Connecticut 7

Listen to Connecticut 7, a 25-year-old man from Middletown, Connecticut, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 25

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/11/1995

PLACE OF BIRTH: Middletown, Connecticut

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: White and East Asian

OCCUPATION: graduate student

EDUCATION: bachelor’s degree

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

The subject lived in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for about four years and in Ottawa, Canada, for about a year.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject says, “I am not entirely sure where my accent comes from. I’ve noticed similarities to other Connecticut accents, but I think I may hold some vowels differently. My mother spent most of her young life in Maine, so I think there may be some influence there, but any lasting effect would be slight. I believe I code-switch to a more “practiced” accent in formal or unfamiliar situations, including reading. I somehow picked up Southern expressions before I was in Gettysburg. I do not believe that my time in Gettysburg or Ottawa dramatically altered my native accent.”

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

RECORDED BY: subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 19/02/2021

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, I’m from Middlesex County, uh, northern Middlesex County to be specific. Um, it’s, uh, hilly here, I guess, uh, some horse country around here. Uh, where I am is, is sort of a mix between suburbs and, uh, rural area; you know, we have cows but, uh, the houses are really close together. Uh, I’ve basically have lived here for my entire life; um, uh, you know, Connecticut was a good place overall to grow up. I, I don’t really have any complaints about the place itself, er, other than, you know, it could be a little dull. I do remember as a kid, uh, you know, other kids would make fun of where I grew up, ’cause it, it didn’t have a good reputation, um, although now it’s sort of on the up and up. Um, uh, maybe that’s not the experience for, for other people from my area since I was dealing with a very specific subset of the population, but, um, that was my experience, anyway.

Um, it’s very pretty here. Um, you know, uh, I definitely grew up traveling, though, so, uh, I, I went away for school, for college. Um, I’m currently in a graduate program, uh, which is based in Canada, but because of the COVID situation, um, I, I get to be here, at home, uh, studying virtually. Uh, studying virtually sort of has its pros and cons; um, it’s nice to be home and be with my family, uh, but on the other hand I really, I do miss being in a classroom setting and, and the Zoom classes are, you know, just really getting to me. Um, it’s, uh, with so many pairs of eyes just, you know, sort of staring at a screen for, for multiple of hours on end — it’s just, it’s, it’s really taxing, and I don’t really enjoy that aspect so much. Um, on the other hand, I was, I’m, I’m able to participate more in, in sort of graduate life than I was before when I had a thirty-minute commute from where I lived to the, to the actual university itself. Um, uh, basically that’s been accomplished through social media so, that’s, that’s been really handy.

Mm, yeah, it’s, uh, I, I’ve sort of started recently to notice that my, my accent is a little bit funky, um, maybe because of my experiences in, in college and, and then in graduate school, especially graduate school, being surrounded by, um, by those accents more, more often. And, uh, um, yeah, I guess that’s it.

TRANSCRIBED BY: subject

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION: 19/02/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: 

As the subject suggests, his dialect is not necessarily typical of Connecticut. It tends to lean more toward General American at times, and his reading of Comma Gets a Cure is rather formal, with clear enunciation. And he clearly exhibits rhoticity, which some residents of Connecticut (particularly older residents) do not.

COMMENTARY BY: Cameron Meier

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/02/2021

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.