New Jersey 3

Listen to New Jersey 3, a 44-year-old man from Newark and Belleville, New Jersey, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 44

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1961

PLACE OF BIRTH: Newark, New Jersey

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: N/A

EDUCATION: college

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

The subject is a life-long resident of Newark and neighboring Belleville, New Jersey.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject was raised in Newark of Italian descent.

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

RECORDED BY: Joseph Petrone

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/2005

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 was born 44 years ago in Newark, New Jersey, exactly one mile from where I live right now.  At age 26, I purchased a two-family home in Belleville, which is a suburb of Newark with about 35,000 residents.  From any point in Belleville, one can clearly view the Manhattan skyline.  We are only five miles west of lower Manhattan.  Before 9-11, we used to be able to see the twin towers in detail from the hill up the street from my house. The twin towers and I have some history. Like many people from this area also did, I spent a lot of my youth over in Manhattan.  I can remember sitting at the base of the towers countless times.  My friends and I would take the PATH train over to the city, which is Manhattan — get some pizza, or whatever, and go relax at the bottom of the towers.  No matter how many times you stared at those towers, they were still just as amazing. Years later, I proposed to my beautiful wife Demaris on the top of tower number 2.  Tower number 1 was reserved for TV antennas, and the public wasn’t allowed up there.  Less than three years after I proposed to her, the towers were gone. On 9-11, 2001, I was still sleeping, when my mother, who lives in Pennsylvania, calls me to tell me that the World Trade Center had been attacked.  I threw on some clothes and drove over to a clearing in Kearny, the town right next door to us.  There, with about a hundred other people, most of us with video cameras. I watched the collapse of the second tower.  The feeling was surreal, as we all stood there, watching the spectacle with our naked eye.  Our cars were parked on the side of the road, each radio blaring with the news of what was happening.  I felt like I was in a bad fifties sci-fi movie.  It’s hard to believe that those towers are actually gone. Anyway, you are now listening to an authentic northern New Jersey accent;  44 years in the making and not to be confused with the more common New York City accent.  Yes, we do say “walkie-talkie, water, coffee, long, you’se guys, radiator,” et cetera. When you go to a supermarket here, you don’t get a shopping cart, you get a “carriage,” and you are never standing in line, you are standing “on line.” “G’ead” means go ahead.  For instance, “G’ead and get a carriage.  I need get some coffee and water, then I need ta talk to the manager for a while.  So you’se guys, g’ead without me.”  Lots and lots of unique things about the way we speak in this area. Uh, time’s up, gotta run.  Thanks for listening.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 16/01/2008

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.