Ontario 29

Listen to Ontario 29, a 58-year-old woman from North Bay, Ontario, Canada. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 58

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1950

PLACE OF BIRTH: Bowmanville, Ontario

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: public-health inspector

EDUCATION: college

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

She was raised in North Bay, Ontario, and has lived in Kitchener and Burlington, Ontario.

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:

I could say that, um, I guess the best pet I ever had was a dog by the name of Moses.  We’ve had lots of dogs, but this dog was, um, kind of special to us.  We had, uh, had to have our … the, the dog we had before him we had to have put down; he had had lupus.  And about a month after that, my daughter decided we should pop into the Humane Society, and see what was at the Humane Society.  Well, we walked in, and all the dogs were yapping, except this dog was just kind laying there by himself.  Just being very quiet, just kind of looking at us.  So we thought: Mmm, there’s a nice, quiet, calm dog; let’s see about him.  And we ended up taking him home.  Only he turned about to be about the craziest dog in the whole place.  It took a lot of training, and a lot of patience.  He was literally ninety pounds of puppy brain.  They didn’t know where he’d been for – he was about a year old – they didn’t know where he had been for about six months.  He knew “park it” for “sit,” and that’s about all he knew.   Anyway, he was quite the runner, quite the challenge, but he ended up being just about the best dog we have ever had.  Turned out to be wonderful.  He was part Newfoundland.  He was a lab/Newfoundland dog, so he was a big dog.  And uh, uh, and, uh, then, uh, he lived with us for thirteen years, and, uh, we really miss him, uh, now.

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:

The DRESS lexical set is quite open (e.g., “vet” and especially “best” in unscripted speech). The PRICE lexical set undergoes “Canadian raising” before a voiceless consonant but not before a voiced consonant (e.g., “price” but not “pride”). Sometimes, the raising occurs before a voiced consonant as well (e.g., “time”). The MOUTH lexical set also undergoes “Canadian raising” before a voiceless consonant but not before a voiced one (e.g., “mouth” but not “around”). The LOT lexical set is very open before a voiceless consonant but not a before a voiced one (e.g., “got” but not “dog”).  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 29 is featured as sample number 29 on that page.

COMMENTARY BY: John Fleming

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

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