England 80

Listen to England 80, a 22-year-old woman from South Oxhey and Leavesden, Hertfordshire, England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 22

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1986

PLACE OF BIRTH: Jamaica (but raised in Hertfordshire)

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: black

OCCUPATION: N/A

EDUCATION: university

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

The subject was born in Jamaica but moved to South Oxhey, Hertfordshire, at age 6 and moved to Leavesden, Hertfordshire, at age 16. At the time of this interview, she was still living in Leavesden, which is on the outskirts of Watford, Hertfordshire, 21 miles northwest of London. She attended university in London.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Marina Tyndall

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/01/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Hi, erm, I was born in Jamaica, and I came to England when I was 6 years old. I lived, eh, at 6, I lived in South Oxhey, for about 10 years, and I moved to Abbots Langley when I was 16, and I lived there for a couple of months, and then I moved to Leavesden, where I live now. I’ve been living there for about five years, five coming on six years now, erm. Leavesden is just outside of Watford; erm, a lot of my friends are from in inner Watford, like Garston and things like that. And I went to university in London, and some of my friends are from London; they speak completely different, like their accents and their slangs. And I think that’s is about it [laughter].

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

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).

 

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