Texas 13

Listen to Texas 13, a 20-year-old woman from Huntsville, Texas, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 20

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 10/11/1981

PLACE OF BIRTH: Huntsville, Texas

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: The subject was attending college at the time of this interview.

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

The subject has lived in Texas all her life.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject says she is more aware of her voice when reading, and she makes an extra effort to be clear and articulate.

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

RECORDED BY: Pamela Christian

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/02/2002

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) When I was little, I was — I was born in Huntsville, and (um) we lived out in the country, and we had this horse, named Billy an’ (um) — we could really call ’im Old Faithful because we, we were young (um).  There’s seven of us, and at this time there was prob’ly five of us born, and my brother and I were the oldest two.  And my dad would, y’know, always be takin’ care of the kids.  And he would just trust us to go out with this horse any time.  He knew that — I mean, horses can be dangerous, but he didn’t think this horse was dangerous.  We could go out there, ’n’ we’d stand up on the rabbit cage, ’cause of course we’re too short to saddle it up.  But if we stood on top of the rabbit cage, we’d call the horse over by it ’n’ stan’ still ’n’ let us saddle ’im up ’n’ … An’ my brother an’ I would ride ’im, like, every day.  An’, after a while, we just, like, thought, “Hey, let’s have some fun with this.  Let’s play games.”  An’ so we just let the horse go.  We’d just kick it ’n’ he would just walk all around the whole pasture, and we just decided, “OK, we’re gonna close our eyes.”  So we jus’ kind of, almost took a nap on the horse.  We’d just close our eyes an’ he went all the way aroun’ the pasture, ’n’ up an’ down the slopes an’ ev’rywhere, and then whenever he knew he ’ad covered it all, he came back an’ just stopped at the gate, an’ then we opened our eyes an’ we were like, “OK, we’re here.”  ’N’ then we got off ’n’ we’re — it was so funny ‘’cause I always remember that story.  Because it was the only time that we actually did that, where you close your eyes, but he still did exactly what we would ’a’ done if we would have had our eyes open and been leading him.  It was like he didn’t even need to be led; he already knew where to go.  So anyway, he was trained really well.  An’ (um) anyway my a– as far as my accent goes, (uh) people’ve always commented that I’m real country.  An’ it’s strange that people comment that you’re real country when you’re in the same town that you’re from.  You wouldn’ think that people would say anything to you, unless you’d go outta state or somethin’ like that, which ’d definitely get — ’cause we say y’ all, an’ ev’rybo– ev’rywhere I go people wanna know if I say y’ all, an’ I’m like, “No, we don’t say y’all,” an’ then when I leave, I’m like, “OK, ’bye, y’all!”  An’ they’re like, “Aw, caughtcha.”  Anyway, so I reall– I do say “y’all” a lot.  (Um) But my family would comment on it too.  They’re like, “You’re real country.”  An’ they — ev’rybody would mock me, either my family, or school.  Anyway, they would repeat things that I would say as soon as I would say it. An’ I’m like, “I’m not country.”  An’ they’re like, “Yes, you are.” An’ I’m like, “No, I’m not.”  An’ it would jus’ get worse from there, so I’d jus’ have to stop talkin’, ’cause it would get so twangy that  I, I, I couldn– I couldn’t even listen to myself.  An’ (um) my brother used to get mad at me, ’cause he listens alternative music, and I was — I’d know some of the words, and I’d kinda start singin’ and he’d say, “Please stop because you’re makin’ it sound so country, an’… it’s not a country song.” An’, y’know, even a couple years ago he said it again, he’s like, “You make every song country.”  Just, y’know, don’t do it.  [Subject sings:] “It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart. Without sayin’ a word you light up the dark.  Try as I may I could never explain what I hear when you don’t say a thing.”  An’ that one is country, but another one that’s alternative sounds just as country.  [She sings again.:] “Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage, for someone to say what is lost can never be saved.”  An’ that is a totally alternative song, y’know, hard-core, heavy metal, an’ ’s nothing country about it, but somehow I tend to make it country. …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/07/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Subject says she is more aware of her voice when reading, and makes an extra effort to be clear and articulate. The “country” aspect of this voice is found in the phonetics of her speech, as common to most regions of Texas, but more significantly with the quick speed and stop-start rhythm of the delivery. Subject also trails off at the ends of most lines and phrases, indicating a more relaxed way of speaking overall. For an analysis of vowels and a few other sounds, see this PDF.

COMMENTARY BY: Pamela Christian

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/02/2002

The archive provides:

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• 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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