Ontario 9

Listen to Ontario 9, a 47-year-old woman from Kincardine and Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 47

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1961

PLACE OF BIRTH: Hanover, Ontario

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: F.L.M. for Ontario Power Generation

EDUCATION: college diploma

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

The subject was raised in Kincardine, Ontario, and has lived in Oshawa, Ontario, for 15 years.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Joe Bucci

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/01/2009

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 dad was principal, so, unfortunately I was the middle child, so I had to prove that I was not a principal’s daughter.  So, what I would do in the summer, my, er, well, spring or whatever, my dad golfed with my principal – high school principal – so, my dad was principal of Ripley, which was twelve miles away; seven-hundred people in a village, and then I lived in Kincardine.  So what I would do was find out when my dad was golfing with this guy, and I would pull the fire alarm about ten minutes before he would have to leave.  So the story goes what my dad would say, ’cause obviously the principal had to deal with me ’cause then he would sit me in his office, and of course I would be watching him look at his (lot) his watch and I’d be sitting there: “Yes Mr. Arsgard, I’m very, very sorry I did that; I did it by accident.” And all this stuff, and then my dad tells the story that Mr. Arsgard would be running to meet his tee-off time, and my dad would be going, “Don, Don, what the heck is going on?” You know, “Why are you late?” and Don would just say, “Well, let me tell you what your daughter did.” He said, “Are you here to play golf?” Hehehehehe. “Lets move on.”  Yeah, you know, I had you prove that you weren’t, you know, the old little principal’s daughter that was, you know, by the book so …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Joe Bucci

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/01/2009

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Canadian vowel raising is very evident in speaker’s own speech, especially with MOUTH and NORTH lexical sets. When the speaker shifts into her father’s speech, there is a thickness in tone and openness in the mouth, making vowels elongated (words like “Don,” “late,” “on,” and “golf” in transcribed speech). 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 9 is featured as sample number 9 on that page.

COMMENTARY BY: Joe Bucci

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/01/2009

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