Tennessee 17

Listen to Tennessee 17: a 66-year-old man from Jackson, Tennessee, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 66

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/05/1955

PLACE OF BIRTH: Huntersville, Tennessee (near Jackson)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Black

OCCUPATION: retired Baptist minister

EDUCATION: bachelor’s degree in business

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS: none

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The speaker is a Baptist minister, which influences pitch inflection and prosody.

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

RECORDED BY: Jacqueline Springfield

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/09/2021

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 in 1955 in West Tennessee in a county, in the, Madison County, west of Jackson, Tennessee. Jackson, Tennessee, was well known for Carl Perkins, Casey Jones; but also West Tennessee was known for not wantin’ to get out of segregation. So I was born and raised in a — in the cotton fields of West Tennessee in Huntersville. We picked, not because we had to — we picked because we were made to. We were made to stay at where we were in that particular environment. But yet and still, I persevered; we went, I went to a, a all-segregated school for eight years, and then I went to Northside, uh, High School, which I went for one day. But they made it very clear that they did not want a Black young man wanting to educate himself. So I went to another school, and there I, I thrived.

I was the first of eleven children to go to college, and in college, uh, I majored in business and loved music. Hence, this is where I met my wife. I saw her across the campus, uh, right be- right below Isaac Lane, our founder’s statue. And I saw her and I told her that you are going to be my wife. Obviously she thought I was crazy. But I can tell you we been married for forty-five years plus, and it has been the best years of my life because I could not have grown to where I am now, uh, if it was not for her. Uh, if it was not for her, I would’ve been incomplete. I am bless[ed]. I became a Baptist minister, and I preach the ministry of reconciliation, because we all desire a second chance.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Springfield

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 12/10/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Note the intermittent substitution of /f/ for /θ/ in words like “with” and substitution of /d/ for /ð/ in “then.” /ʍ/ is present in “where” and “which.” Note the elimination of the final consonant in the words “stressed” and “blessed.” Pin–pen merger is present in words like “then” and “get.” Many words are non-rhotic, such as “where,” “warned,” “letter,” and “born.” The speaker also exhibits intermittent use of the alveolar nasal /n/ in place of the velar nasal /ŋ/ in words like “relaxing” and “paying.”

COMMENTARY BY: Jacqueline Springfield

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 12/10/2021

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).

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