North Carolina 15

Listen to North Carolina 15, a 37-year-old woman from Mitchell County, North Carolina, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 37

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1963

PLACE OF BIRTH: Mitchell County, North Carolina

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: school registrar

EDUCATION: high school

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

The subject has never lived more than a year outside her home county.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject had a very rural upbringing, in the mountains of western North Carolina.

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

RECORDED BY: Pat Toole

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/2001

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina; three brothers, one sister, had very loving parents. My dad was, um, a romantic at heart, loves to travel. Um, we were forever going on picnic, camping, routing the parkway in his van, going camping. Um, I can remember going to the woods picking wild flowers with him, or digging them up and bringin’ ‘em home and plantin’ ‘em in the yard. Um, my grandparents both are from the mountains as well. Uh, my grandfather’s name was Velvus, which is sort of a strange name. Um, he lived on a big farm. He had 20,000 chickens at one point when I was a little girl. I have — still have sort of have nightmares about having to help kill chickens and remember the smell of the feathers boiling in the big iron pot that we put ‘em in after they’d cut their heads off. My grandmother was a wonderful woman as well. Just really good memories. My oldest sister and my two middle brothers, David and Steve, they were playing witch one day [laughs]. My sister had to leave an’ she told my brother David, while she was gone, to hang my brother [laughs]. And my brother took him literally — took her literally and proceeded to hang my brother Steve on the back clothesline in the backyard with a scarf or something — I don’t know, I wasn’t born — but, um, my mother happens to walk outside and sees my brother turning blue hanging on the [laughs] clothesline. Um, and my brother David, he’s like, “I just was doing what Ranita told me to do,” you know. But, um, had my mother not walked out when she did, I think it would’ve — it would’ve been [laughs] really bad. Um, we were forever doin’ something crazy like that. It’s a miracle that we all survived into adult- …

TRANSCRIBED BY: Sandra Lindberg

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/04/2008

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Subject grew up in very modest circumstances and has never lived for more than a year outside her home county. She has visited England more than once. She is a high school graduate and is employed at the Penland School of Crafts as registrar.The school itself attracts teachers and students from all over the East Coast and as far away as California. She thinks it is possible that her dialect may have been altered slightly by this contact. She notes that it is “less strong” than her mother’s, which is a common phenomenon all over the United States as new contacts, television, and the youth culture separate the younger generation from their elders. Her Mitchell County extended family continues to be an important part of her social circle. The subject’s speech differs from that of her Yancey County neighbors in part because she does not elongate as many vowels or turn them into diphthongs as frequently. Even the frequently heard pronunciation of words like “time,” “white” and “night” employs a shortened neutral vowel. “R’s” are not as retracted either. Consonants are occasionally dropped (“sentimental” becomes “senimenal”), and “t’s” become “d’s” (“little,” “futile,” “deserted”). The “-ing” ending is usually contracted to “-in'” (“pickin’,” “bringin’,” “plantin'”), but on the other hand “morning” and “liking” are not. Some vowels and diphthongs are preceded by a schwa (“teen,” “be” and “Steve”) and (“face” and “David”). “You,” “do” and “goose” employ a diphthong, the first part of which is a high front vowel. Note the pronunciations of “cure” and “duke.”

COMMENTARY BY: Pat Toole

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/2001

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).

 

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.

 

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