South Carolina 6

Listen to South Carolina 6, a 78-year-old woman from Leesville and Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 78

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/03/1927

PLACE OF BIRTH: Leesville, South Carolina

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: retired

EDUCATION: high school diploma

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

The subject moved to Columbia, South Carolina, when she was 18. She also lived for three years in West Palm Beach, Florida.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She was born and raised on a farm.

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

RECORDED BY: Tom Angland and Erica Tobolski

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/04/2005

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

OK, I was raised in, uh, Leesville, South Carolina, out in the country. It was, the name of the place was Ridge Road. And we, I went to Ridge Road School in, in grammar school; they had a big room and a little room. You know, you don’t hear tell of that now. I was born out the country, with three brothers and two sisters and my mom and daddy, and he bought a, he bought a, when I must have been about 8, 9 years old, we lived in a rented house. Well, daddy decided he’s going to buy him a farm, so he bought a 60-acre farm not too far from where we, uh, lived. And I helped hoe and pick cotton [laughs], oh my goodness, and when I got 18 years old then finished high school, I, I left. I didn’t have to do that anymore, but um, that’s just the way they did back then. The children, they had children so they could work in the field and all. That sounds silly, doesn’t it?  But I tell you, my mom and dad was really good to us though. I, I have friends say that they went hungry, they didn’t have food to eat, or anything hardly to wear, we always had nice clothes, we always had food to eat, anytime, anything we wanted, we had it. And I never had to, um … [Interviewer: “This was during the Depression, wasn’t it?”] Yeah, it was. And you know, people had to, uh, people went around to the really the people that didn’t have food and stuff, and give them food and stuff. But, praise the Lord, we never did have to get it. Because we, uh, farmed and mama canned a lot. She’d, it’d, now they freeze it and everything. Well, she started freezing it before she passed away. We had just about everything, you know, we need — we had everything we needed out there. And, uh, and, it, it was really nice. And then I came to Columbia when I was 18 years old, and of course whenever my husband was in service, I traveled around with him some.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Tom Angland and Erica Tobolski

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/04/2005

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Subject has melodic speech patterns, often inflecting upward in beginnings and middles of sentences for emphasis and humor. At ends of thoughts, final vowel sounds tend to be elongated, sometimes with diphthongs substituted for pure vowels.

Diphthongs

[aɪ] becomes [ɑ] as in tire, time, right side
[aʊ] becomes [au]as in house
[eɪ] becomes [aɪ] as in plain
[j] is heard in Duke and tune

Pure Vowels

[ɑ] becomes [ɔu] in long, strong
[ɪ] may have an added schwa to become [ɪə] as in ripped
[ɛ] may have an added sound to become [ɛə] as in stressed

Consonants

T, D, L and P frequently dropped when following other consonants as in district, felt, expect, confirmed, wanted, sentimental, hold
Final T, D, K and P frequently softened or dropped as in jacket, kit, lunatic,
implied, kept

R-coloring has a wide range; for example:
efforts has a hint of r
either has a dropped r
tired has strong r-coloring
S sometimes is substituted for Z, as in was, disease, because, dogs

Other Idiosyncratic Pronunciations:
Final y sometimes becomes a schwa as in very, Perry, gently
[ŋ] may become [n], as in canning, etc.
Sarah and Mary are pronounced with [eɪ] as first syllable
Harrison loses its middle syllable

Syntax

Subject often uses short phrases at ends of sentences as if to say “etc.” or “and so on.” These include “and stuff,” “and all,” “and everything.” Subject frequently finishes a sentence or thought, and then begins an embellishing thought or takes the narration in a new direction by starting the next sentence with “And” or “But.”

Vocal Quality

Speaker uses clear, resonant tones. The placement is mainly in vocal mask and not notably nasal. There is some “vocal fry” or gravelly sound, probably due more to age than misuse.

COMMENTARY BY: Tom Angland and Erica Tobolski

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/04/2005

The archive provides:

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• 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).

 

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