Kentucky 13

Listen to Kentucky 13, a 23-year-old woman from Greenup, Kentucky, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 23

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 19/09/1995

PLACE OF BIRTH: Nashville, Tennessee

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: graduate student

EDUCATION: The subject is currently enrolled in an MFA degree program.

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

She was born in Nashville but lived there for only about a year before moving with her family to Greenup, Kentucky. At the time of the recording, the subject had also lived in Fort Myers, Florida, for one year, and in Boston, Massachusetts, for six months.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Bryn Austin

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 07/05/2019

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, the biggest day in Kentucky, um, is definitely the Kentucky Derby. It’s like, we literally used to get out of school for it, it was so crazy; it was the biggest day of the year and still is, even though I don’t live in Kentucky anymore. Um, so I really miss my family on Derby Day; most people it would probably be Christmas, or, um, Thanksgiving, or some other big family holiday, but for me, it’s definitely Derby Day that I miss my family the most, uh, because the Kentucky Derby just really reminds me of home and of where I came from. Um, this last year’s Derby, which just happened a few days ago, was actually really controversial. The winning horse ended up getting disqualified after an objection, so, technically, the horse that ran the second-fastest race was the winner of the 145th Kentucky Derby, which is so bananas; that hasn’t happened in all 145 years of the runnin’ of the Derby. And the last time a horse was disqualified was in 1984, so like over 20 years ago; it’s just, it’s totally, over 30 years ago, oh my gosh; it’s like totally crazy that a horse would be disqualified, but especially the winner, ‘cause when it happened in 1984, it was actually a fourth-place horse. So this is the first time in Derby history that a winner was disqualified. It was crazy.

[Editor’s note: In 1968, Dancer’s Image was disqualified as the Kentucky Derby winner after post-race urinalysis revealed presence of a prohibited substance. But this recent Derby marks the first time a winner was disqualified on the day of the race and as a result of interference. The speaker is correct about the events of 1984.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Bryn Austin

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/05/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

As is quite common in many American Southern dialects, the speaker tends toward the [ɪ] sound in KIT lexical set words when the vowel is followed by a nasal consonant, as in “twenty,” “Kentucky,” and “expensive.” However, it is interesting that she also exhibits this tendency in some other KIT lexical set words, such as “stressed” and “mess,” while using [ɛ] in words such as “letter” and “objection.” She also tends toward the monophthong [a] in many PRICE lexical set words, including “right side,” “nineteen,” and “time.”

COMMENTARY BY: Bryn Austin

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/05/2019

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