New Jersey 8

Listen to New Jersey 8, a 24-year-old woman from Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 24

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/05/2000

PLACE OF BIRTH: New York City, New York

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Chinese-American

OCCUPATION: N/A

EDUCATION: college degree

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

The speaker lived in Upstate New York for four years from ages 18 to 22, and then moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and lived there for two years until the time of this recording. Apart from that, she lived in Somerset County, New Jersey, her entire life.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Both her parents spoke English with Chinese accents, and she was encouraged to speak Mandarin at home.

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

RECORDED BY: subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 09/01/2024

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 New York City, and shortly thereafter my parents moved us to New Jersey, where I spent the next, say, sixteen ye- -ish years of my life, up until I left for college, which was back in Upstate New York this time. But I think, growing up, being the child of Chinese immigrants, I had always heard my parents speak with Chinese accents, um, in their English. And I think one way that affected me was in middle school. Um, I was in Social Studies class. The teacher at the time asked me to say the name of a dynasty, or read out loud from the textbook or something. And up until that point, I had only ever heard the word dynasty in the context of the name of a local buffet that my parents and I had frequented a lot, and my mother had always called the buffet by “Dy-NASTY Buffet.” And that was just how I thought the word was pronounced all this time. So I stood up in front of the whole class, and I said, with some hesitation, “the Qing Dy-NASTY.” And the entire class was so silent you could hear a pin drop, and the teacher looked at me. He said, “I think it’s DY-nasty.” And I had never felt so embarrassed in my life, which I won’t forget until this day.

[The subject then reads a poem by Li Bai in Mandarin]:

[Chinese (Simplified)]:
望庐山瀑布
李白

日照香炉生紫烟，遥看瀑布挂前川。
飞流直下三千尺，疑是银河落九天。

[Mandarin pinyin:
wàng lú shān pù bù
lǐ bái

rì zhào xiāng lú shēng zǐ yān, yáo kàn pù bù guà qián chuān
fēi liú zhí xià sān qiān chǐ, yí shì yín hé luò jiǔ tiān

English Translation (by Sam Hamill):
Waterfall at Lu-shan
Li Bai

Sunlight streams on the river stones.
From high above, the river steadily plunges —

three thousand feet of sparkling water —
the Milky Way pouring down from heaven.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: subject

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/01/2024

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:

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