Massachusetts 15

Listen to Massachusetts 15, a 57-year-old man from Needham and other towns in the southwest area of Greater Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 57

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/03/1962

PLACE OF BIRTH: Fall River, Massachusetts

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Asian American

OCCUPATION: property manager

EDUCATION: undergraduate degree

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

The speaker has lived his entire life in eastern Massachusetts, primarily in towns located in the southwest part of the Greater Boston area: Needham, Norwood, and Wellesley. Fall River, where he was born (and also attended college), is approximately 50 miles south of Boston.

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): 07/11/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

It all started on a playground when I was in fourth grade in elementary school — growing up having fun on the playground, boys against the girls. A young redhead girl came out of the blue and tried to give me a kiss, and that’s when it all started. I had a fear and phobia of redheads, ‘cause of cooties. Never mind regular girls, blondes, just girls alone, but redheads stuck out for a long time.

I was single for a while, and my friend wanted to set me up, so she set me up with a friend of hers, who happened to be a redhead, and I had my doubts. I kept my guard up, uh, but it ended up workin’ out, and we became good friends, and we ended up goin’ out one night and, uh, havin’ a great time, spent a long time together. Then for some unknown reason, uh, we were supposed to get back together, and we didn’t, and I certainly didn’t call her ‘cause she was a redhead. She ended up contactin’ me; we ended up goin’ out again, having a great time. I let my guard down and discovered what a wholesome person this redhead was. So, we kept on goin’ out, and next thing you know after about seven to ten years, I was getting pressure to find a ring to marry her from her family, which I said, “Well, the diamond market’s rough.” That was my excuse; I wanted to prolong it for a little while, ended up gettin’ married, to this redhead. Then we had a son, who’s now about 19; he’s chestnut hair, almost close to redhead in the summer time. Again, I didn’t like redheads, uh, for a long time.

Coupla’ years later down the road, I get a phone call: “Can we adopt a dog?” from my son and my wife. I wanted a jet-black dog. They showed me a picture. Again, when they showed me a picture, it was basically a redhead. I said, “No way. No way, absolutely not, I already got two. I never wanted a redhead in my life. I already have two.” They brought him home, and to this day, seven years later, he’s my favorite friend.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Bryn Austin

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/11/2019

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The speaker’s idiolect reflects two signature sounds of the “classic” Boston dialect: the use of [a] in the START lexical set (guard, market) and its non-rhoticity in many words (North, tower, rare, years, hair).

However, as is true of many “signature sounds” of the Boston dialect, there is some unpredictability. For example, the LETTER set is consistently non-rhotic, the NURSE lexical set is clearly rhotic, and r-coloration in the START lexical set is inconsistent. The speaker also employs some phonetic volatility in the LOT and CLOTH lexical sets: Sometimes the vowel is unrounded (job, adopt, blondes), but at other times it has some slight lip rounding (Comma, long, strong).

Other notes of interest: The speaker tends to elide /d/ when it occurs in final position and follows the [n] sound (playground, mind, friend). He also tends to use [ɪn] instead of [ɪŋ] in /-ing/ endings (surprising, singing).

COMMENTARY BY: Bryn Austin

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/22/2019

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.