Alabama 1

Listen to Alabama 1, a 21-year-old man from Adamsville, Alabama, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 21

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1979

PLACE OF BIRTH: Adamsville, Alabama (outside Birmingham)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: When recorded, subject was a senior theatre major at university.

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

The subject does not appear to have been outside Alabama for any appreciable period.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

As a theatre major, the subject has tried to modify his native accent. However, it is interesting to note that his accent becomes heavier when he is talking about his family and home than when he talks about school. His grandmother, with whom he lived while growing up, is from Mississippi.

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

RECORDED BY: Cynthia Blaise

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 07/01/2000

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born and raised in a small town just outside of Birmingham, called Adamsville. Um, there was about 250 people in the entire town. Little, little tiny place, everybody knew everything about everybody, which is … probably effects a lot of how I am today. [Laughs] Kind of keeping everything quiet so that the neighbors won’t find out. But, um, and now I’m a senior theater major at Birmingham Southern, um, with no clue about what I’m gonna do when I get out of here. But, uh, I live with my parents and my grandmother. We, we all live together, and, uh, it’s been that way for about ten years now. And, um, it, it’s kind of weird, ’cause you see people out with their families. It’s usually the parents and the kids, sit- sitting at the table in the restaurant or whatever, and then you’d look over and see my family. And it’s my parents, and then me sitting next to my grandmother, with her big white hair. And, um, she always orders the same thing at restaurants: a salad and a baked potato. She grew up in Mississippi, so she didn– she doesn’t eat a lot of meat. And she only eats things that have been pulled directly from the ground, unless she’s cooked it herself. Then she’ll open up the can and fix it right. But, um, yeah, that– that’s one good thing about growing up with a grandmother in the house: The cooking is always wonderful. Um, my mom, unfortunately, has fallen out of practice with cooking, and she’s like, “Oh, well, I guess I’ll just get mother to do it. ’Cause I can’t do anything any more.” But, um, yeah, I guess that’s where I get most of my accent, which is a lot thicker when I talk about them. And when I talk to them, it’s even thicker. But, I, I guess, being in the theater I’ve tried my best to be able to hide it as much as possible, but it still sneaks in there occasionally. My favorite food? Oh goodness, there are so many. I guess it would have to be my grandmother’s cornbread. She makes the best cornbread in the world. In a skillet, in the oven, so it’s all crispy, all over. Not these little muffins that you get in a restaurant, uhn-uh. Gotta be this big loaf of cornbread that you cut in little wedges, and it’s so soft in the middle and just so crispy and almost burnt on the outside; it’s just incredible. Best thing in the world.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 19/01/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

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

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.