Sierra Leone 1

Listen to Sierra Leone 1, a 31-year-old man from Freetown, Sierra Leone. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 31

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1979

PLACE OF BIRTH: Freetown, Sierra Leone

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: African/Black

OCCUPATION: financial consultant (mergers and acquisitions)

EDUCATION: master’s degree

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

Subject moved to the United States when he was 18 and has lived there since, residing in Indiana; Washington, D.C.; and San Francisco, where he was recorded for IDEA.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

His education and residence in the United States have affected his accent, making it softer and slower than most residents of Sierra Leone.

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

RECORDED BY: N/A

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 09/07/2010

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, I’m originally I was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Freetown is the capital city of Sierra Leone. Um, I was born there in November of 1979 and I came to the United States in ’97 to go to college in Indiana and, uh, finished up that and then moved to Washington D.C., where I went to graduate school, and then finally moved to the great city of San Francisco, where I work now for a technology company here in the Bay Area. It’s, uh, a very nice place, a little cold, but it’s, uh, but it’s a great place to be.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Lisa Wentz

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/07/2010

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The softened accent is revealed through a slower speech pattern (Sierra Leoneans speak much faster than Americans) and an effort to pronounce “h” at the beginning of words. You will notice when listening that he pronounces his h’s at the beginning of the reading until his native accent becomes more pronounced about halfway through “Comma Gets a Cure,” when he drops them completely. Overall, this is a very good example of a Sierra Leone accent.

COMMENTARY BY: Lisa Wentz

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/07/2010

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.