Slovakia 2

Listen to Slovakia 2, a 66-year-old man from Veľký Šariš, Slovakia, who has also lived in the United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 66

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/04/1946

PLACE OF BIRTH: Veľký Šariš, Slovakia

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Slovakian (exact ethnicity unknown)

OCCUPATION: retired machine builder

EDUCATION: graduate of high school and a technical school

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

The subject moved to Detroit, Michigan, in the United States, at age 20.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject can also speak and understand Czech. After coming to the United States in 1966, he took evening classes to learn English.  He worked in the auto industry in the Detroit area.  He is currently the director of a Slovak Folk Ensemble, teaching traditional Slovak folk dancing.

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

RECORDED BY: Annette Masson

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/07/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Well, ah, the Slovak folk dancing is very rich.  In eastern Slovakia, probably the best.  We have, ah, every region, have different costumes, with, ah, different music, very fast, dynamic, and it’s spiritual. And it’s, ah, well, it’s not just a polka, but, ah, you got a people from east to west, and you travel, ah, fifty miles or so and you can find out that there is from, for, in the area from fifty miles you have, ah, maybe ten different regions of costumes and different dancing steps and music; so it’s, ah, it’s very, very nice.  [Subject tells his father-in-law’s favorite joke. The joke is interesting because in rural Slovakia, a bicycle is a very good thing to have:]  “Two friends met at the middle of the town.  One had a beautiful new bicycle.  So the friend ask him, ‘Hey Chuck, where did you get that beautiful bicycle?’  And he said, ‘Well, let me tell you.  I met a girl couple of days ago.  She was beautiful.  She had that bicycle and she ask me to go out with her at the river.  So I did.  And we sit down at the big tree and she took all her clothes off, lay down on the blanket and she said, ‘John, you can take anything you want.’  So I took the bicycle.”

TRANSCRIBED BY: Annette Masson

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/07/ 2012

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).

 

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