Colombia 13

Listen to Colombia 13, a 54-year-old woman originally from Bogota, Colombia, who has spent the majority of her life in Washington, D.C., United States. 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): 24/03/1971

PLACE OF BIRTH: Bogota, Colombia

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Colombian/Hispanic

OCCUPATION: physical therapist

EDUCATION: four-year college degree

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

At the time of this recording, the subject had been living in the United States for more than 31 years. She moved from Colombia in 1994, at the age of 23, and lived there for six months. She then lived in Miami for a year before moving to Washington, D.C., where she has lived for 30 years. In this regard, she is a good example of a Colombian-American with a light accent.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She had an upper-middle-class upbringing in Colombia and is an experienced choral singer.

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

RECORDED BY: Nicholas Torres

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 06/10/2025

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, so, as you know, I grew up in Bogota. Um, I had my mom, my dad, and my sister. That was our nuclear family, and we lived in Bogota near a lot of extended family. So we used to spend a lot of time, uh, gathering with the family, like every two weeks. There was a lunch where all my family attended, so it was usually like, I don’t know, fifteen, twenty people for lunch, you know, between cousins and aunts and all that. Um, so that is something that we did a lot; I grew up with a lot of family around.

Um, my mother was a sickly person, but still she was the matriarch of the family, and because she was always so ill, we kind of, uh, yield to whatever she could do. And one thing that she could do very well was cooking a dish. It was a lasagna dish that, uh, she cooked frequently. And that was like a family thing as well because it was like an assembly line to who put the pasta first and the sauce next and the cheese next, and, you know, it was like a family effort, which kind of — it was, it was really nice. It’s one of my favorite memories from childhood, to remember, you know, those gatherings on the weekends. Uh, we would be cooking, my dad and my sister would be playing basketball; then they would come back and get ready for lunch. My dad would sit with his aperitif, which was a, was some beer; and he would read while lunch was ready, and the cousins would arrive, so it was just um, you know, a lot of that. Then maybe in the evening we would play cards, and, um, yeah, that’s, that was, um, that was our Sundays, every other, uh, weekend.

[Subject speaks Spanish]: Esta mañana me levanté temprano. Um, hice mi meditación. Luego dormí un poco más y me levanté. Uh, tomé mi desayuno, me bañé y después de eso, me puse a leer, y esa fue mi mañana. Uh, y ya es la una de la tarde, así que la mañana ya se ha ido.

[English translation: This morning I woke up early. Um, I did my meditation. Then I slept a little longer and got up. Uh, I had my breakfast, took a shower, and after that, I started reading, and that was my morning. Uh, and it’s already one in the afternoon, so the morning is gone.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Nicholas Torres

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 06/10/2025

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The subject actively worked on mastering a “neutral” English accent in order to interface better with patients who seemed to respond better to less heavily accented English. She used a lot of newscasts as samples of “standard” American speech.

COMMENTARY BY: Nicholas Torres

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 06/10/2025

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.