Louisiana 2

Listen to Louisiana 2, a 20-year-old woman from the Ninth Ward 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: 20

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/08/1985

PLACE OF BIRTH: Ninth Ward, New Orleans

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: African-American

OCCUPATION: university student

EDUCATION: some university

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

She transferred to the University of Louisiana in Lafayette from Xavier University in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She is cousin to subject Louisiana 3.

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

RECORDED BY: Allison Hetzel

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/11/2005

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, at Charity Hospital on August 20th of 1985.  I am the oldest of three children.  I have a little brother and a little sister, and we lived in the lower 9th Ward.  Um, I went to Catholic schools throughout my life, even through college. Um, my major is pharmacy, and I was a student at Xavier University of Louisiana, before the storm.  As a result of the storm, I ended up at the University of Louisiana at LaFayette, which is a way bigger campus than Xavier, and I’m not really used to walkin’ around, ’cause everything’s within walking distance, you know, it’s not that far.  The classes are fine, but I think it’s just a hard transition not being able to start school from the beginning.  So it’s like you have to play catch-up.  It’s really, really hard.  And I’m used to makin’ good grades, and that season my grades are like Cs, instead of As and Bs that I’m used to getting, but, I mean, the transition was really hard, so, I’m happy I’m just passing.  Yes, I’ve made a lot of friends. Um, there’s one girl — we go out a lot.  ’Cause I normally just stay in my room.  I don’t really go anywhere, ’cause I don’t know anything too much, but she shows me around, and we go out to eat an-, or the movies, or we go bowlin’.  It’s just like bein’ in New Orleans, the only difference is: New Orleans, everythin’ stays open [laughs] way later than in LaFayette.  Um, yes, my brother and my sister are also in LaFayette.  Um, my brother was goin’ to all-boy high school, and now he attends a co-ed high school, which is, um, LaFayette High.  My sister was also in Catholic school, and she’s at S.J. Montgomery Elementary, and she’s 8, so she’s havin’ a hard time.   She misses her friends; she was a cheerleader, and she doesn’t get to do the things she used to do in New Orleans.  My brother, sh- he’s just happy he gets to go to school with girls, so he’s pretty much OK.  My parents are fine.  My dad is a carpenter, so he goes back and forth, from New Orleans to LaFayette, and from LaFayette back to New Orleans with my fiancé, who’s a New Orleans police officer.  So, we, um, get to see him like every other weekend, but I’m so used to my dad bein’ in the house with me.   So it’s kinda hard, ’cause I live on campus now, and I’m not with my family all the time.  And my mom’s havin’ a hard time, ’cause she’s used to goin’ to work, and now she doesn’t have a job, so she has to find things to busy herself with.  But my mom was a home health-care nurse, in New Orleans.  Well, actually, it was the Metairie area, but, pretty much it’s all one big area.  They just have different sections called different things, but to me it’s all New Orleans.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/11/2007

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Some vocal qualities include the use of clicks during her pauses at the beginning of the interview, as well as the omission of final consonants on a regular basis. Please observe the pronunciation of the word “cure” during the reading as a vocal quality from the lower Ninth Ward neighborhood of New Orleans.

COMMENTARY BY: Allison Hetzel

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/11/2005

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.