Greece (Hellas) One - Text
Subject is a male graduate student, in his early thirties. He was born in Pyrgos, university educated in Greece, Edinburgh, Birmingham (UK), and was recorded by Paul Meier in Lawrence, Kansas on December 5, 2000 and edited by him that same day. The subject, who started learning English at age seven, speaks very fluently though with a slight trace of an English accent. It is a light cultured sound though with a few of the expected signature sounds of Greece. His 'h' is frequently a velar fricative, for example. He speaks one line of Greek in closing. Running time 00:04:42.
Transcription of Unscripted Speech
Uh...so, I was born in Greece, um...I am the uh, the youngest uh...of fo--three uh, in the family of three children and uh, I um, was born in a town called Pyrgos, which is in the Pelopónnisos, close to Olympia and uh...and then at the age of uh...18 I went to the University in Thessaloniki, the second-biggest city in Greece uh, where I did my first degree. After that uh...I went uh..to um...Scotland uh, where I did my master's degree at the University of Edinburgh. And, uh, then I returned uh, to Greece. I did my military service, then I left Greece again, and uh, I went to the University of Birmingham, starting my uh...(?) which I upgraded to a Ph.D and uh, I'm here in Kansas on an exchange program um, from that University. In Greece, it is compulsory for students to uh, pick uh...two foreign languages um...one of them is uh, English so uh that's how I had to learn uh..English, if this--this answers the question. Uh, and I uh...started learning English at the age of uh...7 or 8 I can't remember. Uh...but let me uh...finish with something very short, one line um...
[Speaking Greek]
Which is uh...a line stolen from uh..a very famous American novel.
Unscripted Speech Transcribed by Faith Harvey 18 March 2008