Germany 9

Listen to Germany 9, a 28-year-old woman with German influences. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 28

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1978

PLACE OF BIRTH: Barcelona or Catalunya (both places are listed)

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: Ph.D. student

EDUCATION: The subject was working on her doctorate at the time of this interview.

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

She was raised in Barcelona, Spain, and was enrolled in a German school, where she was taught English by German natives. She then lived in Brussels, Belgium; and Boston, United States, for a year each; then in Oxford, England.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She has three native languages: Catalan, Spanish, and German. Geographically, this sample should be categorized as Spanish; however, her German education makes her a better fit for Germany.

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

RECORDED BY: Subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 07/11/2006

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

So, my accent is supposed to be funny, as a result of being both Spanish and German; um, I was born in Spain, as a matter of fact I was born in Catalonia, which is a different region from Spain. We like to think it’s a different country sometimes. Um, my father is German, my mother is Catalan; I went to a German school, hmm, until I was 18, to a German school in Spain. So that means I would receive education in almost every subject in German, except Spanish literature, of course. There I started my English classes, at the age of 10. Of course, the translations would always be German, so that explains largely my German accent when I speak English. Um, at home we speak all three languages, meaning Catalan, Spanish and German. Ever since I left university, um, which was when I was about 23, I studied in English-speaking countries. So I spent a year in the United States, more concretely, near Boston, and, uh, thereupon, I moved to England where I am now, in Oxford, um, and it is my fourth year here. It’s funny that, um, all the international people I’ve met so far, very very few of them have been able to place me as either Spanish or German. The most frequent thing I’ve heard about my accent is that it sounds like an Eastern European, um, person who’s trying to speak English; of course, uh, some people would deny that mmm, and uh, two or three people have placed me rather in the United States as in she as a, a United States accent rather than a British accent, which I wouldn’t mind because I don’t really like the British accent. Um, oh well, so I guess, um, so much, for myself, and uh, the funny-sounding of my accent. Um, I apologize that I don’t have English as a second language; it’s actually my fourth language. But, nevertheless, um, it’s be great if you could make some use of this recording, and if not, well, it’s very easy to hit the delete button. OK, bye.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Faith Harvey

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/03/2008

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:

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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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