Michigan 8

Listen to Michigan 8, a 27-year-old man from Ishpeming, Michigan, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 27

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1978

PLACE OF BIRTH: Ishpeming, Michigan (near Marquette)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: actor

EDUCATION: N/A

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

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Micha Espinosa

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 21/04/2005

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’m from a small town (uh) called Ishpeming. (Uh) they call it “Ishperming,” even though there’s no “r” in Ishpeming, (uh) but it’s a fun li’l town. It’s a bedroom community ofMarquette, and (uh) Ishpeming is relatively tiny. There’s not a whole lot of people there, and (uh) we all know each other and everybody else knows (uh) your business and what you do, and (uh, uh) you’re pretty much related to everybody in the town, and (uh, uh) it’s nice place to grow up lot of people bring their, their families there because it’s a safe place, and they have some good schools and (uh, um), yeah, since people know each other there it’s a safe place to, to rear children and (uh, uh, uh) to spend your time with your kids. While I was growing up (uh, uh) I wanted to leave Upper Michigan because (uh, uh, um) it’s very isolated; it’s very friendly and nice place, but it’s very isolated and it’s, it’s difficult to (uh, uh, um) just be yourself because if you don’t think with inside the box (uh, uh, uh) the people kinda think that you’re strange and odd, and they thought that I was strange and odd most of the time that’s ki-that’s I went into theatre ‘cause it gave … it g-it, ya know, gives you an excuse to be strange and odd so that’s why I went into theatre. And, (uh, um) so, yeah, so my parents wanted me to go to (uh,um) Northern Michigan University, which is right in Marquette, and it’s ‘bout I don’t know about fifteen, twenty minutes away from my house but (uh) I wanted to go to Western because it was basically the furthest you could get away from [laughs] from Upper Michigan and still be in the same state without having to pay out-of-state tuition (uh) but they had a great theatre program here too so that’s, that’s the reason I came down here. And (uh, um) but yeah there’s a lot (uh) one of the greatest things I like going back up there to do is (uh, uh, um) it’s called Art on the Rocks, and it’s up in Marquette, and it’s where all the artists from (uh, um) Upper Michigan, couple of  places in Wisconsin, and (uh, uh) and in northern Lower Michigan go, and they all bring their art and it’s a culmination of (um) like a festival and art show; and they have all this art on the rocks and they have these, these little these little huts kinda set up on the rocks out there, and you can go and see different people’s art and the-they’re really unique it’s it’s similar to different (uh) art festivals and kinda fairs but it’s it’s really culminates in like this whole week of different things that are going on (uh) people go to sing and (um, uh) [unclear] musicians are there playing their instruments as well. And there’s you know you, you get the occasional fire eater and (uh, uh, uh, um) kinda Renaissance festival kind of show as well as there’s a lot of food there too. People inUpper Michiganare quite huge ‘cause they like fatty foods and everything is made with lard like pasties. Pasties are a (uh, um) a delicacy [unclear] lot of the Finnish people (uh, uh, uh, um) started pasties there that’s where kind of the, the accent comes from is the (uh) the Finnish folks and the other (uh, uh, um) folks (uh, uh, um) from Scandinavia also brought a different a unique accent up there. But pasties are a meat filled pie like a pasty pie like (um) like like a-h-a-like a-(uh, um) [pause] pot pie, but it has rutabaga (uh, uh) usually has venison-like deer meet and (uh, uh, uh) potatoes and (uh, uh) onions and sometimes celery; you could also get the vegetarian kind but they don’t call it vegetarian ‘cause most the people are kinda scared of the word vegetarian up there, so they call it “garden medley,” so, so if you ask for a garden medley, you-you’ll get one that’s made with vegetable shortening which is you —which is just as about as good for you as lard and (uh, um) there … it’s a very heavy food that (uh, um) the minors used to use they could you could eat it within this little kind of little package then you could [unclear] push it up and eat it it’s kind of like self-contained (uh) meat pie. And it’s really good. They also have gophers, which are like (uh) heavy-duty waffles, and they have different, different kind of styles; you can get ones with fruit inside of ‘em or chocolate chips or something like that and they’re, they’re they’re good but usually they … you s-smother ‘em in something that’s not good like syrups or sugars or, or things like that. So, it … so they’re made unhealthy. And (uh) what else? Cudighis? Cudighis (eh) the (uh, uh) the I-Italians up there, they (uh, uh) they like to have Cudighis. (Uh, uh) Cudighis is basically like-ike an inverted pizza. It’s where the, the saus-sausages inside it’s a really spicy meat and it’s encased in bread, cheese; you can get chopped up mushrooms on that, too, green pepper; it’s really good; it’s good it’s — g-get some good stuff. And (uh, um) yeah, that’s, that’s that’s the U–U.P. We’re also known as U-pers up there, but that’s U.P., yeah.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Rick Lipton

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/07/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Subject grew up with a strong “youper” dialect but has consciously removed it. For this interview, he put it on a bit thick. Note: pure /o/ for goat; palatalized short /a/ for trap; strong post-vocalic /r/; and a rhythm not as bouncy as the North Dakota dialect.

COMMENTARY BY: Micha Espinosa

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 21/04/2005

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