Ukraine 6

Listen to Ukraine 6, a 56-year-old man from Odessa, Ukraine, 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: 56

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/01/1946

PLACE OF BIRTH: Odessa, Ukraine

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Russian/Ukrainian/white

OCCUPATION: electronics

EDUCATION: N/A

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

Subject immigrated to the United States more than 20 years ago.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Like most Odessans of that time, subject spoke only Russian. He emigrated to the United States in his early thirties knowing no English. Starting so late to acquire a second language, he had immense difficulty but succeeded in the electronics field.

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

RECORDED BY: David Kobzantsev (under the supervision of Paul Meier)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/2002

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 Odessa, Ukrainia [see note on the scholarly analysis], USSR, in right after second war in January thirtieth of 1946. Like all kids back in Russia, or back in USSR, we went to school in first grade, and from second grade, we additionally took Russian language, what is main language in the country in any republic. We started learn Ukrainian language what is second language, but national language for this republic where I live, and the difference in Odessa, Ukrainia, even this is part of Ukrainia, 99.9 percent of population of Odessa never speaks Ukrainian language in my time. Right now, that the main language in Ukraine country and everybody suppose to that’s number one language. But back in my time, main language is Russian language.

TRANSCRIBED BY: David Kobzantsev (under the supervision of Paul Meier)

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

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Subject’s English is still heavily accented with occasional lapses in grammar and syntax, although he is completely fluent, with a large vocabulary. Note the velarized “L,” the plosive “th,” and the devoicing of final voiced consonants. He is married to Russia 6. Note that the correct pronunciation and spelling is Ukraine, but the subject has learned to pronounce this as Ukrainia, adding a phonetic j with a schwa to the ending of the word.

If you are a dialect researcher, or an actor using this sample to develop your skill in the accent, please see Paul Meier’s instruction manual at www.paulmeier.com. As the speaker in this sample is a unique individual, it is highly unlikely that he will conform to my analysis in every detail. But you will find it interesting and instructive to notice which of the “signature sounds” and “additional features” (always suggested only as commonly heard features of the accent) are widely used by most speakers of the accent, and which are subject to variation from individual to individual.

COMMENTARY BY: David Kobzantsev (under the supervision of Paul Meier)

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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