Turkmenistan One - Text
The subject is a twenty-one year old student from Turkmenistan. She has 2 sisters and two brothers, and is the oldest of the five children. Maya came to Kansas in the fall of 2001 to study piano at the University of Kansas. Her next youngest sister is also in the states studying at Independence Community College in Independence, Kansas. She has been in school since the age of five and began attending a music school when she was in third grade. She is fluent in English, Turkmen, and Russian. Her family also lived in Moscow for a year. A good deal of her speech has a strong Russian influence. For example, the dark [l]s are the most noticeable thing. She also uses very bright 'a' sounds in words such as "Mom". The ends of words, especially those ending in plosive consonants are relaxed. Interviewed by Julia Hardin and edited by Paul Meier 12.03.02. Running time 00:05:27.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
I was born in, um, capital of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, um, in 1981, um, May 14th. Actually my birthday is two days because I was born right between 13th and 14th. I was born right on midnight, so. I guess that’s, uh, mmm, just, uh, I don’t know. It’s good for me because I can, uh, celebrate my birthday two days and get more presents. So, um. Yes, my mom is, um, doctor, she’s a gynecologist. And my dad is a-a composer. Um, he writes music for uh-uh symphony orchestras and, uh, I’m trying to make him write something for me, uh, since I’m playing piano. So he’s started working on a piano concerto right now for me. The official language and native language is Turkmen in Turkmenistan. And, uh, Turkmen is in group of Turkic languages. It’s not Farsi or Arabi-Arabic language as some people think, mmm, since it’s in Asia. It’s, uh, in group of Turkic languages and it’s m- it’s more similar to Turkish, Azerbaijan, Uzbek languages. And, uh, since Turkmenistan was part of U.S.S.R. for seventy-five years, uh, most people speak Russian also. So, ummm, a lot of, ummm…I can say that everybody understands Russian in Turkmenistan. Yeah, I started learning Russian when I was five when I went to kindergarten. Um, and…ummm, I can’t say that most people understand English but a lot of people do understand English in Turkmenistan since it’s a kinda, mmm, required language at school to take and so. .Salam! (Hello!) Meniñ adym Maýa. (My name is Maya). Men 21 (ýigrimi bir) ýasymda. (I am 21). Men Türkmenistandan geldim. (I came from Turkmenistan). Türkmenistan Orta Asiada ýerlesýär. (Turkmenistan is located in Central Asia.
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY LYNN BAKER, 11 MARCH, 2008