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Malawi Logan
Born: 28 July 1978
Lives: Edinburgh, Lothian
Time lived in area: 1 to 4 years
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Malawi reveals French influences at home, and how her mother would chop and change from French to English and back again.
Language of interview: English
Duration: 1:27 (mins/secs)
The participants were asked to describe how they spoke in their own words.
How do you describe your accent: "I am standard Scots."
Have there been other influences on the way you speak: "I lived in the Highlands most of my young life with periods spent in Canada, Manchester and France - but my parents are both from and around Glasgow."
Do you have skills in languages other than English?: No
Other languages: None
INTERVIEWER:..so and also, where's the French come from? Have you got, was your mum French? MALAWI: My, my, my, my, my adopted mother is or was half French so my, my grandmother who still lives in Glasgow actually is French so, so I mean in, so we used to, you know, we, we, you know, so I, I don't call my mother mother, well I do out with but im at home I would call her mamon or mama and like my, my, my dad is papa which I suppose alot o people still, alot of people call their dad or da, I mean he was daddy in Scotland but he was papa. INTERVIEWER: So give me a, sorry, give me an example of like for example when your in trouble and you were using French, Malawi: my mother would go.. INTERVIEWER: Or if there's a time you remember. MALAWI: Yes, my mother would go 'Malawi' and I'd be, she she'd go 'Malawi' she go "ma heel a he si ga" and then she's go eh goh she, she, oh I can't remember what she's say cos its been so long ago since I've been in trouble with her! But she'd go, she'd go 'La vite! La vite et carriere ste te, Malia ce co' which meant something like wait till I get you home, ha, ha, ha. INTERVIEWER: So this was if you were in public. MALAWI: yes. Interviewer: This was her kind of being like.. MALAWI: Yes. INTERVIEWER: Right.. MALAWI: Yes, yes and like you know and you know, you know, we'd go, well we'd go. INTERVIEWER: And so you knew from her? MALAWI: Yes, yes and we, you know she'd go we'd say 'Salut' and 'Bonjour' and um and we you know and we and 'Ca va?' 'Ca va bien merci et vous? A tycale e sur' and how are you, and so you know there was,there was, there was the French and my Mother, especially if she was angry, she'd revert from English into French, back into English.
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Also on Voices:
Where I live:
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What do you think about your local accent?
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Women talk 'posher': Across the world in almost every language studied, females use more 'prestige', 'standard' forms of language. The exception is extreme Arabic societies where women do not participate in public life.
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