Illinois 10

Listen to Illinois 10, a 51-year-old man from Chicago, Illinois, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 51

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1953

PLACE OF BIRTH: Chicago, Illinois

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: financial advisor

EDUCATION: bachelor’s degree

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

The subject had been living in the Twin Cities, in Minnesota, for 10 years prior to the recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject was born and raised in a predominately Italian neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. He lived in Chicago and the surrounding areas for 40 years before moving to Minnesota. In addition to working as a certified financial planner, he also acts in local theaters.

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

RECORDED BY: Joseph Papke

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/04/2005

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

[Throughout this recording, the speaker imitates various dialects.] Again, you got — you got the far south side accent, which is, which’s like Dennis Franz. But they’ll talk like this a little bit more. It’s almost like the, uh, on the “Saturday Night Live” when they would do “Da Bears.” It’s a lot of talkin’ like that. You know, it’s a lot of Bohemians, an’ bohunks, and old Polacks and stuff like that. They live on the Bridgeport side of town, you know. They talk like that a little bit. And the neighborhood I grew up in, which is, you know, their west side, you got that whole Italian thing goin’ on. So. you know, if I was readin’ this story like guys in my neighborhood. Without exagerratin’ [reads in dialect, rapidly]: So, here’s a story for you: “Sarah Perry was a veterinary nurse who had been working daily at an old zoo in a deserted district of the territory, so she was very happy to start a new job at a superb private practice in North Square near the Duke Street Tower. That area was much nearer for her and more to her liking.” Like that. Guys that still live in my neighborhood, you know, like my friend Jimmy. He’ll talk like [speaks in dialect]: “Hi, Jerry, what the fu- … how you doin’? You know, this is a, a brilliant lawyer, an attorney. And like [dialect again]: “Hey! I think I’m going to go over to these, yeah a little … We’ll go out a little bit, have a little somethin’ to eat. Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boop. I go home.” That’s about it, that’s all. They — they do — they still talk like that. I’ll occasionally run into somebody, and it won’t take me but two minutes, talking to them. [Dialect again] “Hey, Jerry, how you doin’? Angelo, how are you?” [Dialect:] “So what are you doin’? Where you livin’ right now? It’ll be like two minutes worth.” [Dialect:] “Ah, fuck. I’m over there livin’ in Minnesota. Eh, fuck, it’s so fuckin’ cold I can’t believe it. Do you belie– ? Minnesota! What the fuck you doin’ over there? Minnesota?” I fall into it like that. [sound of snapping] Uh, you look — Characters, you know: DeNiro in a Scorsese movie, or Joe Mantegna doin’ the same character; you’re not going to see much of a difference in the way they’re talkin’. They’ve got that whole, uh, you know: [Dialect] “Fuck you doin’, guys?” Which is literally how a lot of my friends still talk. [Dialect] So, what the fuck you doin’ up there? What are you, nuts? You gotta freeze your fuckin’ nuts off up there.”

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/08/2007

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The subject is a 51-year-old white male, born and raised in a predominately Italian neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. He lived in Chicago and the surrounding areas for 40 years before moving to Minnesota. In addition to working as a certified financial planner, he also acts in local theaters. The subject reads “Comma Get a Cure.” In the unscripted speech, he discusses the dialects of two Chicago neighborhoods, demonstrates the heavier dialect from his childhood neighborhood, and then very briefly compares the New York Italian and Chicago Italian dialects.  The subject’s Chicago dialect is strong and has not been affected by his living in Minnesota. Though subject is also an actor, his ability to affect other speech patterns has had little effect on his natural dialect, which by his own account can become thicker with Italian heritage dialect elements when he speaks with residents of his own neighborhood. Overall, listen for harder and more nasal vowels (especially [æ], which becomes very forward, hard, and flat, perhaps represented by [æ̝] or [æ̜]), very present and tense [ɹ], and some consonant weakening or dropping in clusters.

Words to listen for in “Comma Gets a Cure” include:
working: dropped /g/ in present participle endings
very happy: tense [ɹ], weak /h/, flat [æ] first: [fɜ˞s] got: [gat] woman with a goose: slurred
animal: flat [æ] foot and mouth: [fʊʔn̩·moʊθ˺] sorry: [saɹi] trap: flat [æ] back: [bæg], weak final consonant
relaxing bath: flat [æ] almost: [ɔ̹moʊst], with weak /t/
cost: [cas] imagine: flat [æ]

In the unscripted portion:
side: [saɪ̃d] accent: flat [æ] Franz: flat [æ] this: [dɪs] Saturday: [sat̬əde] that: [dætʰ] Polacks: [p̌olaks] Westside: [wɛsaɪd˺] guys: [gaɪ̃s] exaggerating: flat [æ] happy: [æpi] job: [dʒab] neighborhood: [eɪ̝] Jerry: [dʒʰɛɹ] that’s: [dɛt̪s] occasionally: [eɪ̝] Angelo: flat [æ] over here: [oʊvə˞ɪ] cold: [kol] Minnesota [mɪnəsoə] over there: [oʊvə˞dɛə˞] that: flat [æ] Mantegna: [eɪ̝] character: flat [æ], tense [ɹ] talk: [tak˺], weak /k/

COMMENTARY BY: Joseph Papke;  Unicode trans. Dylan Paul

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/08/2007

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.