Colombia 1

Listen to Colombia 1, a 29-year-old man from Bogota and Cali, Colombia. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 29

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1972

PLACE OF BIRTH: Bogota, Colombia

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Colombian (exact ethnicity unknown)

OCCUPATION: Ph.D. student

EDUCATION: Ph.D. studies

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

At the time of the interview, the subject was living in Lawrence, Kansas, in the United States.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

At the time of the interview, the subject was studying for his Ph.D. degree in computer programming. He began learning English at age 8, with the help of audio cassettes and books produced by the BBC.

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

RECORDED BY: Aaron Champion (under the supervision of Paul Meier)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/04/2001

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

So, I was born in Bogota, Colombia; that’s the capital city of my country. I lived there for, uh, fourteen years and then moved to Cali, which is a city to the west, southwest of, uh, Colombia. I lived there until I got this scholarship for coming here and studying KU. My first contact with English was really at home; I remember I was like eight or nine years old, uh, then we purchased at home these course that came in, eh, audio cassettes and books from the BBC London. It was called English Junior. Well, in Colombia there are more than a hundred Indian tribes, and each one of those,  um, tribes have a different language. We have to say language because it is not a dialect of Spanish, English, or any other language you can know. In our country, there were principally two big Indian groups. One of those were the Taironas that lived, uh in the, uh, Atlantic coast of our country, and the other were the Muiscas that lived in the, uhmm … in the center part of our country. Those were the biggest Indian groups and, uh, most of our heritage comes from them, and, uh, unfortunately they were extinct because of the colonization — the Spanish colonization that was very bad. But most of the small Indian tribes that, uh, were not like in the center of our country or on the coast survived, and they survive until today. For example, uh, in the north coast, where there is the Guajira Desert, there is a tribe that is called the Wajuus. They, uh, live in the desert; they’re amazing people because they only have just a few animals; uh, they have to strive to find water and, uh, all that but they manage to do that and live.  There, there is another tribe, this is in the Pacific coast. You know Colombia has coasts in the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. Um, uh, this tribe lives in the Pacific and is called the Emberas. They live in the most rainy, in the most rainy place in the planet it is. I don’t know, I don’t know how many inches of rain can you get there in a year but it’s one of the most rainy places in the earth. Uh, it’s completely in the jungle; for arriving there you, you just have to travel over the jungle rivers and all that, and these people almost don’t speak Spanish; they have uh … their culture is almost untouched.

[Subject recites the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish]: Padre Nuestro, Que estas en el cielo, santificado sea tu nombre, venga a nosotros tu reino hagase to voluntad asi en la tierra como en el cielo danos hoy nuestro pan de cada dia, perdona nuestras ofensas como tambie nosotros perdonamos y los que nos ofenden, no nos defes caer en tentacion y libranos del mal. Amen.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Aaron Champion (under the supervision of Paul Meier)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 04/2001

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

If you are a dialect researcher, or an actor using this sample to develop your skill in the accent, please see my instruction manual at www.paulmeier.com. As the speaker in this sample is a unique individual, it is highly unlikely that he will conform to my analysis in every detail. But you will find it interesting and instructive to notice which of my “signature sounds” and “additional features” (always suggested only as commonly heard features of the accent) are widely used by most speakers of the accent, and which are subject to variation from individual to individual.

COMMENTARY BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/11/2016

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