South Africa Five - Text
An 18 year old Coloured (so-called) speaker from Johannesburg talks about his local community (Fleurhof) and describes his family and home environment. His inflection patterns are typical of Coloured speech, though comparatively fairly subtle. The colouring of "oh" in "token" and "gold" should be noted, as well as the slightly Americanised "r" in words like "parties". The "a" in words such as "family" tends towards an "e". The slightly explosive quality on initial plosives is typical of the accent. Recorded 5.24.2000 by Yvette Hardie, edited by Paul Meier 7.17.2000. Running time 00:03:40.
TRANSCRIPT OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
OK, I live in a family of four. Mother, father, sister and me. I am the youngest. Um…I have a very vibrant family, always energetic, always fighting, always laughing. Yeah, I have a nice family, um…it’s nice. You know, I look at other people and I see they’re divorced and I’m happy to have a family, you know. My mother and father are happy together which makes me happy, you know. So, yeah. OK, I live in Fleurhof. It’s a place in Roodepoort…should I say South Africa. Um…It’s very vibrant. The streets aren’t quiet at all…every day of the week, you know. Um…It’s energetic, it’s full--full of joy, it’s, you know…everybody stands with one another, you know. Somebody else can come and say, “OK” to look for trouble and they’re not from there. Everybody stands up for that one person and says, “OK, what’s your problem?”, you know. Everybody stands up for each other in Fleurhof, so. Yeah, weekends, OK, lots of parties, um. Mainly they will just drink, have a good time and make noise and, y’know? Yeah, not really a drug place--place for drugs, um. Yeah, it’s not really violent, it’s just nice. I do have extended family, um. Bloemfontein, Cape Town, uh Temertsberg (spelling?). Yeah, they--they come down often. We don’t go there because they like it here. (unclear) I always want to go down to Cape Town because I get a little bit, you know? I get sick of this place sometimes. And I just want to go down to Cape Town and, but yeah, they like it here. Um…A lot of holy fa--, I have a holy family, so, yeah. Well, most of my uncles are pastors and oof, yeah, “pulpit,” you know? Uh. . .You have to go by the rules. You can’t get out of hand, you know? It’s not like they beat you up or anything, but, yeah, they make you feel guilty. So, yeah. OK, my mom works at Times Media in Rosebank, you know, for Sunday Times. Um, she’s financial bookkeeper for the section, for--for Sunday Times and Times Media, and she’s very hard-working. She works till very late at night. Um, I sometimes get very angry with her boss because, you know, I want my mother to be home and Rosebank is far from--from Fleurhof, you know. It’s dangerous. My father, on the other hand, he has his own business. Um, he is doing s—car spares at the moment, VW car spares.. And, um, he also likes it because sometimes it is a little bit rough, you know. Police come by and think that it’s stolen goods and they raid. And it’s exciting but it’s not that dangerous because we know we didn’t steal anything, so. Yeah, he likes his job. Um…well…I…want to be a well-known producer and scriptwriter, and also one of my biggest dreams is to become a chef.
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY LYNN BAKER, 18 FEBRUARY, 2008