i ˈhæp.i tə stɑːt ə njuː dʒɒb æt ə suː.ˈpɜːb ˈpraɪ.vɪt ˈpræk.tɪs ɪn nɔːθ skweə nɪə ðə djuːk striːt ˈta:. ðæt ˈeə.riə wəz ˈmʌtʃ ˈnɪə.rə fə^r hə ænd mɔː tə hə ˈlaɪ.kɪŋ. ˈiːv.ᵊn ˈsəʊ, ɒn hə ˈfɜːst ˈmɔːn.ɪŋ, ʃi felt strest. ʃi eɪt ə baʊl əf ˈpɒr.ɪdʒ, tʃekt hɜː.ˈself ɪn ðə ˈmɪ.rə^r ænd wɒʃt hə feɪs ɪn ə ˈhʌ.ri. ðen ʃi ˈpʊt ɒn ə pleɪn ˈjel.əʊ dres ænd ə fliːs ˈdʒæk,ɪt, pɪkt ʌp hə kɪt ænd ˈhe.dɪd fə ˈwɜːk.

wen ʃi ˈɡɒt ðeə, ðə wəz ə ˈwʊ.mən wɪð ə ɡuːs ˈweɪt.ɪŋ fə^r hə^r. ði: ˈwʊ.mən ɡeɪv ˈseə.rə æn ə.ˈfɪʃ.ᵊl ˈle.tə frəm ðə vet. ðə ˈle.tər ɪm.ˈplaɪd ðæt ðə ˈæ.nɪm.ᵊl kʊd bi ˈsʌ.fər.ɪŋ frəm ə reə ˈfɔːm əf fʊt æn maʊθ dɪ.ˈziːz, wɪtʃ wəz sə.ˈpraɪz.ɪŋ, bɪˈkɒz ˈnɔː.mə.li ju wʊd ˈəʊn.li ɪk.ˈspekt tə ˈsiː ɪt ɪn ə dɒɡ ɔː^r ə ɡəʊt. ˈseə.rə wəz ˌsen.tɪ.ˈmen.tᵊl, ˈsəʊ ðɪs ˈmeɪd hə fiːl ˈsɒr.i fə ðə ˈbjuː.tə.fᵊl bɜːd.

bɪ.ˈfɔː ˈlɒŋ, ðæt ˈɪtʃ.i ɡuːs bɪ.ˈɡæn tə strʌt ə.ˈraʊnd ðə ˈɒf.ɪs ˈlaɪk ə ˈluː.nə.tɪk, wɪtʃ ˈmeɪd æn ʌn.ˈsæn.ə.tər.i mes. ðə ɡuːsez ˈəʊ.nə, ˈmeər.i ˈhær.ɪ.sən, kept ˈkɔːl.ɪŋ, ˈkɔ.mə, ˈkɔ.mə, wɪtʃ ˈseə.rə ˈθɔːt wəz æn ɒd tʃɔɪs fər ə ˈneɪm. ˈkɔ.mə wəz strɒŋ ænd hjuːdʒ, ˈsəʊ ɪt wʊd teɪk səm fɔːs tə træp hə, bʌt ˈseə.rə hæd ə ˈdɪ.frənt aɪ.ˈdɪə. ˈfɜːst ʃi ˈtraɪd ˈdʒent.li ˈstrəʊ.kɪŋ ðə ɡuːsez ˈləʊ.ə ˈbæk wɪð hə pɑːm, ðen ˈsɪŋ.ɪŋ ə tjuːn tə hə. ˈfaɪ.nəl.i, ʃi əd.ˈmɪ.nɪs.təd ˈiː.θə. hə ˈe.fəts wə nɒt ˈfjuː.taɪl. ɪn nəʊ ˈtaɪm, ðə ɡuːs bɪ.ˈɡæn tə ˈtaɪə, ˈsəʊ ˈse.rə wəz ˈeɪb.ᵊl tə həʊld ˈɒn.tə ˈkɔ.mə æn ɡɪv hər ə rɪ.ˈlæks.ɪŋ bɑːθ. wʌns ˈsær.ə hæd ˈmæn.ɪdʒd tə beɪð ðə ɡuːs, ʃi waɪpt hər ɒf wɪθ ə klɒθ ænd leɪd hər ɒn hə raɪt saɪd. ðen ˈse.rə kən.ˈfɜːmd ðə vets ‘daɪəɡ. nəʊ.sɪs.

ˈɔːl.məʊst ɪ.ˈmiː.dɪət.li, ʃi rɪ.ˈmem.bəd æn ɪ.ˈfekt.ɪv ˈtriːt.mənt ðæt rɪ.ˈkwaɪəd hə tə ˈme.ʒə ˈaʊt ə lɒt əf ˈmed.ə,sᵊn. ˈse.rə wɔːnd ðæt ðɪs kɔːs ɒf ˈtriːt.mənt maɪt bi ɪk.ˈspen.sɪv ˈaɪ.ðə faɪv ɔː sɪks ˈtaɪmz ðə kɒst ɒf ˌpen.ɪ.ˈsɪ.lɪn. ˈaɪ kɑːnt ɪ.ˈmæ.dʒɪn ˈpeɪ.ɪŋ ˈsəʊ ˈmʌtʃ, bʌt ˈmɪ.sɪs. ˈhær.ɪ.sən ə ˌmɪ.lɪə.ˈneə ˈlɔː.jə ˈθɔːt ɪt wəz ə feə praɪs fər ə kjʊə.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Amin Rahman (subject)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 19/10/2020

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: 

Hello, I am Amin Rahman, 77 years old. I am from Bangladesh. Fortunately, I was not always this old. I was once young, and I will talk about my young days when I first went to a school near my house, which was called Vidya Mandir. “Vidya” means “education,” and “mandir” means “temple.” So it means “temple of education.” Well, it was not very far from my place, about, uh, 10 minutes’ walk; and we enjoyed going there all together from our neighborhood early in the morning.

But, sometimes, as you know, [in] Bangladesh, we have heavy rains, and the path to the school used to get submerged under water, and that is when it was a little difficult. But we still enjoyed. We did not wear shoes then, so it was easy. We just waded across the water and went to school.

And …  the place where we lived — and, in fact, we still live there — is called Shegun Bagicha [or Shegunbagicha]. It is about one mile from the city zero point.

And over there, we had lovely neighborhood children with whom we played and sang and did lots of things together, like picking up flowers early in the morning. And we also sang and danced all together because singing is enjoyed by all Bangladeshis — folk songs and songs by famous poets, as well as modern songs. So we had a very good upbringing.

By the way, before we say anything more, I would like to tell you all that Bengali — the language — Bengali is a very sweet language. In fact, it was voted the sweetest language by UNESCO for the last two years. So I’ll give you a small sample of Bengali speech:

Amaar naam Amin Rahman. Ami ekhon Bangla bolcchi. Bangla bhasha khoob mishti bhasha.

[English translation: My name is Amin Rahman. Now I am speaking Bengali. Bengali is a sweet language.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Amin Rahman (subject)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 14/10/2020

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: NA

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

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

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