Arkansas 10

Listen to Arkansas 10, a 51-year-old woman from Pleasant Plains and Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 51

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/07/1949

PLACE OF BIRTH: Batesville, Arkansas

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: academic advisor

EDUCATION: Ph.D.

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

The subject spent most of the first 30 years of her life in Arkansas, except for a time when her father was in graduate school in Louisiana. She lived for a year in Arizona. She had lived in Columbia, Maryland, for the 20 years prior to the recording. She was raised in the Arkansas towns of Pleasant Plains, Pine Bluff, and Merrilton.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Lynn Watson

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/05/2001

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 Batesville, Arkansas in 1949. Ah, my father was a veteran of World War 2, and he and my mom had moved back to Arkansas, ahm, from Colorado where they’d been stationed during the war. And I grew up on a farm in Pleasant Plains, which is a hamlet, I guess. Ahm, we h— … there were a hundred and fifty people in this very small town. And, um, we had gardens, we had chickens, and cattle and horses. Um, there was a pond, there were woods. [throat clearing]. One of my favorite things as a child would be to climb in the trees in the backyard with fresh tomatoes and read books. And I spent many afternoons doing that. Ahm, when I did have to work in the garden, I was always very happy at the end of the summer because the corn was always near the highway, and I didn’t want people to see me hoeing. And so if the corn was high enough, I was invisible. [laughs] Which sounds so silly now — you’re on the farm, everyone does this. But at the time, you know, that was a problem. Um, we left the farm when I was 10, and my father went to graduate school in Louisiana, so we lived there for a while. And then, uh, we lived in Pine Bluffs, which in another part of the state. And by the time I had finished college, I had lived in all four sections of Arkansas. I think, one cl— … one very clear memory I have: There was a, a big ice storm, [creaky voiced vocalization] maybe nineteen fifty-six to fifty-eight, along in there, and for two weeks we had no electricity, and that was pretty rough. But they came along with a portable generator. And happened to be on the night that my — that “Father Knows Best” was on television. [laughs] And I remember so clearly sitting with the men and the generator and they …. My mother got to wash, use the washing machine and, you know, some important things like that, probably run the vacuum. But I got to watch a television show for thirty minutes in the midst of this long ice storm. And we, we had another one this past winter, uh, that was very severe across the South, apparently much worse than that one. Ahm, but it was a very isolated time – the schools were closed, the roads …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Lynn Watson

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/05/2001

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Subject’s dialect is strongly rhotic. Overall tendencies: nasalization, jaw raised and tensed, lip corner tension/retraction, diminishment or lack of lip rounding, glottal fry at ends of phrases. Unscripted speech includes more frequent pitch raising at ends of phrases than in the “Comma” reading. “Monophthongization” to /a/ is characteristic of Southeastern U.S.dialects in the words “nine,” “I,” “ice,” and “isolated.” The /aɪ/ diphthong is used in “stationed,” “plains,” and “face.” Both vowel characteristics can be heard in highway. Raising of jaw contributes to tendency to raise vowels, particularly before /n/, as in “men” and “generator.” There is a particularly strong nasalization of diphthong in mouth and also an overall reduction of lip rounding in evidence. Post-vocalic R tends to be retroflex. “Diphthongization” of vowels or use of onglide for some vowels, such as [^əu] and [^əoʊ], can be heard in “two” and “goat.” Also note diphthongization or offglide on some vowels: [ɪ̝^ə] [ɛ̝^ə] [æ^ə], in “print,” “stressed,” and “format.” Pronunciations of note: “yellow” = [ˈjɛlə]; “sentimental” = [sɛ̝nəˈmɪ̞nl̩]; “storm” = [sto^wɜ˞m]; “important” = [ɪmˈpɔə̆˞t̬ənt̬]; and “winter” = [ˈwɪnə˞].

COMMENTARY BY: Lynn Watson

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/05/2001

The archive provides:

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• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.
• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.
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