Alaska 3

Listen to Alaska 3, a 57-year-old woman from Gambell, Alaska, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 57

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1949

PLACE OF BIRTH: Gambell, Alaska, on St. Lawrence Island

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Yup’ik

OCCUPATION: culture host at heritage center

EDUCATION: high school

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

The subject has lived in Mt. Edgecombe, in southeastern Alaska, for four years and Anchorage for the five years before the date of the recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject is bi-lingual (Yup’ik and English) but grew up speaking both.

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

RECORDED BY: Tanera Marshall

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/07/2006

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Right at this time of the year, at this season, summer, uh, ’specially in July, it’s time to, uh, go to the mountain and pick, uh, greens. You know we pick them by bags, an’ we put them in the barrel. An’, uh, all kinds o’ greens we pick, from dwarf fireweed to rose roots an’, I don’ know what the greens are, but I know what they are. But that, this is the season to pick them. We either, uh, freeze ’em for, uh, winter, y’ know in wintertime we make ’em into, uh, a dish that is served specially in, uh, uh, special occasions like birthdays or Christmas or, yeah, an’ they’re loaded with Vitamin C. Whenever my kids … when they were small, when they have colds in the winter, so I jus’ make a, y’ know, a greens dish an’ let them eat. An’ the, an’ they eat, uh, Vitamin C. We have a berry soup [unclear]. And ah, it’s so good. It’s mixed with, um, flour an’, uh, seal oil an’, uh, sugar. Nowadays they mix it with Wesson Oil or, uh, any kin’ o’ oil. It’s so good. You mix the, uh, flour first, y’ know. You mix it an’ cook it an’ then, an’ then later on, when the flour is ready to be added with, uh, berries. That’s the time we add berries.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 21/03/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Note the following features: delayed, un-aspirated /t/; “splashy” /s/; very slow rate of speech; almost equal stress on all syllables and words; and narrow pitch range.

COMMENTARY BY: Tanera Marshall

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/07/2006

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.