Ontario 26

Listen to Ontario 26, a 25-year-old woman from Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 25

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1983

PLACE OF BIRTH: Burlington, Ontario, Canada

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: government communications

EDUCATION: university degree

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

The subject was still residing in Burlington 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:

Um, my earliest memory from a child would be living in – well, not living, but visiting – the Cayman Islands with my parents with my parents and my grandparents.  And sitting on the beach, and there was, um, a gentleman down, just down the beach, where he used to be a captain.  So we called him Captain Marcus, and every morning he would go out and catch fresh lobster and fresh conch, and bring it up for us to have.  And he would cut down coconuts, um, so I could have coconut milk in the morning, and eat fresh coconuts.  And he had long, straggly, white hair, big bald spot in the top: really friendly-looking man.  And, uh, I was there for pirates’ week, and it turns out that he, um, was a captain, but he was also captain of a pirates’ ship, not a real pirate ship, but they have this celebratory pirates’ week thing.  So anyways, he took us out on his pirate ship for the day, and we scared some tourists.  We had a great time.  Ate more coconuts, ate fresh lobster, ate fresh conch.  It was great; I was probably 4?  And then we collected some seashells, went swimming, and that was the end of it.  He was, uh, he was probably one of the old, the eldest Caymanian residents on the island, so he was quite the attraction.  So when there was a, a shipwreck just outside of the reef that you could from see where our ponda was, and so he’d take us out in the rowboat, and we’d explore the shipwreck, and it was very exciting.  Very exciting for a 4-year-old.  But that’s – I think that’s my earliest memory.

TRANSCRIBED BY: John Fleming

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

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The DRESS lexical set is quite open (e.g., “vet, mess”). The GOAT lexical set is unrounded, and the placement correspondingly is slightly farther back in the mouth. The PRICE lexical set undergoes “Canadian raising” before a voiceless consonant but not before a voiced consonant (e.g., “price” but not “pride”). The MOUTH lexical set also undergoes “Canadian raising” before a voiceless consonant but not before a voiced consonant (e.g., “mouth” but not “around”). The TRAP/BATH lexical set is more open than other Ontario samples, perhaps with the front of the tongue receded, or the corners of the lips pulled slightly wider (e.g., “bath, captain”). 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 26 is featured as sample number 26 on that page.

COMMENTARY BY: John Fleming

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

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