Michigan 22

Listen to Michigan 22, a 20-year-old woman from Highland Township and White Lake, Michigan, 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): 28/05/1997

PLACE OF BIRTH: Pontiac, Michigan

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: junior in college

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

The speaker has never lived outside Michigan. (She was born in Pontiac but raised from a very early age in Highland Township. When she was 5 years old, she lived for one year in Troy, which is 28 miles away from Highland Township. She then lived 20 miles away in White Lake from approximately 7 years old until 14 years old. She then returned to Highland Township for four years. At the time of the recording, she had been living in East Lansing for two and a half years.)

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

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

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/03/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I grew up in a few different towns: I was born in Pontiac, but I was raised partially in Highland Township; it’s very rural. We have — I don’t know what it’s called — a farm, I guess, across the street where they – I don’t know the word for it — they keep horses there, and a lot of memories I have from my early childhood involve going across the street to pet the horses or feed the horses or them [laughter] like, being in my yard, ‘cause they would just come to say hi. We’re like technically part of a neighborhood but not really, ‘cause the layout isn’t like your typical neighborhood.

I moved away from Highland when I was 4 or 5 to Troy, which I don’t really remember much about. So, I was only there for one year, um, but, there was a girl [laughter] who lived next door who was always really mean to me, but she was really good friends with the girl I was living with, so they would always play together, and I would never be able to join them because the girl didn’t like me for whatever reason. Uh, the only other thing that I really — I mean, I remember a lot of things about that house, but, our parent’s cars would always get stuck in the driveway in the winter, and when I was learning how to ride a bike, I had to make sure that I didn’t go down the hill on accident because that would be [laughter] very scary. So, I would go the other way, and if I fell, I would fall on the grass, which was fine, but anyway.

Then I lived in White Lake, which is where I spent a lot of, like, my developmental years, I guess. So, I started — I mean, we moved there when I was in second grade and stayed there until eighth or ninth grade, and that was where I had, like, the stereotypical childhood experience where all the neighbors were friends, and we would always play outside together. And I was very close with the family who lived next door, um, so we were almost always outside playing. After eighth grade or ninth grade – I don’t remember which year – we moved to a trailer park down the street. It was a scary experience for me. I had been there a lot as — when I was younger — because when we lived in Highland with my dad I was babysat by a woman who lived in this trailer park. But when we moved there [laughter], everything was very different, and the community wasn’t as friendly as it was when I was very young. So, I was scared to, like, go to the pool or do anything really [laughter] outside of the house. Now we live in Highland Township again: same scenario as the very beginning. Everything is pretty much the same except for the people who live in the house next door to us because the original owners moved, but the original owners were nicer.

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

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/03/2018

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).

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