Rhode Island 1

Listen to Rhode Island 1, a 34-year-old man from Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 34

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/03/1978

PLACE OF BIRTH: Providence, Rhode Island

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian

OCCUPATION: landscaper

EDUCATION: college degree

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

The subject has never lived outside Providence and North Providence.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Barrie Kreinik

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/08/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Uh, went to, Catholic school for a couple of years, uh, Saint Bartholomew? If I can pronounce that right; the nuns might get mad if I didn’t pronounce it right, but they also called it Saint Bart’s, but it was known as Saint Bartholomew at the time. And, then, uhh, when I was about 8 or 9, we moved to, uh, North Providence. Right now I still live in North Providence, which, I found out that a lot of people from the North Providence, Cranston, Johnston area tend to talk very similar to, to what I do. And it’s actually interesting because, it actually, the southern part of the state doesn’t seem to have nowhere near as much the, the accent that like Johnston, Rhode Island, North Providence, Providence has, cause my brother lives down in Charlestown, and you don’t really hear that, type of — y’n the the, uh — maybe cause it’s Hopkinton, and it’s Chariho, and it’s Richmond, and it’s it’s like more, uh, s-suburbs, but you definitely don’t hear the s- I’m not saying nobody, but no, even being on the bus today, and, for whatever reason, it didn’t ca- it doesn’t carry down that end. Now it could be a different accent, cause that’s closer to Connecticut, y’know what I mean, but it’s definitely not the, the one that I think, m- that I hear most people, that, y’know, speak similar to me. Uh, and now it seems I can’t seem to, like, act and also talk at the same time cause my mind’s going a million miles an hour, so that’s why I really wanted to address it cause I really love, uh,  Shakespeare, specifically, uh, so I want to be able to, y’know, wanted to be able to do that without, you know, sounding like — y’know, whatev — and also for other roles too. Not only for Shakespeare but I truly really love Shakespeare, I think I could just do Shakespeare the rest of my life and be happy. There’s just something about it, when I, when I pick up Shakespeare I know sometimes it’s a little bit, maybe a little bit confusing sometimes, but, it’s like gold, when you finally like, get it and click it it’s like, oh my God, like how the hell did he say that, put that so beautifully, I mean even if it’s just like talking about how gorgeous, say Juliet is, or how, she says how boundless her love is for, for Romeo, y’know, anything else — and I know there’s other great writers too, but anything else just seems to pale in comparison.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Barrie Kreinik

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/08/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Some characteristics include:
– partially rhotic: some medial and final Rs dropped (“Bart’s,” “mirror”), others pronounced (“suburbs,” “there”)
– “au” moves toward “o” (“mouth,” “pronounce,” etc.)
– “aw” closed & dipthongized (“awuh”) (“talk,” “dog,” etc.)
– glottalized final “t”
– overall placement low & back; consonants slurred/elided
– short “a” nasalized before nasal consonants (“animal,” “began,” etc.)

COMMENTARY BY: Barrie Kreinik

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/08/2012

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.