Virginia 3

Listen to Virginia 3, a man in his 60s from Radford and Martinsville, Virginia, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 60s

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1930s

PLACE OF BIRTH: Radford, Virginia

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: N/A

EDUCATION: college

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

The subject was born, raised, and attended college in southwest Virginia but then lived in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Indiana for substantial periods before moving back to Virginia and then ultimately to Alabama about ten years before the recording was made.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject is the husband of Virginia 4.

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

RECORDED BY: Daydrie Hague

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/07/2001

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

In the beginning, I was born in a little town (uh) Radford, Virginia, up in the mountains of Virginia. I was educated in the local school system. I went to college from there, which was also located in southwest Virginia, but further back in the mountains. And (uh) then we moved to North Carolina. From North Carolina we moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From Pennsylvania we moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and from there, back to Virginia. We stayed some years in southwestern Virginia, an’ then we went to the far east coast of Virginia, to Williamsburg. Moved to southern Alabama, and have been here for approximately ten years, an’ certainly that would (uh) affect my dialect in some ways, I’m sure. (Uh) We raised a family, (uh) an’ I enjoy not only the family, but grandchildren as well. And (uh) are looking forward now to retirement (uh) within this year. We goin’ tell a story about (uh) childhood, some o’ the fun things that (uh) happened. (Uh) There’s so many of ’em, I don’t know where to begin. As a child, I was pretty well spoiled, as I was the oldest grandchild on either side of the family. Therefore I received an inordinate amount of attention. My mother thought I was absolutely perfect, and entered me into anything happening. (Uh) I learned how to do the Chinese ballet as an infant, and of course, she gave me all the social graces, which were very important back in the thirties. (Uh) As I grew, I (uh) found out that there were manly things, which my father introduced me to, such as (uh) visiting the farm, as a small child, and staying with my grandparents, finding out about a whole ’nother world. (Uh) My grandfather, who was quite a strict fellow, (uh) very hard worker, taught me how to shoot my first gun. What didn’ bother to tell me was that a 36-inch barrel, 12-gauge shotgun was not what a 8-year-old kid should shoot. I ended up with a very large bruise on my shoulder, an’ my grandfather stayed in hot water with my mother for some time thereafter. But I did brag about shootin’ a big gun. And I shot a big rabbit, too. Well, ’n’ havin’ to — (uh) as we grew (uh, uh) — one o’ the high points of my life, of course, was (uh) when I graduated from high school. (Uh) I met someone who ’came very special to me, an’ (uh) still is to this day. (Uh) I didn’ know it at the time, that our relationship would last this long, because that’s not what I had planned. The first time that I asked her out, I thought it was a temporary thing. (Uh) But as it turned out, that temporary thing has turned into 50 years, so … An’ I still …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Baker

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/07/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Although both of his parents’ families have lived in the region for some time, his father’s family, many of whom were members of the Dunkard Brethren, settled there in 1879. Raised in Martinsville, Virginia, and educated at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, the subject worked as a sales executive for various furniture companies in North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis, among other areas. The constant travel and the nature of his work contributed to the mitigation of his regional speech. Evident in the subject’s speech are some of the regionalisms common to many Southern dialects: fairly strong {r} coloration, the i-e substitution as in “tin” for ten, the elimination of diphthong formation as is “tahm” for time, and “nah” for now. The subject uses the liquid {u} frequently and tends to broaden a short neutral vowel toward a parent vowel, as in “wahman” for woman. Note that this subject and Virginia 4, his wife, were raised and educated in, and traveled to, the same places, but their speech sounds and inflection patterns are quite different. According to this subject, Virginia 4’s speech is much more indicative of speakers in that region.

COMMENTARY BY: Daydrie Hague

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/07/2001

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).

 

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