Alabama 6

Listen to Alabama 6, a man from Elberta, Alabama, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: N/A

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1981

PLACE OF BIRTH: Elberta, Baldwin County, Alabama

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: When recorded, the subject was a college student.

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

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Perhaps his proximity to the tourist areas of southwest Alabama, near the sandy beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, has modified his dialect to some degree.

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

RECORDED BY: Daydrie Hague

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

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 in a- a farm near Elberta, Alabama, which was in Elberta, Alabama, uh, Baldwin County, which is in, uh, lower Alabama, by Gulf Shores, Alabama. Um, I was born on, in 1981 in a rather large hospital about 30 miles down the road. Um, my parents, my parents were raised, my mother was raised on a farm all her life. Her parents, both farmers that had anywhere from skunks, chickens, goose, geese, cows, any kind of animal you could ever think of, pretty much. Um, it’s a real small town, probably less than a thousand people. It’s a real old … it’s actually a German town, which, our family has no German in it. We’re from Romanian, about 200, 200-300 years ago. Um, the biggest, nearest city is probably an hour, hour and a half away, which is Mobile. It’s a real big port city. I live about, um, ten miles from the beach, uh, the beach of Gulf Shores, the Gulf of Mexico. Real sandy beaches. We have, um, well, obviously lots of tourists come down to enjoy our beaches. Um, my parents met in high school. Um, they’ve … in tenth grade. They went to college together. They’ve always been together, pretty much always loved each other. Um, growin’ up, uh, I always liked to hunt and fish with my dad. We always went fishin’ out in the Gulf, or fishin’ in bays, or rivers. Um, huntin’ was probably my favorite thing that me and my dad did all the time. Um, he showed me how to shoot a gun when I was really, real little. Pretty much we bonded, just through huntin’ and fishin’. And, um, up until recently, he started racin’ cars, which … He races on a dirt track, which is about a quarter of a mile. It’s a lot of fun. But now’s I’m in college, I never get to see ’im. Um, growed up in high school, middle school and elementary school, uh, graduated in high school about two-eighty. The whole high school was, had about 2,000 people in it. Um, made a lot of friends. Basically, uh, I’m just from this real small town in Alabama, where basically Southern hospitality’s just a great thing.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 21/01/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

You hear a much lighter treatment of [r], a consistent use of the i/e substitution (“git” for “get,” “siniminal” for “sentimental”), and a lack of consonant action in general. It is an easy, relaxed sound.

COMMENTARY BY: Daydrie Hague

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.