Benin 1

Listen to Benin 1, a 54-year-old man from Porto Novo, Benin. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 54

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/08/1958

PLACE OF BIRTH: Porto Novo, Benin

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: N/A

OCCUPATION: food-services worker

EDUCATION: secondary school

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

Subject moved to the United States in 1998, at the age of 40. He lived in New York City for three years and then moved to Detroit, Michigan.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Subject can also speak and understand French, Fang, and Nago Yoruba.  He learned English in secondary school at age 15.

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

RECORDED BY: Annette Masson

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/10/2012

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 remember when I was a, a kid, sis, no, seven or eight years.  There is a, a “traditionist,” happen every year, in a … in my mom village because my mom is a “Nago Yoruba.”  They call it “oro” … ”O, R, O.”   So, women have to stay all day inside; they don’t go out.  They lock them up inside, women, in that village.  And men goes out – only men who know the secrets, goes out.  So you don’t know the secret; so they consider you like a, a female, like a woman, eh.  It means that you cannot hold a secret.  So if they feel that, that you can hold secret now, then you have to pay, like a liquor, beans, yam, eh.  And the, the day before, no, daytime, before they lock women inside, that evening belong to women.  Women they enjoy theirself [sic], eh.  And if they find any men, any men, they can beat the men, and you have to accept that beating.  And if you want you can give them money, you can ask for: “Oh, forgive me, don’t beat me, please. Take this!”  So they let you go.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Annette Masson

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/10/2012

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.

 

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