Michigan 19

Listen to Michigan 19, a 19-year-old woman from Southfield, Michigan, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 19

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/01/1998

PLACE OF BIRTH: Southfield, Michigan

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: currently enrolled in college

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

The speaker spent two years in Chennai, India, and one and a half academic years in East Lansing, Michigan.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The speaker is enrolled in an actor training program and has had one semester of voice training that included some attention to dialect.

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

RECORDED BY: Deric McNish

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 11/01/2018

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, it’s, it’s good; I grew up in a neighborhood, so, um, very small place. I got to — I went to school with the people who lived across the street from me. It’s quiet; it’s rural; my mom used to have to drive, like, thirty minutes to get to a Meijer or Walmart to do the grocery shopping if she needed more than, like, a box of cereal, um, but, yeah. …

Um, well, I had two Sarahs that lived across the street from me and, like, one of them was, like, kitty-corner, and one of them was just, like, straight across the street. Um, and, so, with one of the Sarahs, we would walk together to our other friend Chrysalin’s house ‘cause she lived in the same neighborhood ‘cause that’s just what we did. And, um, and we would play outside; Chrysalin had a swing set, which was cool, and a trampoline was at Sarah’s house, so we would do that, but then the other Sarah that lived straight across the street — we just, I don’t know. I feel like I watched her play video games a lot, which is, like, a weird pastime, but, um, but, yeah, that’s what there was to do. …

Yes, I have a brother and a sister. …

Uh, sometimes [laughter]. Um, oh, well, um, while growing up, Noah and I mostly terrorized our sister — um [laughter] Noah’s my brother [laughter]. Um, so, I have distinct memories of, like [laughter] — we had above the closet in my brother’s room there’s a little cut-out in the wall. It’s like a loft area, and we one time put a ladder across from his bunk bed to that loft area, and, like, got our sister, somehow, to crawl across there and sit on top of the closet [laughter] and, then, took the ladder away [laughter]. Um, which, [laughter] you know [laughter], um [laughter], so these are — these are things I do. I spent a lot of my childhood reading more than hanging out with people, actually, um, if you couldn’t tell by hanging out with me for more than five minutes, so. Um, um, I think I’m — I’m a pretty good blend of the two of ‘em: I have my dad’s sense of humor, but I definitely sound and look just like my mother.

Um, OK, well, I attend a really tiny church back home; we have like seventy people on, on an average Sunday. Like, that’s a good — that’s a good chunk of attendance there. Um, so, but every year my favorite service is the Christmas Eve service. We go to the church, we hear the Christmas story, we sing some hymns, and then the best part is, at the end, um, everyone in the congregation gets a candle and they light it and everyone sings Silent Night. This is, like, my favorite part of, uh, church, all year. And then, in the morning, um, growing up, when we lived in the neighborhood, we would open presents at home with the family and, then, we’d have to put on, like, real clothes instead of pajamas and go up to, um, my great-grandma — and also my grandparents lived in Lapeer. So, then we would go up to visit great-grandma and then go to visit the grandparents up in Lapeer.

Oh, all day long; we opened presents at home with the parents, and then we go and get some from the great-grandparents, and then we would go and get some from grandma and grandpa; it was all good. …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jason Dernay (under supervision of Deric McNish)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 12/01/2018

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.