Oklahoma 11

Listen to  Oklahoma 11, a 47-year-old man from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Virginia, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 47

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1961

PLACE OF BIRTH: Tulsa, Oklahoma

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Native American (Kiowa)

OCCUPATION: book clerk

EDUCATION: college graduate

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

The subject has lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and other places around the country.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Although the subject has traveled around the United States and worked with people from different geographical regions, he says his dialect is influenced mostly by his time in Oklahoma.

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

RECORDED BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/06/2009

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 Oklahoma during the first, uh, twenty-five years of my life. Uh, in growing up Oklahoma seems to have a, um, me a laid-back and, um, um, yet hardy flavor to the voices, and, um, I noticed whenever I lived on the East Coast, uh, for a while and the, uh, mid to late eighties, uh, and how differently East Coasters speak. Uh, their manner of speaking, at least to me, as I lived there was, uh, maybe a little, little louder and more rushed at times, whereas I think, uh, Oklahomans, uh, or Midwesterners perhaps might have a more, um, uh, perhaps gentle quality to their voices, uh, ss … I’m probably more used in my cultural background, um, with uh, the, uh, customs and, um, family relations, uh, at least with my own, uh, lineage, uh, my talk I would probably say culturally a little slower, uh and more, u,h more about open-minded questions like you know, “How are you doing?” and, uh, um, ”What’s been going on?” and so forth, uh. And as I got more into, um, uh, perhaps my college work and spending time on the East Coast, uh, things are more, I would probably say dialoguing is a little more purposeful, and it doesn’t sound quite the same way, I guess, when maybe you’re at home or maybe even just like,you know, with with really close members of your community. Um, uh, it sounds a little different. Uh, I spent time mostly in Oklahoma. Uh, there’s been some years in Virginia Beach, uh, I worked out of state, uh, with, uh, folks in, uh, New Mexico around the Santa Fe area and, uh, also in, uh, uh, Ridgecrest, North Carolina, uh, area also there; I don’t know if that’s the Appalachian Mountains or not, or it’s in that, uh, that mountain range there in the U.S. there in the Southeastern United States. Uh, and I’ve also, uh, vacationed some in like Canada in the Northwest and in Seattle and so forth and then a little, little tiny area of maybe the, uh, West coast like visiting San Francisco and what not but probably most of my, uh, cultural and speaking background has more to do with, uh, I would say Oklahoma and the Western United States, and, um, the, uh, accents that, uh, you pick up naturally as you know are born and raised … you know here is this part of the U.S.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/06/2009

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Throat muscles begin to close in the middle of stressed phrases and words, thus lengthening vowels and consonants in vocal fry. Back of the mouth is flat. Stressed phrases are given additional consideration and weight. Consonant “r” is hard and lengthened. Ending plosive consonants such as “d” and “t” are formed but not released. Consonant “s” is lengthened in initial, medial, and ending positions. “S” can also replace a “z” sound at the end of a word (eighties, was). Medial “t” is sometimes dropped. [ə] (short “uh” sound) comes before an “ou” diphthong (goat, New Mexico) and an “u” vowel (goose). The [aɪ] diphthong (surprising, tried, implied) loses its second vowel. Short [ɪ] (kit) lengthens. The personal pronoun “I” is replaced by [ə].

COMMENTARY BY: Ben Corbett

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/06/2009

The archive provides:

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• 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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