Nova Scotia 2

Listen to Nova Scotia 2, a 38-year-old woman from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. 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: 38

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1961

PLACE OF BIRTH: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: telephone sales associate

EDUCATION: high school

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

She lived for two years in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Susan Stackhouse

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 14/11/1999

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 thought I’d start with just telling you that I was, um, 38 years old, I’m single and, uh, I worked many jobs from working with the mentally handicapped to working as a, as a trackman with the CNR, the Canadian National Railroad, and right now I am working as a Sears associate and, uh, catalogue shopping, and I have few things that you might not find too boring so I thought that I’d start with a few, ah, a few embarrassing moments that I’ve had. One is related to acting, and I thought I try my hand out at acting for a while just with the Kipewa Showboat Company here in Halifax, and, ah just as a extra, so that was fine and maybe a little dance I’d have to do, but the gentleman in charge decided that he was going to write a little play about a lady who was, uh, pregnant lady and who got stuck on an elevator and went into labor. And, of course, he couldn’t find anybody to do this with him, and so he was pulling me aside and asking me to do it, and I said well I’m not an actress, you know, I just like being the center of attention so I get on stage every now and again. But he insisted. So even with my memory I tried to, to memorize all of the, uh, the play, which I did, but I memorized it word by word. So, when he started to ab [sic] lib, I got off track there, and I was waiting for the last word, which never came, and so I skipped from the first scene to the third scene. Ha, ha, ha. So the play was a little shorter than I had expected it to be and everyone else.  So afterwards when we’re talking to the people, I swear they must have thought I was a actual pregnant woman because they … (huh huh huh), I had a pillow in, in my blouse and stuff but they must have figured, I must, he must have found the first pregnant woman that he could have to play the part.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Kamal Deep

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/05/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Subject is the sister of Nova Scotia 1 and the aunt of Nova Scotia 3. Of interest are the rising intonation and the strong example of the mid-central starting point known as Canadian Raising with the pronunciation of the word “about.” Listen for the closed “a” in words such as “handicap,” “track,” “dance,” and then the addition of the strong “r” coloration with words such as “start” and “charge.” Note also that the word “project” is used twice and pronounced differently each time.

COMMENTARY BY: Susan Stackhouse

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 14/11/1999

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.