Namibia 1

Listen to Namibia 1, a 20-year-old woman from Windhoek, Namibia, who has also spent time in South Africa. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 20

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1985

PLACE OF BIRTH: Windhoek, Namibia

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Black

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: The subject was in her third year of drama studies when interviewed.

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

The subject had been living in Pretoria, South Africa, for three years at the time of this interview.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

This 20-year-old Black female hails from Namibia. Although her mother tongue is Nama, she speaks Afrikaans as if it were her first language. In the interview, she discusses her country of origin and her interest in its different languages. She has been exposed to American English through television.

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

RECORDED BY: Marth Munro

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/2005

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 Namibia, Windhoek, um, about twenty years ago. Well, I’m turning 21 this year, and, um, I came to study here in South Africa, for drama, and – now I‘m in my third year. Um, my languages influences are English, um, spoken American English, basically learning for the TV. Um, I also have influences from the language, native language that speak, which is Nama; it is a Koi San language; it has a lot of clicks and so forth, Bushman Koi San language, and, um, then I speak Afrikaans, which is spoken a lot in Namibia. But ja, it differs from the mother tongue you have. Um, other than that, um, I really learnt or have been speaking English since very young age. I had different teachers giving me English as a subject, so they all had an influence, but, ja, that’s my story.

[/ja/, the Afrikaans word for “yes,” is often used as expressive filler in the English of Afrikaans speakers.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Karina Lemmer

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/01/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Although her mother tongue is Nama, she speaks Afrikaans with the fluency of the first-language user. Although Afrikaans is not her first language, her accent in English displays many of the typical patterns noted in mother-tongue speakers. Also note the preposition use in “I study for drama,” which may reflect syntactical first-language interference.

COMMENTARY BY: Karina Lemmer

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.