England 88

Listen to England 88, a 45-year-old woman from Eastbourne, East Sussex, in southeast England. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 45

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/12/1966

PLACE OF BIRTH: Eastbourne, East Sussex, England

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: actuary

EDUCATION: university degree

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

The subject does not mention living outside her representative region; at the time of this recording, she was living in Horsham, West Sussex.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject vacationed in Spain often.

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

RECORDED BY: Barrie Kreinik

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/06/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born in Eastbourne; er, I grew up in Eastbourne; er, I went to school in Eastbourne. [laughs] Erm, Eastbourne’s on the south coast of England, and it’s sheltered by Beachy Head, right by the sea front. We went — we would go for days out there, and I can remember going to certain parts. I have vivid memories of certain parts of it, but we didn’t used to walk along the sea front that much. More so now, when I go to visit back there, than I would have done when we were living there. And I think it’s the same thing, when, um, when you — when there’s something on your doorstep, you don’t use it as much as if you go to visit somewhere. But we would do — when we were teenagers — we’d go to the sea front, and spend time with, um, friends and stuff, by the pier, hang out there, as do you do. Erm, but when we were along the sea front having walks and stuff and you —  we used to travel up to see Uncle David in Sheffield, or Doncaster, wherever they were. But when we, went on holiday, we used to go into Spain. So we used to drive — take the ferry — from either Dover or Newhaven, and just drive twelve-hundred miles down to the south of Spain, taking an awfully long time back then, very expensive now, but it used to take an awfully long time. Erm, so that’s where we used to holiday, twice a year. Two or three weeks at Easter, erm, between, two and six weeks in the summer depending on the year. So, that’s where we used to travel, not, not so much in this country.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Barrie Kreinik

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/06/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Some characteristics include non-rhoticity; glottalized unvoiced endings (“back,” “right,” “out,” etc.); broad “ow” (“now”); occasional dropping of “g” of “-ing” endings (“living,” “going,” etc.); a generally rapid rhythm; and upward inflection at ends of phrases.

COMMENTARY BY: Barrie Kreinik

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/06/2012

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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