Arkansas 13

Listen to Arkansas 13, a 46-year-old woman from Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 46

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 04/09/1973

PLACE OF BIRTH: Rogers, Arkansas

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION: writer

EDUCATION: master’s degree in journalism

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject has spent almost her entire life in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but she did live in northeastern Oklahoma for nine months and in Wichita Falls, Texas, for a year and a half.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

As a child, she lived with grandparents, who were from Worcester, Massachusetts.

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

RECORDED BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 21/09/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

OK, so, I’ve lived in Fayetteville most of my life, which is a college town. And, uh, sometimes you don’t realize how different a college town can be until you get outside of it. And, uh, this was about five years ago. So, I was about 40, and I went with two friends: one that was about five years younger than me and one that was about five years older than me. And, um, as you know, Hot Springs is really close to Hot Springs Village, which is a retirement community. There’s a lot, uh, you know, old white guys who own boats. And, uh, that night, we went to the Ohio Club to, uh, you know, kick up our heels a little bit. And so, we’re there, and, um, there were people of a variety of ages there, from, you know, look like early 20s all the way up to obviously retirees. And early in the evening, some of the young girls got our there and were twerking a little bit, and then they, I guess, got tired and left. And the dance floor was empty, but the band was really rocking. And at one point, they finally started playing a song that me and my friends were like, “We gotta get on the dance floor.” So, we jumped up and started dancing. And immediately we were surrounded by all these old guys in their 60s. And, I mean, it was so weird. And we were like the hot young things. We didn’t have to buy a drink the whole rest of the night. And it just gave me that contrast of, like, being in Fayetteville and being 40, that I kinda become really invisible, which I didn’t even notice because I don’t really care. I’m not, like, trying to get any attention. The fact that it was such a different response in Hot Springs with these older gentlemen than it would be here in Fayetteville with, you know, college-age men — um, that really kinda opened my eyes to just how much of a college town Fayetteville really is.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/09/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The consonant /r/ is strong and lengthened, and often overpowers its previous vowel (Sarah Perry, nurse, superb, early, nearer, her). The consonant cluster /st/, when in either an initial or medial position, becomes /ʃt/ “sht” (street, strong, stroking). However, when /st/ is in a final position, the /t/ drops completely (first). Dropping and ending consonants also occurs in the words “old,” “weird,” and “calling,” along with other two-syllable words ending in -ing. The vowel /u/ (goose) is hit particularly hard, with a schwa /ə/ (comma) vowel (goose, duke, zoo) inserted before it. A schwa may also appear before the diphthong /oʊ/, as in “goat” and “so.” The word “yellow” substitutes a schwa /ə/ (comma) for the ending /ou/ (goat). The diphthong /eɪ/ (face) becomes /aɪ/ (price) in the word “plain.” The “I” vowel in the diphthong /aɪ/ drops, becoming /a/ (bath), as in “private,” “might,” “time,” “five,” and “night.” Short /I/ (kit) can become the diphthong /eɪ/ (face), as in “drink” and “springs.” The vowel /e/ (dress) becomes /ɪ/ (kit) in the word “then.” Initial unvoiced fricatives and plosives such as /f/, /t/, and /ʃ/ may receive extra stress.

COMMENTARY BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 26/09/2019

The archive provides:

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