Iowa 1

Listen to Iowa 1, a 21-year-old woman from Linn Grove, Iowa, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 21

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1986

PLACE OF BIRTH: Spencer, Iowa

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: The subject was in her third year of university at the time of this recording.

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

She was raised in Linn Grove, Iowa, and was living in Boca Raton, Florida, at the time of this interview.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Adam Rælson

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/02/2008

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’m from a small town in northwest Iowa. There’s not really a lot to do there. We just hung out with our friends, and, there wasn’t really a lot to do, but we had the … fun. Um, everyone pretty much knows everyone; it’s a pretty small, tight-knit community. There’s lots of cornfields, and animals, and farms. So, a lot of my friends lived on farms, but I lived in town. Um, I don’t know what else to say, but uh, that’s it!

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

She does not seem to have a very strong deviation from a standard American accent. In the word “veterinary” she pronounces it “vech-ruh-nary” with emphasis on the first syllable and a more nasalized /æ/ before the “r.” She pronounces “territory” with that same nasalized /æ/ before the “r.” This sound occurs regularly in her recording whenever there is a near-front open-mid un-rounded vowel or /a/ before an “r.” She pronounces the first syllable of “either” with an /i/ sound (opposed to an /ai/ sound). Though it’s not in the recording, this subject says “pop” when referring to a sweet, carbonated beverage.

COMMENTARY BY: Adam Rælson

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/02/2008

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.