Bulgaria 1

Listen to Bulgaria 1, a woman in her 20s from Varna and Ruse, Bulgaria. 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): 1970s

PLACE OF BIRTH: Ruse, Bulgaria

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: piano performance student

EDUCATION: some university

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

The subject was raised in Varna, Bulgaria, and also lived in Lawrence, Kansas, United States.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She is well traveled, besides where she has lived for more than six months.

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

RECORDED BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/2000

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

OK, I was born in a very beautiful city in Bulgaria; uh, it’s called Ruse. Uh, however, I didn’t live the … there for quite a long time; I lived until I was about 7, and then we moved to another very beautiful city on the coast of the Black Sea, and it’s called Varna. Uh, the name of the city’s Varna. And, uh, I’ve lived there till I was, let’s see, I had lived there till I was, um, 18. And then I came to the States to study with Professor Sequeira Costa. And, that’s about it. I’ve traveled to Macow. I’ve traveled to China. I’ve been Italy throughout my life. Oh, I started, uh, learning English when I was very little. Uh, probably my da, with my dad actually. He always wanted me to study English. And we started probably when I was about 5, 6. He would just tell me little words in English. However, then I didn’t study English for a long time, and when I saw this opportunity to come to study with Professor Costa. I decided that I better study English because I’m supposed to take Toifeld [spelling?] just if English is a foreign language. So I need at like least 570, uh, points, um, the test, so just started studying myself. And I attended a few core classes; it was part of a big course. But I really didn’t like if very much cause it was right on the weekend it was seven hours a day. So I decided well I’ll study just by myself. Um, well it has a wonderful sea garden we call it the sea garden. It’s right next to the coast of the Black Sea. And I always suggest that one goes there first before anywhere else, because it’s really great. And I rarely see gardens like this. And then what else, yeah, we’ll see a whole lot of big buildings. Uh, people do not tend to live a lot in houses like in the United States, especially Lawrence. Um, a lot of apartment buildings and big streets, not too many cars like here. A lot of bus transportation. [laughs] Well, I always remember how I broke my wrist when I was roller-blading. So, it’s not a very good memory, but I somehow always come up with this, when somebody asks me what you remember. I remember I couldn’t practice my piano for two months. And when I would go to the sea I always loved water I loved to swim, and, uh, my mom wouldn’t let me. I had to hold my arm up, just so that I, I wasn’t supposed to get it wet. My arm, so, when I came to the United States, that was, um, yeah, about four years ago. Um, I had all these my mom, my aunt, my uncle had given my bills of hundred dollar, hundred dollar bills. And I was supposed to open an account, a bank account here. However, I was kind of scared because I had never had … ah … my own bank account before. And I had no idea what to do. And I said, Oh, I’ll just use the money. I’m not going to put them in them in a bank [laughs]. And then I got … however, I went to the bank and they put all the money in this one account and they gave me an ATM card. And they said you’re supposed to go the ATM machine and get as much cash as … as you want. You don’t need to carry all this cash around. So I asked them, oh, can I have at least twenty dollars with me though, and they gave me twenty dollars. And then for about a month I didn’t ever use. I, I would like not even eat because I was so scared to use this ATM machine.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Heidi Holle

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 2000

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:

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• 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).

 

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