England 82

Listen to England 82, a 32-year-old woman from Tooting and Croydon, London, who has lived in many other places around south England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

Both as a courtesy and to comply with copyright law, please remember to credit IDEA for direct or indirect use of samples.  IDEA is a free resource;  please consider supporting us.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 32

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 07/03/1976

PLACE OF BIRTH: Kidderminster, Worcestershire (but raised in London)

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: jeweler

EDUCATION: master’s degree

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

After a year, the subject moved to south London. In her 20s, she lived in other places in the south of England for relatively short periods of time.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Helen Ashton

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/01/2009

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, I was actually born, erm, in the Midlands, erm, sort of Kidderminster, erm, but I was only there for like maybe the first year of my life. Then we moved down south because my parents thought we’d, there’d be better schools and we’d have a better education if we came down here, and my dad had the chance to come and work down here with the council, so, so he did! Erm, and then erm, yeah, then we settled in sort of, kind of Croydon area, and I went to school broadly round there. Well my first couple of schools were more sort of Mitchum, Tooting way, and then we moved to a bi- sort of bigger house, sort of Croydon way when I was a bit older. Erm, and then after school, college and that I went to Birmingham. And then lived in Birmingham, and then Brighton and Oxford, but then about six years ago my partner and I came back to London. And we’ve settled here; we’re very happy here, and I’ve been working here in this studio in Deptford for about the last six years, and, yeah, now we live locally, up the road in New Cross we’re very settled. …My friend said to me, we were on the, erm, we were on the coach. And, er, can’t remember where we were going now. Oh, we were going to Stansted airport or something and it went out the dreaded Tottenham, and Stoke Newing, errr, Stoke Newington on the way out of the top of London. And, er, it was vile. And, er, we said to one another, If someone said you can have a million-pound house, you know this person’s died, you can have a million-pound house, here (we were on a horrible stretch of road in Tottenham or something), here. But the thing is, you can’t sell it. It’s a beautiful house; it’s worth a million pounds, but this is where it is and you can’t ever sell it, and you’ve gotta live in it. And we both just went: No, wouldn’t do it! Just like couldn’t be done. Just be too miserable. Couldn’t do it. No, South London is better. People are, people are warmer, and it’s greener, quieter; it’s just better, and this area here’s full or artists and musicians, and it’s a lovely area …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Helen Ashton

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/01/2009

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Some things to look for: labial replacement used in place of dark l /ɫ/; glottal replacement of /t/s, fairly consistently in word-final positions, and in some other positions intervocalically, although not all of the time; and labiodental /ɹ/. Although often heard in London, I would treat this third feature more a particularity of this speaker, and not a general accent feature. Also note the intrusive /ɹ/ in “Croydon area and” /kɹɔɪdən eɹɪəɹən/; plus, the elision of /tɹ/ and /dɹ/ produces affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/. In addition, there is very occasional f/v substitution for TH, but not all of the time. Regarding vowels, note the /ə/. (The schwa is more open, closer to /ʌ/ of STRUT, as in “people are warmer, it’s greener, quieter.”) GOOSE is centralized and unrounded. STRUT is fronted and more open. GOAT has an initial position closer to STRUT and has no lip rounding in its final position. CURE diphthong is replaced by monophthong /ɔː/. The FACE start point is more centralized and open. And, lastly, the PRICE start point is retracted and raised.

COMMENTARY BY: Helen Ashton

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/01/2009

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.