India 9

Listen to India 9, a 29-year-old man from Mumbai, India. 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): 1979

PLACE OF BIRTH: Nasik, India (but raised in Mumbai)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: N/A

OCCUPATION: computer programmer/analyst and drama student

EDUCATION: bachelor’s degree in math and some post-graduate work in computers

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

Subject was raised in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). At the time of this recording, he had lived in the United States for four years (Ohio; Oregon; Atlanta, Georgia; and New Jersey).

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

His first languages are Marathi and Hindi. He began acquiring English (Indian English) at about age 5, in school.

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

RECORDED BY: Amy Stoller

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/06/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Actually, I was born in Nasik, India … but since nobody knows about Nasik, I always tell them that Mumbai, but actually it is Nasik. I’m raised in Mumbai. There are lot of things I miss about India and I want to go back to India. I’m not [sic] going to because, you know … doesn’t matter how unorganized my country is, doesn’t matter how messy it is, I love every moment when I live in my country. Because I feel like this is my country. It’s it’s my country. I don’t feel like that in United States. So, yes, I do miss a lot.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Amy Stoller

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/06/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Lack of aspiration in word-initial and syllable-initial unvoiced stop-plosives [p, t, k].  Palm is pronounced [pɑːm]rather than [pʰɑːm]; lunatic is pronounced [lunətɪk] rather than [lunətʰɪk].  Listeners unaccustomed to lack of aspiration in these sounds will receive the impression that the speaker is substituting the voiced stop-plosives [b, d, g].

Occasional inconsistency in use of interdental fricatives [θ] as in think and [ð] as in that.  On a few words speaker substitutes corresponding unvoiced and voiced dentalized stop-plosives [t̪, d̪].  Alveolar plosives [t,d] also tend to be dentalized  [t̪, d̪]. The letter θ between vowels may be realized as a tap [ɾ].

Occasional substitution of approximant [ʋ] for [w]; e.g. well is pronounced [ʋɛl].

Open A sound in the bath lexical set (aka the “ask list”) e·g,· can’t is [kɑːnt], not [kænt].

Liquid u following [d, t, n] e.g. duke [djuk], tune [tjun], new is pronounced [nɪu](U-fronted rather than truly liquid).

Rhoticity is variable. Words such as working [vɜkɪŋ], first [fɐst] lack the ʋowel R, but matter is pronounced with a slight tap at the end [mæt̪ɜɾ]·

Consonant R is frequently realized as a tap [ɾ], especially between vowels: e.g., story [stɔɾi], or a [ɔɾʋ].

Underlying rhythm of speech is influenced by Indian English, which is syllable-timed unlike British and American English, which are stress-timed.· This is especially noticeable on the word matter, which speaker pronounces
[mæt̪ɜɾ], unlike BrE ['mætʰə] and AmE ['mæt̬ɚ]

There is no evidence of retroflex realizations of sounds that are alveolar in BrE and AmE·

Speaker is clearly less comfortable reading aloud than speaking extemporaneously.  In “Comma Gets a Cure,” he produces several eccentric pronunciations, especially of vowels and words beginning with the letter H, which are not evident in his unscripted speech.

COMMENTARY BY: Amy Stoller; unicode trans. Dylan Paul

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 21/06/2008

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.