South Carolina 7

Listen to South Carolina 7, a 25-year-old man from West Columbia and Lexington, South Carolina, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 25

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1980

PLACE OF BIRTH: Greenwood, South Carolina

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: college admissions officer

EDUCATION: bachelor’s degree

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

The subject moved to West Columbia, South Carolina, when he was 5 years old and has lived there and in nearby Lexington.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject comes from an highly educated family.

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

RECORDED BY: David Britt and Erica Tobolski

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 14/06/2006

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Uh, originally Greenwood, South Carolina; it’s a small town, you know, on Highway 25, maybe thirty minutes south of Greenville. Uh, Dad was teaching at Lander University, and then by the time we were 5 we moved to the Columbia area, so I’ve lived in West Columbia and then Lexington as I was in high school. Uh, came to the University of South Carolina in 1999. Uh, I was here for four and a half years, graduated in December of 2003, uh, with a Public Relations degree; you know, it’s here out of the Journalism School. Uh, did a Political Science minor just for fun. The Political Science minor was important, uh, to me because the, the way they allowed us to do the minor, you know, you just had to take say the, the entry level, you know, American government class and then you just pick some others, uh, and I was able to pick electives, uh, that dealt with, you know, Southern politics and particularly, uh, the relationship of, of Southern politics with the, the struggle of women and the struggle of minorities, you know, in the deep South, so getting to take, uh, sort of a gender and politics class and learn about, uh, you know, women’s issues, being able to take, uh, sort of a Southern history course that dealt with, uh, the Civil Rights movement, you know, those type of things are important as in, you know, they, they help raise awareness, you know, which, you know if, if you can’t change the world, you know, I, I think it’s important just to see the kind of things that, that happen on a daily basis and know especially the, the route, uh, you know, of, of those struggles. Usually the people that I know a lot about I don’t admire. Uh, the South, uh, in many cases is contradictory, uh, in that there are things that we’re very proud of but rose out of something. Uh, you know, that, that there’s, there’s a little bit of shame for, like uh, being from South Carolina. Uh, Strom Thurmond, you know, was an important state legislator for us; you know, we’re proud that he was one of the longest-serving [senators]. …

TRANSCRIBED BY: David Britt and Erica Tobolski

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 14/06/2006

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

His speech demonstrates many features associated with a South Carolina “Midlands” sound. Listen for the substitution of [ɪ] for [ɛ] in words such as “sentimental,” “penicillin,” “expensive,” “gender,” and “many.” [aɪ] becomes [ɑ] in “five,” “high,” “Carolina,” and “minor.” [i] is preceded by schwa in “three,” “deep,” and “people.” [ŋ] endings get dropped to [n] in “singing” and “being.” The diphthong gets extended in “great” and “able,” with the insertion of a schwa sound preceding it. There is a lack of lip-rounding in the second sound of the diphthong in “so” and “goat.” A slight schwa precedes the vowel in “root” and “school.” Lastly, rhoticity is used throughout.

COMMENTARY BY: David Britt and Erica Tobolski

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 14/06/2006

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.