Virginia 15

Listen to Virginia 15, a 16-year-old male from Herndon and Great Falls, Virginia, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 16

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/05/2006

PLACE OF BIRTH: Alexandria, Virginia

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: White/Caucasian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: high school

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

The subject has never lived outside northern Virginia.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject’s birth mother grew up in Upstate New York, and he says that he likely has some subtle influences from that area in his speech.

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

RECORDED BY: subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/04/2023

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 Alexandria, Virginia, which is in northern Virginia, but I only, uh, lived there as a baby; um, when I was [I] think six months old, we moved to, uh, Great Falls. Um, I lived in Great Falls for several years, until I was 8 or 9, and then I moved a couple of miles to, um, Herndon, Virginia, which is where I live right now. Um, we grew up in a really big house, but not because we were wealthy, but because we had wealthy family friends, who by a long, long – there’s a very long story connected to why we were in this house, but we were renting it for very cheap. So I remember running through long hallways and having a big backyard. So the move to the house that I live in now, which is significantly smaller, was – it was a little hard to get used to. We had a lot of stuff and not a lot of room to put it in, but I like this house, and I like my room in this house; it’s very cozy. It’s a nice house.

I, uh, I’m a musician, I’m – I’m a percussionist. I mostly play drums, um, but, uh, I also sing, and I’m trying to teach myself piano.

TRANSCRIBED BY: subject

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/04/2023

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

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

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.