Ontario Eight - Text
The subject is a 29-year-old Canadian female of South Asian parentage. She was born in England and raised in Toronto. She now lives in North London and works as a Policy Officer for a leading UK women’s rights organisation. She acknowledges the influence of both Canada and England on her accent.
Running time: 03:54
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
K, so I was born in the UK. And I grew up in Canada, um, but my parents lived in the UK for about a decade. Um, and I lived here for four years before we emigrated to the- Canada. So I think, er and they emigrated themselves, from South Asia, before…moving to the UK. Um, they both had education in English, but their education was from the British, leftover British colonial…systems. So I think they were probably, like, I know my mum, um, hers, her er teachers were English nuns. So she probably learned how to speak English from people who had English accents. Then they lived in the UK for a decade. And um, certainly words, vocabulary was English-tinged so using sofa instead of couch. When we moved to Canada I could already speak English, and I spoke with an English accent. Er and I called things by their English names rather than their, er, North American versions, for instance sofa-couch or lift-elevator. Um, I lost the accent pretty quickly, because you got teased a lot at school, and, only ever had a Canadian accent as far as anyone was concerned. Um, I don’t think I retained, I wouldn’t say I retained any of the English accent. Um, I don’t hear an English accent from my parents when they speak, er because they’ve now been in Canada for over two decades. Um, and I think, uh when I moved here, people could definitely tell that I wasn’t English. I think even now most people can tell I’m not English but when I go home they think I have an English accent. But I- I can’t tell I don’t think I sound that English at all, I think I sound still Canadian but…it must be some intonations or very slight, y’know twanging is slightly different or something like that where they can kind of hear, an English accent they claim. But I don’t know. I still sound mostly the same I think my words are just different now that I’m not, in my accent.
- Raised FACE vowel
- Open DRESS vowel
- Open TRAP vowel relative to GenAm
- Glottalisation at word boundaries eg ‘strut around’ , ‘that area’, ‘foot and mouth’
- Fairly pure C5 LOT vowel ‘Comma was strong and huge’, though this varies
- Frequent glottal reinforcement on ‘practice’ checked herself’, ‘vet’, ‘gently stroking’, ‘Once Sarah…’ (on epenthetic /t/), ‘got teased a lot in school’, ‘I think’ (unscripted segment)
- Intermittent raising and fronting of STRUT : ‘grew up in Canada’, ‘strut around’
- Says ‘Mum’ rather than ‘Mom’
Interviewed by Marina Tyndall October 6th 2007
Transcribed July 25th 2008