Arizona 1

Listen to Arizona 1, a 25-year-old man from Wittmann, Arizona, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

Both as a courtesy and to comply with copyright law, please remember to credit IDEA for direct or indirect use of samples.  IDEA is a free resource; please consider supporting us.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 25

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 25/12/1985

PLACE OF BIRTH: Wittmann, Arizona

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Latino/Chicano

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: Subject was a university student when recording was made.

AREA(S) OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS: N/A

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject is American and is completely bi-lingual. Family is from Michichuan, Mexico.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Micha Espinosa

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/07/2010

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

OK, um, I was born here in Arizona, and my parents, they’re from Michoacán, Mexico. I’ve lived twenty, well, basically my whole life in Wittmann, Arizona, which is far, far away from here, from Tempe. I think 56 miles. You know, I go here, to Arizona State University. I’ve noticed that there’s not that many Mexican people around here. It’s predominantly white, which is OK; you know, it’s all right. But there’s a lack of Latinos here, and, you know, it’s just something that I’ve noticed. I mean compared to other places I guess there’s not that many. I’m studying, I’m in, my major is Justice Studies. You know, I’m learning a lot about the movement, and reading all those books about acting and everything like that. And it’s really interesting I guess to correlate both theatre and Justice Studies just because there’s so many forms, or you can use theatre in different ways to, I guess, to get across the message of change and everything. So, uh, yeah. I remember back in the day when I was little and everything I just remember, because my birthday is on Christmas so it kind of sucked, because, well, since my birthday’s on Christmas and everything, you only get one present. So, you know, I guess like, with my family and everything it really sucks. You know? Like, yeah. Um, we always opened I guess, like, we always opened up our presents on Christmas Eve night. My mom would make like, how you say, she’d make La Abuelita chocolate, which tastes really good. Yeah, it’s really good. She like makes it by hand and everything. I don’t know, like, I kind of miss it.

[Subject goes on to speak Spanish:] Mamá, ella hace el chocolate diferente, no como la mayoría de la gente aquí, pero casi como la mayoría de la gente en Mexico.  Lo hace a mano.  Agarra como una … como se dice? Parece como una cuchara, pero se mueve así entre las manos, y luego se ponen las manos juntas y se mueve.  Allí dura como unos 20 minutos, así, haciendolo con las manos y allí se va desbarratando todo el chocolate–porque es una tabla bien dura. Y como se calienta mucho la leche, se tiene que mover con las manos; tiene que estar meneando. Entonces así, el chocolate con un pedazo de birrote sabe bueno.

[English translation: Mom, she makes chocolate differently, not like the majority of people here, but almost like the majority of people in Mexico.  She makes it by hand.  She takes a … how is it called? It looks like a spoon, but it is moved between the hands then the hands are put together and it moves.  She does this for about 20 minutes, like this, moving it between the hands and that is how the chocolate breaks up (dissolves) – because it is a hard tablet.  And as the milk heats up, you have to keep moving the hands, you have to keep stirring.  So then the chocolate, with a piece of bread, tastes good.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Micha Espinosa

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/07/2010

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Subject has a typical cadence for the border region, a downward inflection and slight nasality. One can clearly hear how the Spanish dialect of northern Mexico influences the subject’s accent in English.

COMMENTARY BY: Micha Espinosa

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/07/2010

The archive provides:

• Recordings of accent/dialect speakers from the region you select.
• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.
• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.
• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

 

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.