Arizona 5

Listen to Arizona 5, a 26-year-old woman from Yuma, Arizona, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 26

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/03/1986

PLACE OF BIRTH: Blythe, California

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: N/A

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: B. F. A.

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

The subject was raised in Yuma, Arizona, and San Louis Rio Colorado, Mexico. She spent two years in the New York City area in her early twenties.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject’s first language is Spanish. Yuma, Arizona, is a border town, and so the subject’s accent his influenced by her bi-cultural upbringing.

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): 20/11/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Well, uh, I lived in Mexico until I was 7 years old. And when I turned 7, I remember my father saying, “OK, we are going to move to the U.S. because I want my kids to learn English.” We moved to Yuma, Arizona, and I went into an elementary that I still remember the name: Pecan Grove. Um, I was very scared because I didn’t know any English, but actually it wasn’t that bad because all my professors were Hispanic. The kids were Hispanic too, and, um, so I didn’t have to speak English but until fourth grade, because in fourth grade it was the first time I ever got an American professor and her name was Mrs. Taylor, and that’s when I had to start speaking in English. I remember I used to sit all the way in the back of class because I was so embarrassed because I didn’t want her to pick on me to read. Um, I never forgot a moment when she was teaching us English and she wrote on the board, “chocolate.” And I was so confused because I was like it says “chocolate,” and it’s spelled the same way as in English and I couldn’t — and it was bugging me that it was just pronounced different. Um, and then after Mrs. Taylor once again I started having Hispanic professors. All throughout middle school as well, actually — Yuma, Arizona, has a large population of Hispanic, and when I went to high school, in Cibola High School, again, um, I had more American professors, and that’s when I officially began to speak English in my freshmen year of high school. Um, so it’s been pretty interesting. I don’t hear my accent, but everybody else does. Um, and now here at ASU, once I oh I started…began theatre, uh, that’s when it just really like — I noticed how much of an impact my accent can actually have because, uh, just in auditions and doing monologues. I‘ve heard both; I’ve heard pros and cons of me having an accent, uh, for different roles. There’s roles that I cannot do because of my accent. Well, I can do, but I just need to work on it. I’m in a play right now for Bocon. Uh, I’m not sure if maybe my accent is what influenced my director to choose me. Huh, um, but I’m pretty — I really excited to be in Bocon because it’s bilingual and my family is going to come watch it and my family don’t speak any English. So, they’re pretty excited because they’ll be able to understand some of it. I dream in Spanish. I, uh, It’s funny because I just actually just had a dream yesterday. It was in Spanish. All my dreams that I have I don’t remember any of them ever being in English. That’s an interesting question.

[Subject then speaks in Spanish]: El Día del Pavo todos nos juntamos con mi abuelita, um, es difícil para mi comer con ellos. Porque soy vegetariana no como carne – no como animal así́que me da – me da tristeza por mi abuelita porque siempre hace, muy, muy, buena comida. Pero nunca la puedo comer porque todo tiene carne y a veces si se pone triste ella porque dice, “hay mija no quieres comer mi comida.” No abuelita es que no es que no quiera comer su comida. No, no como carne pero ella ya está viejita, y ella no entiende, o se le olvida so siempre soy la única en el Día del Pavo, o cualquier otro día, que estoy comiendo ensalada o estoy comiendo hasta cereal.

[English translation as follows: OK, well, on Thanksgiving we all get together with my grandmother. It’s hard for me to eat with them because I’m a vegetarian. I don’t eat meat; I don’t eat animal. I feel bad for my grandmother because she always makes really, really good food, but I can never eat it because everything has meat and she sometimes gets sad about it and she says, “Oh darling, you don’t want to eat my food,” and I tell her, “No grandmother, it’s not that I don’t want to eat your food; it’s just that I don’t eat meat.” But she’s old and doesn’t understand, or she forgets, and so I’m always the only one on Thanksgiving or any other day that’s eating salad or cereal.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Micha Espinosa

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/11/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Her accent is influenced by native Spanish but equally by the southern Arizona dialect.  Strong r-colorization and i/e substitution can be heard, which is typical of  the Southwest.  All other phonemic changes can be attributed to a higher tongue position, creating an overall change in resonance. Her tonal focus is behind the upper front teeth, creating a distinctly different speech muscularity. All subsequent changes, such as dentalization of [θ,ð] and devoicing of lingual-alveolar and post alveolar  fricatives, come out of new posture.  Note  that the melody of her Spanish clearly carries over into her English.

COMMENTARY BY: Micha Espinosa

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/12/2012

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.