Arkansas 14

Listen to Arkansas 14, a 41-year-old woman from Uniontown, Arkansas, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 41

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/11/1977

PLACE OF BIRTH: Fort Smith but raised in Uniontown, Arkansas

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: high school English teacher

EDUCATION: BA in English education

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS: none

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject’s husband was born in New York City.

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): 27/09/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

So, last weekend, I conned my family into attending what’s called Winfest, which is a festival in Winslow, Arkansas, that has a variety of bands from around the area. Uh, and I have, uh, three little girls and my husband that said yes, they would come along. But it was pretty hippy in nature, and a lot of face painting and hula-hooping, and it was a chill vibe. And I even had people question me about “Ooo, should you be taking your kids out there? Is that appropriate?” And there was nothing inappropriate about it. It was just, um, fun. And so we got to hear several local bands that were acoustic, and we, we had a blast. My kids, um, ate from food vendors, and their daddy actually did the face painting for them, and I would, I would go back again.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 27/09/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Subject maintains a wide breadth of space in the back of mouth, with the tongue in a relatively low position. This tongue position causes some diphthongs to change their intrinsic qualities. /eɪ/ (face) becomes /aɪ/ (price) (examples: plain, name, take, made). /aɪ/ (price) drops its second vowel to become /a/ (liking, implied, side, times, finally, price, vibe, variety, surprising). The /u/ (goose) vowel is stressed, lengthened, and occasionally has a schwa /ə/ (comma) inserted before it (duke, you, into). Initial /d/ is hit with some force, though it is dropped completely when it ends a word (old).

When ending /t/ is part of consonant cluster /st/, it drops (first). However, if a vowel or diphthong precedes it, it is dropped and replaced with a glottal stop (foot, goat). The word “Arkansas” has a /ɔ/ vowel (thought) as the ending vowel. The /ɔ/ vowel also appears in “comma,” “palm,” and “along.” /r/ is incredibly strong, sometimes overtaking the previous vowel (superb). Once, in the word “woman,” /ʊ/ (foot) changes to /oʊ/ (goat). The shift of /e/ (dress) to /I/ (kit) occurs (then, expensive, again). /p/ and /k/ initial plosives are hit with extra force. The /æ/ (trap) vowel is lengthened considerably in the word “band,” almost becoming /e/ (dress) near the end of phonation. The ending vowel in the word “futile” is sounded with the “aɪ” (price) diphthong.

COMMENTARY BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/09/2019

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