Tennessee 18

Listen to Tennessee 18, a 57-year-old man from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 57

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 14/02/1965

PLACE OF BIRTH: Johnson City, Tennessee (but raised in Knoxville)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: White

OCCUPATION: finance and consulting

EDUCATION: bachelor of science degree in business administration

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject has never lived outside Tennessee, but he does speak of traveling “all over the world.”

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The speaker reports no other known significant influences on speech.

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

RECORDED BY: Kathryn Cunningham

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 04/08/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born in Johnson City, Tennessee, in 1965, moved to Knoxville in 1972. Lived there until ’79, when we moved to Athens, Tennessee. And I swore if I ever got back to Knoxville, I’d never leave. And I haven’t. Um, and, uh, consider East Tennessee, um, the place where God hangs his hat when he’s ready to take a rest. Uh, most beautiful part of the country in my opinion, having traveled, uh, all over the world, and, uh, the genuineness of the people, uh, and, and all that surrounds us, uh, is, is the allure, for me, to remain where I’m grounded and rooted from.

Post- or pre-COVID, uh, spending time over in Neyland Stadium and Thompson-Boling Arena, uh, for the University of Tennessee, uh, football or basketball games. Uh, I’ve been a lifelong Vol fan, uh, born in February and was in Neyland Stadium that September of ’65, so, uh, if it’s UT-related, that’s what we do in our spare time. Uh, as well as follow our son, who’s a collegiate, uh, track athlete, uh, follow him, uh, to the places where he, where he competes.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Kathryn Cunningham

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 04/08/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

This speaker’s vocal-tract posture features a significant degree of tongue-root retraction. This feature is especially notable in the NORTH, FORCE, and NURSE sets. LOT and CLOTH are distinct, with notable rounding in CLOTH. As would be expected in this region, there is consistent smoothing to a monophthong in the PRICE set (here generally realized with /ɐ/) and a PIN/PEN merger. There is noticeable breaking in the FLEECE set (sometimes realized with /əɪ̯/), the SQUARE set (/ˈskweɪ̯.ɚ/), and the GOAT set (realized with /əʊ̯/ or /oʊ̯/). STRUT is realized quite centrally. I have heard some variation in the pronunciation of Knoxville from native speakers; while some say /ˈnɒks.vəl̴/, this speaker has a clear /vɪl̴/ in the second syllable, with relatively equal stress between the two syllables.

Notable pronunciations:
lawyer: [ˈlɔw.jɚ] futile: [ˈfju.ɾɫ] can’t: [keɪ̯nt̚]

COMMENTARY BY: Kathryn Cunningham

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/09/2021

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• 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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