West Virginia 4

Listen to West Virginia 4, a 49-year-old woman from Charleston, West Virginia, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 49

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 06/09/1971

PLACE OF BIRTH: Charleston, West Virginia

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: White

OCCUPATION: teaching artist

EDUCATION: graduate degree

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

She lived in New York City for about eight years in the early 2000s.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: NA

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

RECORDED BY: Kris Danford

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 17/07/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

So several times when I have traveled [laughs] — one time was in, uh, New Orleans — and I went to see a fortune teller just for fun. Um, and, um, as I was talking to her, she told me that I should be doing what she was doing: that I should tell, you know, fortunes, or read people. And I thought that was really strange, um, but it was neat. And she said “No, I-I-I sense it with you.” And so I thought that was, you know, wild. And the, the closest I’ve ever felt to anything like that was: I have s- a lot of dreams, like, over the years, like, where I’m in the dream and then I think something happens and I feel like “wait a minute; I kind of dreamed that,” but I dreamt that; I’m sorry.

But anyway, um, but the one experience that kind of does freak me out was, um: I was living in New York City, and I was asleep. And in the dream, my dad was, um, driving — I’m from West Virginia — and he was driving, um, in the rain, and it was kind of dark out but not dark like nighttime. It was this — kind of like the sun was just coming up, but it was still rainy so it was probably super early. Um, and then in the dream he, he fell asleep at the wheel and kind of went off the road, and then I [gasps] kind of woke up. And, um, and then I woke up. And I looked outside, like, when I was in New York City and I, I can remember hearing the cars and stuff and, and it was barely daylight there. So it was kind of, like, strange — it was sort of the same time. And I fell back asleep.

So when I woke up later, I had completely forgotten about the dream. Um, but happens — um, the strange thing is, later in the day— I don’t talk to my dad all the time, but, um, he called me. And I remembered. And this was like, like, almost, it’s almost in the evening. And I said “Oh! Wait a minute, Dad, I totally just remembered I had this crazy dream about you this morning. Um, just really glad to hear your voice, I forgot all about it. And you …” And um, and I just started talking ‘cause he was laughing and being silly, and he’s a joker. And, um, as I was talking to him about it, I said, “Yeah, it was early and you were — you were driving and, and it was raining,” and then all of a sudden he got really quiet.

He’s very earthy: a, he’s not one to believe in, in this kind of stuff, really. But he was freaked out. And I said, “What’s going on, Dad?” And he said, “Well, I drove to Bluefield this morning.” And that’s about an hour and a half from where he lives. He sells insurance so he was, he was— he takes these early morning appointments. And he said, “I drove to Bluefield this morning, and it was pouring the rain, and it was barely daylight, and I fell asleep at the wheel and I jerked my car. [laughs] And then I gra- you know, I realized I was falling asleep,” he said. “‘Cause it was just a second, and then I jerked it and I— and I was OK.”

TRANSCRIBED BY: Kris Danford

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/09/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The STRUT set is realized as [ɜ].
The DRESS set before a nasal consonant is realized as [ɪɘ] or [ɪ], as in “then” and “remembered.” In other contexts, it is realized as [ɛə].
The PRICE set is realized in many cases as the monophthong [aː], often with noted elongation, as in “wild” and “implied.”
The MOUTH set is realized as something closer to [æə], as in “out.”
The FLEECE set is realized as “ɪ̝iː” with a slight diphthong and elongation, as in “dream” and “sleep.”
Where L exists before a vowel, it is notably light, as in “barely,” “early,” and “daylight.”
Velarized L is sometimes not pronounced at all, as in “able,” “hold,” and “older.”
-ing endings are sometimes realized as [ɪn], as in “driving” and “going.” But this is not consistent and can be realized with the velar nasal in the same sentence.
Pronunciation of “insurance” features emphasis on first syllable.

COMMENTARY BY: Kris Danford

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/09/2021

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