England 116

Listen to England 116, a 19-year-old man from West Dulwich, London, England, who has also lived in the United Arab Emirates. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 19

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/08/2003

PLACE OF BIRTH: West Dulwich, London

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: White British

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: sixth form

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

The speaker lived in West Dulwich from his birth until he was 8, before moving to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He lived in Abu Dhabi until he was 16, when he moved to Epsom in Surrey. At the time of this recording, he was residing in Lancaster, Lancashire, for university.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject went to international schools in Abu Dhabi, with a significant portion of British teachers and students, but also alongside teachers and students from a variety of places across the globe, such as the United States, Egypt, the UAE, Italy, South Korea, and more, which may have diluted his accent to some extent. He went back to London at least once a year on holiday, often twice.

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

RECORDED BY: subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/11/2022

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Erm, so about me: Er, I am, well, I’m 19 years old. I was born in West Dulwich in South London. Erm, and I moved to the Middle East, in Abu Dhabi, er, when I was 8 years old, and I lived there until I was 16; er, went to various international schools there, er, before going back to the UK, er, moving to Epsom in Surrey; and, erm, now I’m currently at university in Lancaster in the northwest. Erm, yeah I’m currently studying management, politics, and international relations, which is, it’s interesting; I’m enjoying that. Uh, it’s nice to be in a, in a quieter city than, er, in Abu Dhabi or London. It’s a nice change of scene I think.

TRANSCRIBED BY: subject

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/11/2022

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: 

The subject is atypical for IDEA because he spent many of his formative years outside his representative region. However, the time in the Middle East seems to have had little effect on his English dialect, which is on the borderline between Received Pronunciation (RP) and Estuary, the most common dialect of modern, southern England. The fact that he went to an international school with many British teachers and students likely contributed to his retaining his English accent, in addition to his frequent visits back to London. Notice his labialized /r/.

COMMENTARY BY: Cameron Meier and Paul Meier

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 05/12/2022

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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