Michigan 13

Listen to Michigan 13, a 40-year-old man from Cheboygan, Michigan, 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): 21/05/1968

PLACE OF BIRTH: Cheboygan, Michigan

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: mixed (Caucasian and Native American)

OCCUPATION: computer systems administrator

EDUCATION: bachelor’s degree

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

He was raised in Cheboygan (just south of Mackinac Bridge, which leads to the Upper Peninsula), then moved to Houghton, Michigan, for college.  He has lived in both of those cities since.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Patricia Helsel

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 05/05/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

All right. I was born in Cheboygan, Michigan, um, at the age of zero [laughs]. Um, lived there my entire life. Um, when I was in the fourth grade we moved, um, on the other side of the county, still in Cheboygan; still went to Cheboygan schools. Um, graduated high school, in Cheboygan. Um, went to, um, Michigan Tech University, college, which is in Houghton, Michigan [clears throat], um, which is about a five-hour drive from Cheboygan, in good weather. Um, was at Michigan Tech for a little over four years. Uh, met the woman I married [at] Michigan Tech, and then we moved back, um, to Cheboygan. I,  I had found a job at a company, right in my hometown, um, doing, uh, embedded systems programming for automotive test equipment, and I guess I worked there for about, uh, six-and-a-half or seven years, then decided to make a career change. Um, looked around at different places and, uh, there wasn’t really anything in my hometown doing what I wanted to do so we looked up here, which is, uh, my wife’s hometown, this area, and, uh, so I applied at, uh, different businesses, and Michigan Tech University, and Finlandia University [clears throat], um, ended up, uh, interviewing at both universities and then accepted an offer at Michigan Tech. Been at the university, now, a little over nine years and, um, got suckered into doing an interview. [Laughs] Um, wait.  Where do I go from here? So I been, uh, married almost sixteen years and, um, we have, uh, ten kids right now and our oldest, she’s 14 and a half.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Patricia Helsel

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 05/05/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

This dialect features several diphthongal substitutions, pure vowel sounds, and distinctive consonant treatments. The diphthong /ʌi/ is substituted for /aɪ/ (as in “time”). /ɑɪ/ is substituted for /ɔɪ/ (as in “Cheboygan”). The second sound, in the diphthong /aʊ/, is sustained and sounds more like /u/ (“town”). In the diphthong /ɛɝ/, little emphasis is placed on the initial sound /ɛ/, with more weight on the final /ɝ/ (“years,” and “married”). /ɚ/ is sustained, particularly in the final position of words. /ɚ/ resonates, like back vowel sounds, more toward the throat, with a high position at the back of the tongue. /e/ and /o/ are sustained, pure vowels, not pronounced as diphthongs (/eɪ/ and /oʊ/). One notable feature of this dialect is the frequent glottal stop on /t/, in the medial and final positions of words (“Houghton,” for example, and “start.”) /t/ and /θ/ are slightly voiced (“territory,” and “the”).

COMMENTARY BY: Patricia Helsel

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 05/05/2008

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.