Louisiana 12

Listen to Louisiana 12, a 41-year-old woman from the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 41

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 27/01/1977

PLACE OF BIRTH: New Orleans (Gentilly)

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: black (African-American)

OCCUPATION: driver/dispatcher for the transportation department of a TV/film company

EDUCATION: some college

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

The subject has never lived outside Louisiana. (She lived in Lafayette, Louisiana, for a few years.)

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She describes her accent as not having the “swing” that some folks in her neighborhood might have.

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

RECORDED BY: Tanera Marshall

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/03/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Um, born here, in New Orleans. I grew up in the Gentilly area. Gentilly is like, um, to me, pretty boring. Nothing there, um, like everything there was family. You know, at that time, it’s like graveyard, family, nothing! [Subject laughs.] Yeah, it’s like that area, like, there’s um University of New Orleans, like, the lakefront which is not far from there. So, it’s not like it’s the country area or anything like that. It’s just, um, like a family area.

I went to UNO for a while, and then I decided, oh, that’s not what I want to do with my life. I want to work, and, um, it’s just like the university isn’t, like, it’s not happening fast enough. So, I’m going to get out and get on my own.

Two to three weeks ago, I was outside of the city and I was in the plantation area like Lutcher/Donaldsonville area. And there was a lot of Cajun people there, which I was very shocked and surprised ’cause I was — I wasn’t aware of that. That’s like plantation area, so I’m still thinking “old-school ways,” and then I’m, like, hearin’ some of the accents, and it was just, like, to me, it was a culture shock, because there was a little small area there — it’s called Paulina, maybe like 45 minutes outside of New Orleans — they still have that, that real heavy Cajun, you know, it’s — you hear it.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Tanera Marshall

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 19/06/2019

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:

• 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.