Belgium 6

Listen to Belgium 6, a 21-year-old man from Herenthout, Belgium. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 21

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1998

PLACE OF BIRTH: Lier (but raised in Herenthout)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Belgian/White

OCCUPATION: developer

EDUCATION: Electronics ICT

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS: none

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject learned English at a relatively young age, mostly self-taught by consuming English media.

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

RECORDED BY: Gilian Sterckx (subject)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/08/2020

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 live in Belgium, in the province of Antwerp. It is the most northern province of the country.

I was born in Lier, a city in the same province. But I grew up in Herenthout, which is a town right next to Herentals, a larger city. I have spent my entire life here. So did my parents, and so did my grandparents. In fact, back when the diamond-cutting business was still big here, my grandparents and their entire family had this little shop where they would cut diamonds, uh, in order to pay the bills, basically.

Um, I studied electronics ICT, um, in the College of Antwerp. I learned English primarily through English media, such as TV, video games, uh, books. Most of it is self-taught. Uh, I did receive English during my middle school education. But by the time I actually received English lessons, I was already basically fluent in the language.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Gilian Sterckx (subject)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/08/2020

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

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

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.