INNOVA Research Journal 2017, Vol 2, No. 8, pp. 79-85
The purpose of the study is to understand better the phonology of a region/socioeconomic
variety of English based on two recording from the International Dialects of English Archieve
website (IDEA). As Hansen, Yapanel, Huang, & Ikeno (2004) state, “Every individual develops
a characteristic speaking style at an early age that depends heavily on his language environment
(i.e., the native language spoken), as well as the region where the language is spoken” (p.1). In
this study, we want to answer the following questions: 1) How is the speaker’s pronunciation of
English sounds different from the English we know (American English)? 2) How does their
intonation differ from the intonation patterns with which we are familiar? And 3) how does the
person’s profile (age, education, gender, experience with English, and socioeconomic
background) influence in their English pronunciation? To answer these questions we transcribed
the recording in a written and a phonetic form using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
and then we did a comparative analysis.
Background
The recordings we are focusing are under the category England 18. According to the
information provided on the website (IDEA), the recordings were made by Lise Olson, 31 years
old. The recording #1 (Comma gets a cure), probably was made at speaker’s usual settings of
work – the theater. However, we are not sure where the recording #2 (Liverpool) was made. We
think the recording #2 must have been done in a closed space but not in a studio. The recording
#
1 is scripted speech and recording #2 is unscripted speech and therefore is improvised by the
speaker. We know that Lise was born in United Kingdom, Liverpool.
The transcription #1. Comma gets a cure.
Written transcription
[
[
[
...] Pause longer than 3 seconds
.] Pause shorter than 3 seconds
! ] filler sound
xxx: unintelligible
Well, here’s a story for you. Sarah was a nurse who had been working in a xxx territory.
She was very happy to start a new job. On her first morning, she washed her face, put on a plain
white dress and a fleece jacket, picked up her kit and headed for work. When she got there, there
was a woman with a goose waiting for her. The letter implied that the animal could be suffering
from a rare form of foot and mouth disease, which was surprising because normally you would
only expect to see it in a goose. Sarah was sentimental, so this made her feel sorry for the bird.
The goose began to strut around the office like a lunatic, which made an unsanitary mess. The
goose's owner, Merry Harrison, kept calling Comma, Comma which Sarah thought was an odd
choice for a name. Comma was strong and huge, so it would take some force to trap her, but
Sarah managed by gently stroking the goose's lower back with her palm and singing to her. Her
efforts were not futile. Very soon, Comma began to tire, and Sarah gave her a relaxing bath.
Washed her and laid her on a cloth of diagnosis. Almost immediately, Sarah remembered an
effective treatment that required her to measure out a lot of medicine. The treatment was very
expensive, but Mrs. Harrison a millionaire lawyer thought it was a fair price for a cure.
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