Sydney Speaks: Variation and Change in Australian English

A compilation of three sub-corpora of Australian English, made up of sociolinguistic interviews and oral histories. Recordings are from a total of 260 speakers, born from the 1890s to the 1990s, recorded in the 1970s~1980s and 2010s~2020s. The sub-corpora include the Bicentennial Oral History Project (with speakers born around 1900, and recorded in 1988); the Sydney Social Dialect Survey (with speakers born in the 1930s and 1960s, and recorded in 1977-1981; cf. Horvath 1985); and Sydney Speaks 2010s (with speakers born in the 1960s and 1990s, and recorded from 2014 to the present). All participants are native speakers of Australian English, and come from diverse ethnic backgrounds, currently Anglo-Celtic, Chinese, Greek and Italian (and this is under expansion). The sample is further stratified according to sex and social class. Approximately 5,000 words per speaker have been transcribed, for a total of some 1.5 million words. Orthographic transcriptions (including prosodic information) are time aligned at the level of the utterance, and have been force aligned to the level of the segment, making the data ideal for linguistic analysis at a range of levels. The socio-historical information in the recordings provides both information about the times the participants have lived through, and allows for social contextualisation of the linguistic patterns observed.
Type
collection
Title
Sydney Speaks: Variation and Change in Australian English
Brief Title
Sydney Speaks
Collection Type
Collection
Access Privileges
School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
10.25911/m03c-yz22
Metadata Language
English
Data Language
English
Significance Statement
The Sydney Speaks collection is the largest transcribed collection of historical and contemporary spoken Australian English capturing the spontaneous speech of Australians of diverse socio-economic class and ethnic backgrounds. The collection comprises approximately 1.5 million words of speech from 260 Australians residing in Sydney, whose birthdates span over 100 years (from 1890 to 2000). From a linguistic perspective, the time-aligned transcriptions make the data ideal for linguistic analysis at a range of levels. From a socio-historical perspective, the oral histories and sociolinguistic interviews that make up the collection provide invaluable insights into life in Australia from the early 1900s to the present day.
Full Description
A compilation of three sub-corpora of Australian English, made up of sociolinguistic interviews and oral histories. Recordings are from a total of 260 speakers, born from the 1890s to the 1990s, recorded in the 1970s~1980s and 2010s~2020s. The sub-corpora include the Bicentennial Oral History Project (with speakers born around 1900, and recorded in 1988); the Sydney Social Dialect Survey (with speakers born in the 1930s and 1960s, and recorded in 1977-1981; cf. Horvath 1985); and Sydney Speaks 2010s (with speakers born in the 1960s and 1990s, and recorded from 2014 to the present). All participants are native speakers of Australian English, and come from diverse ethnic backgrounds, currently Anglo-Celtic, Chinese, Greek and Italian (and this is under expansion). The sample is further stratified according to sex and social class. Approximately 5,000 words per speaker have been transcribed, for a total of some 1.5 million words. Orthographic transcriptions (including prosodic information) are time aligned at the level of the utterance, and have been force aligned to the level of the segment, making the data ideal for linguistic analysis at a range of levels. The socio-historical information in the recordings provides both information about the times the participants have lived through, and allows for social contextualisation of the linguistic patterns observed.
Contact Email
catherine.travis@anu.edu.au
Contact Address
Room W3.17, Baldessin Precinct Building (110) The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601 Australia
Contact Phone Number
02 6125 0634
Principal Investigator
Catherine Travis
Collaborators
James Grama; Simon Gonzalez; Benjamin Purser; Cale Johnstone
Fields of Research
4704 - Linguistics
Socio-Economic Objective
130202 - Languages and linguistics
Keywords
Linguistics; Language variation and change; Ethnicity; Socio-economic class; Sociolinguistics; Sociophonetics; Australian English; Australian history; Australian migration
Type of Research Activity
Pure basic research
Date Coverage
2020s
1900s
