Prince Edward Island 2

Listen to Prince Edward Island 2, a 42-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: 42

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1958

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:  N/A

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:

I was born in Charlottetown, PEI.  I lived in the main street.  It’s called University Avenue.  At that time, it was Elm Avenue.  Um, lived there most of my life.  Then I just moved around town.  Not much of a mover.  [laughs] I don’t like to move.  Um, married, have one daughter, three grandchildren, all daughters, all granddaughters.  And married almost 24 years.  Everyone’s from the Island.  Yeah, as far as I know, they’re all from PEI, in one area or the other.  Grandparents are from, from Charlottetown.  My, on my mother’s side.  My father’s side, they, they were from Rice Point.  They lived in Rice Point for a lot of years, and then they moved to Charlottetown, too.  And Rice Point’s out towards Rocky Point, out that way.  We used to go on, on uh, picnics at the beach when we were little.  When we had a birthday; mine was in the summer; my sister’s first, so we always had them at the beach.  It was for birthdays. [unclear] They always used to have sack races and three-legged races and all that kind of thing.  It was a great time at the beach.  Beach is just everything here.  It’s just the center of everything.  Uh, I would go to Basin Head.  It’s, uh, called “Singing Sands,” and you walk along the beach.  It sounds like music.  Up in — it’s in East Point.  It’s beautiful up there.  You know [unclear] the East Point Lighthouse.  It’s nice.  You can go in to see to see that.  Uh, there’s lots, lots of fishing boats around.  Rustico and all over. Just — that’s where we are — fishing.  [laughs] Lobster.  [laughs] I hate to have the seafood, but new potatoes. When they first come out of the ground — just the little ones — they’re the best.  They’re the best.  Oh, yes, you got to have new PEI potatoes.  Like, just have to.

There’s one expression I heard and it’s like, this is a one-armed paper-hanger, which I’ve never heard before and — and that’s— it’s just an Island saying, but I had never heard it until one of the girls I worked with said it.  And all I could do was laugh.  I was like, a what?  A one-armed paper-hanger, that’s how busy I am.  I said OK. …

TRANSCRIBED BY: John Wright

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 05/15/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Subject has lived on PEI her entire life and is another wonderful example of Canadian Maritime speech. The speedy delivery and rising intonation are both prominent. The teeth are hardly parting, and the jaw is tight. This speaker lacks breath support and has a tendency to run words together; final consonants are not always evident. There is a sense that the speaker is taking a short cut by leaving out words as in “you gotta have,” “far as I know,” and “beach is just everything.” Pronouns (I and my) are often omitted, as in “married,” and “grandparents …,” “lived there most of my life,” etc. The [g]s are dropped from -ing endings, as in “fishin’.” The vowel [o] in “lobster,” “lotta,” “you gotta,” “pot of gold,” and “gods” moves closer to an [ah] sound, as does the vowel in daughter. Canadian Raising is evident in “white light,” “life,” “like,” “lighthouse,” “Rice Point,” and “around.” However, it is not as strong as in the speech of Prince Edward Island 1.

COMMENTARY BY: Susan Stackhouse and Paul Meier

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 2000

The archive provides:

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• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.
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