Arkansas 2

Listen to Arkansas 2, a 22-year-old woman from Little Rock, Arkansas, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 22

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1978

PLACE OF BIRTH: Fort Smith, Arkansas

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: When recorded, the subject was a graduating senior university student.

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

The subject was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, but raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, and had been attending university at Fayettville, Arkansas, for four years when the recording was made.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Her mother was born in Erlangen, Germany, but moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, at the age of 3 and grew up there. Her father was born in Fort Smith.

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

RECORDED BY: Mavourneen Dwyer

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 2000

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

My mom was born in Erlangen, Germany, and, uh, she moved here when she was three. Um, and she was raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas. My dad was, um, born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and lived there his whole life, except when he moved to Little Rock, but he moved back. I have one brother, and, um, one of my favorite memories as a child was my brother and I, and my cat, Space. Uh, we lived in these apartment complexes, and, uh, we weren’t allowed to have cats, but I had my cat anyways, and we, um, we used to take her outside and we’d just walk around and let her play. And then we’d pick her up and we’d put her back in the house so nobody would know. And, um, well, one day Space got out and was sittin’ there walkin’ down the sidewalk. And my brother was outside playin’, and I was ridin’ my bike. And, um, the, the landlord, or the owner of the apartment complex, walked up and goes, “Well, that’s a pretty cat,” and, um, and my brother, oh, I mean the landlord goes, “Well, is that, uh, is that your cat?” And Kevin goes, “No, that’s my sister’s.” And so, he basically just told that we had a cat. And so the landlord called my mom and said, “Well, you know, we found out you had a cat,” and everything like that, and so, “You need to get rid of her.” Well, we didn’t. We moved, so we could keep her. ’Cause we’d had her before we moved into the apartment, but, um, that’s one of my favorite memories, uh, was with my brother. ’Cause we had several, and that was just one of them. Uh, another memory I have is, um, is about my grandma. Um, I love going to my grandma’s house. I’ve been goin,’ I go all the time now, but when I was younger I used to go a few times a year, and I’d stay about a week by myself. Me and my brother we’d trade off weeks, ’cause we were never allowed to be there at the same time. ’Cause we would fight. And, so when I’d always come up, my grandma would always, like, buy food that I like to eat, and she’d always leave it in there, and she’d cook these huge meals for me. And she’d bake all these cakes, and I mean– I just remember being so happy while I was there, and her house was always immaculate. You couldn’t find a speck of dust anywhere in her house, even if you tried. I, I, I wish people would try, you know, just to see, ’cause I don’t think they really would. And, um, well, um, one day me and my grandma were sittin’ in the kitchen. And, um, she’s got a garden and fountain outside in her backyard, and trees, and it’s a really pretty backyard. She’s got, uh, geraniums and, um, roses, every color rose in her back yard. And they have these two trees. And like one of the trees has, um, this cornstalk on, somethin’ my grandpa made to feed the birds and the squirrels. And then the other one’s got birds — it’s a bird-feeder. And so the birds and the squirrels always come down and, and eat the food. Well, um, one day I was sittin’ in the kitchen, and my grandma said she had to go outside, in the backyard for somethin’. But in the kitchen, the whole wall is a window. So you can see directly into the backyard. And there’s these two trees right like in front of the walkway, or, right behind the walkway, if you’re sitting where I was sitting. And my grandma — the squirrel was eatin’ some birdseed, or something [laughs] or some bird [unclear]. And my grandma walked by the squirrel, grabbed the squirrel by the tail, and ran her hand all the way down the squirrel’s tail, and it didn’t even flinch. And I thought that was the most magical thing I’d ever seen in my entire life.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/09/2007

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The speaker’s breathiness and shortness of breath, especially during the informal-speech section, is asthma-related. Vowels are diphthongized (“huge”), and medial consonants are often dropped (“nobody,” “something,” “except”). Final consonants are occasionally left off as well (“got,” “hand”). The final “a” in “grandma” is pronounced to rhyme with “aw” (“gran-maw”). The “i/e” reversal is quite characteristic (“many,” “ends,” “centuries,” and “anyways”). The speaker’s use of the “A” substitution for the “aI” diphthong is prevalent throughout (“entire,” “riding my bike,” “horizon,” “sky,” primary,” etc).

COMMENTARY BY: Mavourneen Dwyer

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 2000

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.