Time Period
Five age groups, recorded over three time periods: speakers born in the 1900s (recorded 1988); speakers born 1930s and 1960s (recorded 1977-1981); speakers born 1960s and 1990s (recorded 2014-2023)
Geospatial Location
Sydney, Australia
text
Date of data creation
2014
Year of data publication
2023
Creator(s) for Citation
Travis
Catherine Elizabeth
Publisher for Citation
The Australian National University Data Commons
Publications
10.1080/07268602.2020.1823818
Grama, James, Catherine E. Travis and Simon Gonzalez. 2020. Ethnolectal and community change ov(er) time: Word-final (er) in Australian English. Australian Journal of Linguistics 40(3): 346-368. https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2020.1823818
Ethnolectal and community change ov(er) time: Word-final (er) in Australian English
doi
https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027259820-silv.25.13gra
Grama, James, Catherine E. Travis and Simon Gonzalez. 2021. Ethnic variation in real time: Change in Australian English diphthongs. In Hans Van de Velde, Nanna Haug Hilton and Remco Knooihuizen (eds), Studies in Language Variation, 292-314. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027259820-silv.25.13gra
Ethnic variation in real time: Change in Australian English diphthongs
infouri
10.1515/lingvan-2019-0058
Gonzalez, Simon, James Grama and Catherine E. Travis. 2020. Comparing the performance of forced aligners used in sociophonetic research. Linguistics Vanguard 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2019-0058
Comparing the performance of forced aligners used in sociophonetic research
doi
https://assta.org/proceedings/ICPhS2019/papers/ICPhS_1818.pdf
Grama, James, Catherine E. Travis and Simon Gonzalez. 2019. Initiation, progression and conditioning of the short-front vowel shift in Australian English. In Sasha Calhoun, Paola Escudero, Marija Tabain and Paul Warren (eds), Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS), Melbourne, Australia, 1769-1773. Canberra, Australia: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc. https://assta.org/proceedings/ICPhS2019/papers/ICPhS_1818.pdf
Initiation, progression and conditioning of the short-front vowel shift in Australian English
infouri
10.1080/23268263.2020.1750791
Purser, Benjamin, James Grama and Catherine E. Travis. 2020. Australian English over time: Using sociolinguistic analysis to inform dialect coaching. Voice and Speech Review 14(3): 269-291. https://doi.org/10.1080/23268263.2020.1750791
Australian English over time: Using sociolinguistic analysis to inform dialect coaching
doi
10.1075/eww.22043.tra
Travis, Catherine E., James Grama, Benjamin Purser. 2023. Stability and change in (ing): Ethnic and grammatical variation over time in Australian English. English World-Wide, 44(3), 429-463. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.22043.tra
Stability and change in (ing): Ethnic and grammatical variation over time in Australian English
doi
10.1017/S0954394523000200
Travis, Catherine E. & Rena Torres Cacoullos 2023. Form and function covariation: Obligation modals in Australian English. Language Variation and Change, 35(3), 351-377. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394523000200
Form and function covariation: Obligation modals in Australian English
doi
Related Websites
Sydney Speaks Project
https://slll.cass.anu.edu.au/sydney-speaks
CoEDL Legacy Web Page
https://legacy.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/stories/sydney_speaks.phpsydney-speaks-examining-language-variation-and-change-through-the-stories-people-tell/
Sydney Speaks: Examining language variation and change through the stories people tell
https://sydneycorpuslab.com/sydney-speaks-examining-language-variation-and-change-through-the-stories-people-tell/
Access Rights
Access may be requested through the Chief Investigator (Catherine Travis), consistent with the conditions agreed to by the participants.
Access Rights Type
Restricted
Licence Type
AusGoalRestrictive - AusGoal Restrictive Licence
Data Location
This data is located on a NECTAR provided server and held by the Chief Investigator (Catherine Travis)
Retention Period
Indefinitely
Extent or Quantity
260 (as of Jan 2023; collection continues to be expanded)
Data Size
250 GB
Data Management Plan
Yes

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Identifier: anudc:6184

Status: Published
Published to:
  • Australian National University
  • Australian National Data Service
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