Chile Three - Text
The subject is a white Hispanic male (of European descent) born and raised in Valparaiso, a large port city in Chile, moving to Santiago and attending both public school and university there. He pursued his doctoral studies in Chemistry in Berlin, and is trilingual. He has been teaching in the U.S. for fifteen years. The subject uses a dentalized voiced 'th' sound in the initial position, and the hard 'r' of a speaker who is trying to eliminate his rolled 'r'. There is a tendency to equally stress all syllables in multisyllabic words as in " in-ter-est-ing" and a general avoidance of contractions. There is also a fairly consistent pattern of pronouncing the short 'o' sound of 'not' as an 'aw' sound, so you hear "nawt". The subject discusses the port city of Valparaiso, and the contrast between East and West Berlin.
Recorded by Daydrie Hague and edited by Paul Meier. Running time 05:05:15.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
…rather interesting city because it is laid on mountains that reach right into the sea. (Um) The (uh) scenery is absolutely spectacular, particularly when there is a strong (uh) storm, because you have these huge waves hitting directly (uh) on the streets, the coastal streets that will (um) allow you to drive to the nearest beaches (um), which are located about 20 minutes away from-- from Valparaiso, in a place called Vina del Mar. This place in turn is perhaps one of the most (uh) important (uh) touristic, or touristic attractions. (Uh) It (uh) offers a lot of (uh) very interesting beaches, (uh) very nice (uh) calm beaches. (Um) The only disadvantage is (um) the water has a temperature (uh) of about 65 degrees, 60 to 65 degrees an’-- an’ even less, because of the very strong (uh) current, that comes from the South Pole, so trying to refresh yourself in that sea water, has the immediate effect of cooling you down in no time, an’ freezing you, (ah) which (uh) o’viously (uh) is not good for ev’rybody. (Um) Mina (?) is sort of the (uh) party city in the central part of Chile. (Uh) There are lotsa places where you can spend your money very quickly. (Ah) But in general at that time, it used to be a very safe and (uh) healthy way of part’ing without having to-- to deal with (uh) dangerous places, or with dangerous situation. (Um) I-- We moved to Santiago, the capitol of our country, when I was 11 years old, an’ then after school I (uh) spent (uh) five years at the University of Chile doing my undergrad studies, which actually ended up (uh) me getting a masters’ degree in science with mention in chemistry. (Uh) After that (uh) we (uh, um) we started living in Germany (um), as I (uh) started my Ph.D. s-- studies. An’ at that time, West Berlin-- that is, we were living in this place that had a wall surrounding the entire city, which doesn’t exist any more after the unification of Germany. It was (uh) a very unusual experience to live there, because it (uh) was like living in a jail. You couldn’t go away from the city (uh) because in doing that you would be (uh) entering Communist Germany, and (uh) it was certainly not a place where you wanted to (uh) spend a lot of….
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY JACQUELINE BAKER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR TRANSCRIPTIONS, July 24, 2008