Ontario 23

Listen to Ontario 23, a 37-year-old man from Parry Sound and Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 37

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1971

PLACE OF BIRTH: Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: lawyer

EDUCATION: university degree

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

He went to school in Vancouver, British Columbia, and also in London, Ontario. He was living in Oakville, Ontario, at the time of this recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: John Fleming

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/11/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Theatre? No, I don’t go to the theatre, but I do like to go to movies occasionally, or rent a movie and watch it at home: action movies, something that is believable more than not believable, but something that stretches your imagination.  Favorites recently: I recently rented and watched “Iron Man,” which I also saw in the theatre, and I enjoyed that movie. Um, I try to – and that depends on how much downtime I might have – I always try to have a book at the ready, so if I have time, I’m ready to read.  You know, what’s funny, is, um, erudite is a word that I’ve never used verbally, but I read all the time.  I know what it means, but I’ve never actually said it, which is why I stopped and paused, which is interesting, when I run into that, once a year, you, you’re trying to say a word that you’ve never said before, but you’ve read it, and you know what it means, and you know the context, but you don’t know how to pronounce it.

TRANSCRIBED BY: John Fleming

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/11/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

All initial [h] sounds are more aspirated than other Ontario samples (e.g., the multiple “her”). His lips don’t have much movement, which gives the FLEECE lexical set a slightly rounded sound (e.g., “street, read”) and makes the GOOSE lexical set have a distinct lack of lip rounding (e.g., “movie”). The DRESS lexical set is quite open (e.g., “vet”). Both the PRICE and MOUTH lexical sets undergo “Canadian raising” before a voiceless consonant but not before a voiced consonant (e.g., “price” but not “pride,” “mouth” but not “around”). His glottal attacks on initial vowels are quite strong (e.g., “itchy, odd, iron”). The features of the dialect of mainstream English speakers in Ontario can be heard at Professor Eric Armstrong’s website (http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/ontario/words_and_phrases.html). Ontario 23 is featured as sample number 23 on that page.

COMMENTARY BY: John Fleming

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/11/2008

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).

 

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