Ohio 2

Listen to Ohio 2, a 57-year-old man from the Bay Village area of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 57

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1943

PLACE OF BIRTH: Heidelberg, Germany (but raised in Cleveland)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: N/A

EDUCATION: N/A

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

The subject was born in Heidelberg, Germany, and moved to the United States at age 6. Although he first located to Boston, Massachusetts, he and his family settled in Cleveland and have remained there since. Subject traveled the world as a military serviceman.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Cat Kenney

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/09/2000

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Well, I grew up, uh, in the west side of Cleveland, and, um, um, out there in the west side of Cleveland.  [Pause]  That’s about it, you know.  Uh, Bay Village.  Went to school out there, uh, grade school.  An’ then, uh, Lakewood, went to high school there, in Lakewood.  An’ then I, uh, joined the, uh, service after that.  Where’d I go? [Chuckle]  Well, I joined the Navy, and I went, uh, everywhere.  Uh, I was overseas.  Uh, this ’s, uh, back in Southeast Asia, Gulf o’ Tonkin,  uh, went to Hawaii, Philippines, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, um, pretty much saw the whole world, you know.  Tijuana, California, Florida, Atlantic Coast, Pacific Coast, um, sailed the seven seas, crossed the equator, was a shellback.  That means that you’ve crossed the equator.  If you haven’t crossed the equator, it means you’re a pollywog.  Well, catchphrases, like, uh, when I was young, you know, “cool,” “neat,” “neato.”  I like “neato.”  I still try an’ use that, uh, word when I can.  Um, catchphrases: “Y’know what I mean?”  There’s one for ya, “Y’know what I mean?”  Um, what else?  Dunno, that’s about it.  Yeah.  I was born in Heidelberg, Germany, right by the castle, and, uh, Heidelberg’s a real famous little city.  You know, it — university there.  It’s — I think it’s — Heidelberg’s rated in, like, the top two or three universities in the world.  And, uh, it’s got, y’know, rich stuff there.  It’s, uh, kind of like a hamlet, uh, hamlet-ish type town that’s tried to maintain that, uh, uh, quaintness.  ’S a big castle that goes back to the, uh, um, y’know, feudal, medieval times.  Um, Kant, eh, used to walk there, uh, and study there.  Uh, they’ve had some distinguishables that sat in the, uh, philosophy chair there at, uh …  And, uh, I think Kant was one of ’em.  Like I say, there’s a place there, it’s known as Kant’s walk, because, uh, he walked the same time – People could set their watch by where Kant was in his morning walk.  He was so methodical.  An’, uh, the Allies as I, uh — I think I’ve mentioned it — the Allies didn’t bomb Heidelberg.  It’s one of the only places they didn’t bomb.  Uh, an’ a lot had to do with so many of the pilots went to school there, an’ had such fond memories of, of Heidelberg.  An’ of course, the Heidelberg scar, y’know, comes from, from there.  That was a little scar that you, uh, if you got it, y’know, you were proud of it.  You took a little saber to the cheek, and, uh, it’s a famous dueling sp– scar now.  I, I think I prob’ly knew at one time exactly why, why didn’t they call it the Munich scar, or, y’know, something?  Now, there’s a reason why, but, y’know I’ll have to look in my book an’ refresh my, uh, memories on that.  But Heidelberg is a, uh, in Europe is a very well-known town. Um, 1949 came, uh, to United States an’ went to Boston, came in at Boston, an’ then we had family here in Cleveland, so we moved to Cleveland.  And at that time, we moved to around the West 25th/Vega area, which, um, would at that time, probably have, y’know, a lot of immigrant-type people.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/07/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

His speech is typical of the “north-midland” Ohio dialect (also see Ohio 1) but also includes characteristics that may trace back to his ethnic heritage, which is German-Polish. The Cleveland area witnessed a large influx of immigrants from Germany and the Eastern European countries during the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These settlers brought with them not only their customs, culture and cuisines but also their original languages. As they learned English, certain sounds and pronunciations were retained from the original tongues, and some have found their way into this dialect. His speech also has the nasality typical of this region and the hard or retroflexed /r/.

COMMENTARY BY: Cat Kenney

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/09/2000

The archive provides:

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• 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).

 

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