Arkansas 28

Listen to Arkansas 28, a 77-year-old woman from Lonoke, Arkansas, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 77

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 12/07/1942

PLACE OF BIRTH: Lonoke, Arkansas

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: white

OCCUPATION:

Before retiring, the subject worked with the school system and then as a financial secretary. She also served as a church secretary.

EDUCATION: some college

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

The subject has lived her entire life in Arkansas except for a year in Fulton, Tennessee.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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): 07/02/2020

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 lived with my family in the country until I was in the fourth grade. We called it “The Warner Place” ‘cause they actually owned it. Uh, but they were older, and they moved to town.

There was a barn, and Mr. Warner came and went to the barn often. Uh, and I have a brother who’s four years younger than I. And my grandmother lived with us. The house: We had no electricity. We had no bathroom. We had an outhouse, and I was at school one day, and my brother, uh, was swinging on a bag swing in, uh, in front of the house. And one of the Warner brothers kept hunting dogs down at the barn. And they got out. My grandmother was in the back yard, hanging clothes on a line, and she heard a commotion, and she went to the front of the house, and those hunting dogs had pulled my little brother off that, uh, bag swing onto the ground and were biting him furiously and barking. And Granny got a broom or a mop, and she ran the dogs off. But it was very traumatic, and my brother had to go to town to the doctor. And I remember coming home from school, and he was in a bedroom he shared with me, and it was quiet and dark. And my mother explained to me what happened, and it was [sigh], it was a very traumatic time for our family. But he got all right. But the hunting dogs did not get out again. I don’t know what happened there.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/02/2020

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Unlike most subjects from northwest Arkansas, this subject lightens her ending /r/ sound considerably or drops it completely (near, square, nearer, mirror), though an /r/ is inserted into the middle of the word, as in “washed” (warshed). The subject also almost uniformly monophthongizes the diphthong /aɪ/ (PRICE) before voiced and unvoiced consonants, save for the word “wiped”(private, liking, implied, surprising, idea, live, finally, quiet, right side, price). Words that end in the consonant /t/ have this final consonant replaced with the consonant /k/ (district, expect), or the /t/ may simply drop (front, first). Monophthongization of a diphthong also occurs with /aʊ/ (MOUTH) (mouth, house, outhouse, ground).

Ending /ɪ/ (KIT) becomes the unstressed /e/ (DRESS) (very, sorry). The diphthong /eɪ/ (FACE) occasionally becomes /aɪ/ (PRICE) (take, grade). A schwa (COMMA) can precede various short vowels: /u/ (GOOSE) (goose, zoo), /i/(FLEECE) (fleece, treatment).

Short /ɪ/ (KIT) and short /e/ (DRESS) lengthen, and may have a brief yod /y/ sound added (kit, vet). The final /d/ is left off the end of the word “old.” Note the traditional Southern change of the /e/ (DRESS) vowel to /ɪ/ (KIT) (then, remembered). The short /ɪ/ (KIT) becomes the long /i/ (FLEECE) in the word “expensive.” The word “odd” is said with the diphthong /oʊ/ (GOAT).

Also notice the use of the term “bag swing” and the use of upglide once the subject begins the unscripted story.

COMMENTARY BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 19/02/2020

The archive provides:

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