Oklahoma 15

Listen to Oklahoma 15, a 44-year-old man from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas, 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): 24/12/1968

PLACE OF BIRTH: Kansas City

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: Attorney

EDUCATION: JD

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

The subject has lived in both Oklahoma and Kansas: in the Kansas City area from birth to 18 years old; in Manhattan, Kansas, from 18 to 22; and in Oklahoma City from 22 to the present.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 26/06/2013

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 practice law here at an Oklahoma City-based law firm called Phillips Murrah. I chair the firm’s alternative-energy practice group and spend most of my time focused on what I would describe as clean energy and environmental issues associated with that. Ahh, in Oklahoma those native blessings can be ah natural gas, it can be wind energy, it can be new ah bio-based type fuel, u,h feed stocks, ah, and it’s been a great way for me to have a professional life that still feels like I’m in private practice, but yet engaged in public matters, which is important to me. Um, I spent a good deal of time working for existing companies, ah, keeping them apprised and abreast of changing regulatory impacts associated with their energy-production issues and energy-consumption issues, depending on the client. And, uh, again, I feel like I’m on the vanguard of things, which is a good place for me to be, I think, intellectually. Oklahoma, uh, does have a lot of blessings in terms of, uh, its native resources. But, we’re a state that still struggles with a great deal of wealth creation, uh, and gaps between the haves and the have-nots us, so, uh, I spend a great deal of time theorizing about how our state can more reliably, uh, consume our own resources for the sake of not only the economic benefits of those producers, but also for the savings that are available to Oklahomans if they would use cleaner energy sources than importing your out-of-state coal or overusing petroleum-based products for transportation. [clears throat] I think that because our state spends a good deal of time, uh, professing to be an energy state, we focus on the production and not the consumption. Um, and so for me, uh, my professional life today kinda works to try to achieve that balance from a business outcome, but also from a public policy standpoint. And, it feels good to me. Umm, previously I’d spent fifteen years in public service either [sic] attorney or county commissioner or corporation commissioner. And in that capacity, uh, you know, everyday is different. Um, but in this one, I feel like in the last four years, I’ve had a lot more professional consistency, at least in the direction that I’m headed. And, uh, I speak to a lot less, uh, rotary clubs and public gatherings. But I hope at the end of the day, my work is having an impact, uh, on people I may never meet. Um, but it sure feels good today.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/07/2013

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Strength of accent is light but gets stronger as the interview progresses.  Subject does not have the typical Oklahoma nasal twang but has some Oklahoma influence in some diphthongs and monophthongs.  The [i] vowel (fleece) is preceded with a schwa [ə] (be, me, capacity, energy).  The back of the tongue lifts for the [u] (goose) vowel (group, duke, goose).  The second vowel in the [eɪ] diphthong (face) changes to [i] in “transportation.”  This change lengthens the [ʃ] “sh” sound.  The [ʃ] sound asserts itself into words beginning with “st,” thus forming the consonant blend [ʃtr] (strut, street).  The second vowel in the [aɪ] diphthong (price) either softens or completely drops (I, I’m, my, time, reliably, bio, like, apprised).  The ending [ŋ] sound (going) drops the [g] to become simply [n] (keeping, depending).  The [e] vowel (dress) changes to [I] (kit) in the words “again” and “spend.”  Occasionally, the [r] sound takes over the following syllable (Murrah, environment).

COMMENTARY BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/07/2013

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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