Massachusetts 4

Listen to Massachusetts 4, a 40-year-old woman from East Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 40

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1965

PLACE OF BIRTH: Portugal

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Portuguese

OCCUPATION: receptionist

EDUCATION: grade nine

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

She was raised in East Cambridge, having moved there when she was 1 year old. Since then, she hasn’t spent any significant time outside Massachusetts.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Rebekah Maggor

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/2005

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, uh, St. Michael, Azores, and, um, I lived there for about a year.  It’s in Portugal.  Azores is — Portugal has seven — is it seven or nine little islands, that actually is away from Portugal, but it belongs to Portugal.  So I was born, like I said, St. Michael, Azores.  And then, um, a year after, we just came to America, and I was — America.  Actually we came to East Cambridge, Massachusetts.  And then, basically I was just raised in East Cambridge, and [laughs] guess I’ve still been here.  When we moved here, there was very little Portuguese people here.  It was just — I don’t- – I wouldn’t even know, maybe like 5 percent.  Now I’d say there’s — it’s gotta be like about 70 percent Portuguese, if not more.  Even like if you notice down Cambridge Street:  all the little Portuguese shops, little Portuguese clubs that the guys hang out at.  [Laughs] It’s just so funny.  I know I turn to my Internet because there’s certain — even though if you try to block certain programs, you can still — well, TV, I think we were talking about MTV, and how it’s — there’re programs on there that are not suitable for children.  And what they show, you know, certain things like that, I strongly believe they shouldn’t show at all, but that’s my opinion.  And, um, you know when we were talking about … Google?  Wasn’t it Google? How that even though if you have the parental block on it,  if you type in a certain word, it will still pop up a certain image that you don’t want to see?  Yeah, and, uh, I basically just sit at the reception desk, answer the phone.  If someone comes in, and they have a general question, if I can answer it, I do.  Shippin’/receiving, I’m also in charge of that.  There’s just so much that — half of the stuff — I, I automatically do, but I don’t remember what I was describin’.  There is so much to do, and it’s so hard to … If I were to list it down, it would take me a whole full day to really list every little detail.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/01/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

She speaks with a “middle a” and (like Massachusetts 3) uses little “r coloring” in combination with certain vowels.

COMMENTARY BY: Rebekah Maggor

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/2005

The archive provides:

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