Prince Edward Island 1

Listen to Prince Edward Island 1, a 20-year-old woman from Charlottetown, PEI, Canada. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 20

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1980

PLACE OF BIRTH: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: cottage cleaner

EDUCATION: high school

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

The subject lived less than one year in Alberta, Canada.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Susan Stackhouse

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 25/06/2000

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Well, I was born at the hospital. I forget where it’s at, but it’s an old hospital. It’s burned down now, or somethin’, the old Charlottetown Hospital. And, uh, raised in Hillsborough Development, in Charlottetown. And moved to Rocky Point, three years ago. Went to school, started at, um, St. Jean’s Elementary. That’s in on Queen Street in Charlottetown, almost downtown. Went to Birchwood for my junior high, Birchwood Junior High; and then on to Colonel Grey, to high school, for my high school years; graduated, moved to Alberta, moved back home, had a daughter. [laughs] And now I’m cleaning cottages for a living. My daughter is 16 months old on the second of July, and she is absolutely beautiful [laughs], of course. Everybody says she is, and I know she is, and, um, she’s very smart. She started to say bum, hot, light, in the matter of two days that you know … they start really quickly [laughs], and they copy everything you say. And so, she flushes the toilet, and she puts her diaper in the garbage by herself, and she, um, she’s very good. When I say no, she shakes her head no, and she’ll walk away, from whatever it is that she’s not supposed to be around. And, um, she is going to be going into gymnastics. They can start when they’re a year. And she’s double-jointed. [laughs] She’s double-jointed. We found out when she was very small. She would turn her arms around, and we took her to the doctor, thinking there was something wrong with her arms, and there was nothing. Her … she’s double-jointed in every joint, so he just twisted her hips and everything to show us, and we were like, “Oh my God, don’t break the hips. Like, just leave them alone.” But anyway, so she’s going to go into gymnastics. She’s very energetic. And, um, I’m sure she’s got that ADD already. Almost, I’m almost positive. I have it, and her father has it, so… anyhow, she, um, she’s helped me lose a lot of weight, you know. And, uh, that’s not a problem anymore. Fitting into a bikini, and, just, comes with [laughs], with chasing after her, and, and, um, yeah, that’s about it, about her …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker, with revisions by Catherine Sweet

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/01/2008, with revisions on 25/11/2014

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

This is a great example of Canadian Maritime speech. Nasality is strong, and teeth do not part very much when speaking, so vowels are closed and some are skipped over altogether. Listen for the pronunciation of “Charlottetown” and “development,” and notice that “but” becomes “bt.” Rising intonation is very evident and used throughout. Most final [t]s and [k]s are aspirated, as in but, smart, not, bite, start, weight, it, gymnastics, energetic. The [r] is very strong in almost all cases. As in most Canadian dialects we hear a strong example of Canadian Raising (mid-central starting point when the following consonant is voiceless) in the words “down, out, around, downtown, round, now, found, around.” In fact, these vowels are sometimes extended into tripthongs. The Canadian Raising is also evident in the words “high” and “white light.” Of interest is the pronunciation of the vowel in the words “say, away, small, good, grey, man”; the use of the word “anyhow” in the place of “anyway”; and the phrase “where it’s at” instead of “where it is.” As in other eastern Canada samples, the word “miracle” is pronounced “mericle,” and final [g]s are often dropped as in “gonna go” and “somethin’.”

COMMENTARY BY: Susan Stackhouse

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 25/06/2000

The archive provides:

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• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.
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