Rhode Island 2

Listen to Rhode Island 2, a 61-year-old man from East Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 61

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 06/12/1956

PLACE OF BIRTH: East Providence, Rhode Island

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian/Irish-American/part Portuguese

OCCUPATION: director of editorial services, marketing, and communications

EDUCATION: bachelor’s degree

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

The subject lived in Boston, Massachusetts, for a short time.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

He does not think that any other factors, including his time in Boston, have influenced his speech.

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

RECORDED BY: Megan Chang

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 12/04/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

… And along those same lines, um — and thinking about some, some areas of, of the state, um, you know, th-that’re maybe different or, or, m-maybe that people get a little confused — uh, they don’t understand the pronunciations or whatever. One of the things that comes to mind is, uh, is, is the town of Burrillville in the northern part of the state. So many times you’ll hear people, uh, drop the two middle L’s and just say “Buriville,” and it’s actually Burrillville. So for anyone who’s a native of that area, I always felt kinda badly for because it seems that th-th-their town name was always getting, uh, was always getting, uh, butchered.

One of the pretty cool things, I think — although others from out of the region may not think this — about Rhode Island is the number of villages, um, that are associated with particular communities. Uh, Burrillville is one great example where you would have probably seven or eight different villages, uh, broken up in this one town. And actually Burrillville geographically is, is, is a pretty good-sized town, at least by Rhode Island standards. We’re the smallest state in the region, as, as, as many people know. But I would think that, uh, places like Oakland, Mapleville, and, um, Pascoag are very foreign to most Rhode Islanders unless you live in the vicinity of, of Burrillville. However, people live down in the southern part of the state would, would probably say the same thing. Areas like, uh, uh, Wakefield, uh, Jerusalem: Uh, those would be kinda foreign as well to people who lived in the middle part or in the northern part of the state. So, um, I guess it kinda depends where you, where you grow up, and what your experiences is like and what your exposure is like in terms of an awareness of this. But I, I always kind-kinda found villages, uh, kind of an interesting concept here in Rhode Island.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Megan Chang

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 25/07/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The subject’s speech displays a variable level of rhoticity commonly heard in Rhode Island accents. Much of the rhoticity used depends on stress placed on the word and the placement of the word within a sentence. For example, /-er/ words that end a sentence are more likely to be non-rhotic, as are unstressed words. Even when rhoticity is used, there is less contact with the tongue, resulting in a lighter rhoticity than is used in other American accents. The subject’s alveolar plosive and nasal consonants are slightly dentalized, which is common in very strong Rhode Island accents. Finally, the subject often uses a slightly labialized alveolar approximant that is sometimes heard in strong Rhode Island accents, though not often used by younger generations.

COMMENTARY BY: Megan Chang

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 26/07/2018

The archive provides:

• Recordings of accent/dialect speakers from the region you select.

• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.

• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.

• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.