California 18

Listen to California 18, an 84-year-old woman from Long Beach, California, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject. 

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 84

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 05/05/1939

PLACE OF BIRTH: Long Beach, California

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: White

OCCUPATION: retired medical-labratory scientist

EDUCATION: bachelor of science degree

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

The subject has lived in Long Beach, California, her entire life except for five years in San Francisco, California (as a child); two years in Copenhagen, Denmark; and six months in Cuajimalpa, Mexico.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

In this recording, the participant does tend to read and speak slowly. She has lived most of her life in Southern California, but may her speech may have been influenced by living in San Francisco as a child.

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

RECORDED BY: Amaia Villegas

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 25/06/2023

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

… Yeah, where I grew up, we had no gooses. [Subject is commenting on Comma Gets a Cure, which she just read.] But, anyway, I‘m, s- uh, my first memories are in Long Beach. Uh, and, uh, my sister was there and my mom and dad and, uh, had a nice yard and everything and, uh, I remember I walked to, uh, to, uh, was it kindergarten or first grade or something? And one day I didn’t come straight home. I had gone to my girlfriend’s house. But I was supposed to come straight home. So when I got home, uh, my sister said you should have come straight home. So my dad, uh, asked me about it. And I said “No, no, I came straight home.”

And, uh, and then my dad said, “OK, Stella says you didn’t come straight home. You said you came straight home. So we’re going to have a court. We’re going to swear to tell the truth. We’re gonna have a court.”

So OK. So Stella said, “No, she did not come straight home, ’cause it was, mm, whatever time when she made it home.”

And, uh, and I said “No, I came straight home. I may walk slowly, but I came straight home.”

So my dad couldn’t really come to a decision. And that was my little fun [unintelligible]. [Subject laughs.] My poor sister. But we did get together and made some perfume out of gardenias, and it smelled awful. Don’t make perfume out of gardenias.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Amaia Villegas

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/07/2023

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

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

The archive provides:

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• 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.