Kansas 8

Listen to Kansas 8, a 69-year-old man from Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 69

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/10/1948

PLACE OF BIRTH: Ottawa, Kansas

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: retired mechanic

EDUCATION: high school

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

Except for a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, stationed in Germany, the subject reports never having lived more than a few miles from Lawrence, in eastern Kansas.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject reports that his parents instilled in him a sense of propriety when it came to speaking and behaving. Education was highly valued in his family. He believes that has shaped his speech.

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

RECORDED BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 21/05/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Ah, I was born in Ottawa, Kansas, which is a small town just south of here, about thirty miles. And, uh, lived there until, um, after I got out of second grade, uh, in grade school, and then we moved to Lawrence here. I grew up in Lawrence until middle-high-school years, and then my family moved to Eudora. Um, ha-ha, because my parents, um liked a small town better than a larger town, and larger being relative; Lawrence was probably maybe 50,000 at the time, but they considered that a, a lar- a big town, and they wanted to live in a smaller town. So, uh, my last two years of high school we lived in Eudora, and I graduated there, um, with a very small graduating class – twenty-two kids in the class. And, um, then as soon I got out of high school, I moved back to Lawrence, and I’ve basically lived here the rest of my whole life except my stint in the Army where I was in Germany for a year and a half after my training, here in Lawrence. …

As I say, one of favorite work stories was that it — we had a, uh, um, a Native-American mech-, one of the mechanics: His name was Henry. And, um, also on the mechanic crew there were, uh, several folks that could be classified — if you wanted to classify people — as redneck in their attitude. And so one day at our morning break, one of, uh, one of the guys kind of got into this rant about the fact that more, um, Middle-Eastern people were showing up working in the convenience stores, the 711s and, and this; and he is just kind of going on about how every time you turn around, there are more of these “towel-heads,” as he referred to them. And, ah, his complaint was that they don’t bother to learn to speak English well, and, uh, it just seemed like at at every turn there were more and more of ‘em showing up. And, uh, so Henry, the Native-American, with just a a little wry smile, he said, “Well you know, John,” he said, “My people have felt that way about your people for the last four-hundred years.” [Subject laughs] …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Paul Meier

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 21/05/2018

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:

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