France 17

Listen to France 17, a 29-year-old man from Grenoble and elsewhere in southeast France, and also the United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 29

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/12/1991

PLACE OF BIRTH: Grenoble, France

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: French/Caucasian

OCCUPATION: waiter and bartender

EDUCATION: high school

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

The subject was born and grew up in France, with most of his time being spent in the southeast part of the country, mainly Grenoble, Doucy, La Léchère, and Nice. However, he also spent a lot of his adolescence and adulthood in the United States, specifically in New York City, Hawaii, and Charlottesville, Virginia.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The significant amount of time spent in the United States is likely a reason for his almost total lack of a stereotypical French accent. In addition, the subject says he speaks English more frequently than he does French.

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

RECORDED BY: Adelind Horan

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/02/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

All right, so, I was born in Grenoble, uh, and [clears throat], and I, um, lived in Doucy, uh, not too far from Grenoble, uh, near the Alps for like five years, um, and it was a v- little village. Uh, I don’t remember too much from it, except that it was very snowy. Um, we lived across from a church, um, and we had some cats! Yeah [laughs]. Uh, and then, uh, we moved t-to Grenoble, where I was born, uh, and lived in a big apartment. Um, and, uh, I went to this elementary school that was like, just like a couple blocks from the apartment, so I used to walk there myself as like a first-grader. And it was very nice, from what I remember, like very pretty. Um, old architecture, but with like a modern kind of train moving around the city. There was like a nice candy store we would go to on the way to school.

Um, what else? Oh, yeah, there was like a nice little like garden right in front of our apartment that had like these chestnut trees everywhere? Like the spiky kind? You know that fa- like you know that they’ll like fall off and be everywhere? Uh, and then I moved to Nice, where — it was all the way down south, um, and there it was a lot sunnier. Um, we went to the beach a lot. Friends with a bunch of kids. Um, we would hang out at the Virgin store. And play Xbox there. Um, and we’d go to a public library and play on the computers a lot [laughs], and watch VHS movies and, uh, yeah, eat a lot of fresh baguettes and stuff like that [laughs].

[The subject reads a passage from Couche-la Dans le Muguet by James Hadley Chase, in French]: C’était une de ces matinées torrides de juillet qui ne manquent pas de charme si on les passe en slip, sur la plage, avec une jolie blonde, mais qui sont crevantes quand on est bouclé dans un bureau, ce qui était mon cas. Le bruit des voitures sur Orchid Boulevard, le ronronnement d’un avion au-dessus de la plage, et le murmure étouffé des vagues pénétraient par la fenêtre ouverte.

[English translation: It was one of those scorching July mornings that don’t lack charm if you spend them in underwear, on the beach, with a pretty blonde, but which are exhausting when you’re curled up in an office, which I was. The sound of cars on Orchid Boulevard, the roar of an airplane over the beach, and the muffled murmur of waves came through the open window.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Adelind Horan

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/02/2021

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).

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.