Minnesota 2

Listen to Minnesota 2, a woman from Annandale, Minnesota, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

Both as a courtesy and to comply with copyright law, please remember to credit IDEA for direct or indirect use of samples.  IDEA is a free resource; please consider supporting us.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: N/A

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

PLACE OF BIRTH: St. Cloud, Minnesota

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: actor and account executive

EDUCATION: N/A

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

She was raised in Annandale, Minnesota, one hour west of Minneapolis.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Paul Meier

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

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 Minnesota, and have lived here pretty much my whole life.  I was raised in a small town, ah, west of Minneapolis, one hour west of Minneapolis, and … Childhood memories have been great.  Um, very … I come from a warm, loving family with, ah, two older sisters, no brothers.  And, ah, was raised by both my parents, which are still living today. Well, what’s neat about this state is we are, uh, a very caring and giving and warm and loving state, which is a great thing, and we’re also driven for success.  Uh, Minnesota is one of the top leaders for hard-working states, out of all of the states in the United States.  Um, we have great work, work ethics.  We’re very driven people, and, um, we’d love to be successful.  Minnesota alone has, um, rated number — I believe it’s number 5 percent through the United States for Fortune 500 companies, which should give you a lot about our state itself.  Um, we have wonderful companies here that continue to grow.   And it’s really a great thing to live here, because the people are very helpful, very eager to help, and when someone really needs a, a lending hand, they do come out and will help when needed. My accent is a little bit different, um, and the reason why is I have a soft voice, and people like that, and I like it.  It represents to, um, the male and female, non-threatening, uh, voice, very soothe, southering [sic], and, uh, I have noticed myself, or people have told me it’s very nice to talk with me because it’s so — it’s smooth, it’s soft, it’s very natural.  And how it really compares is — expecially [sic] — Well, it compares for a lot of reasons.  One is because I’m from a small country town, and that makes a difference compared to the cosmopolitan, compared to downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, which are two different suburbs, um, compared to where I live.  And, uh, why it is so different is because, um, in the Minneapolis area, uh, it’s very fast-paced, and they talk more of a cosmopolitan, although I can talk cosmoto– politan when I want to.  Just for the fact that, in my work force, where I’m at right now, I can switch my voice and my tone at any point in time, depending who I talk with.  Because I, I speak with many people from Minnesota, and on the east coast, and on the west coast. They might just go. [Subject re-reads “Comma Gets a Cure” in loud voice, local dialect, through “stressed.”]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/06/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Notice the vowels in the NURSE, PRICE START, MOUTH, GOAT, and GOOSE lexical sets as significant to the local dialect. She demonstrates her impression of some with a “stronger Minnesota” dialect and immediately becomes louder and uses more range of pitch.

COMMENTARY BY: Paul Meier

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.