Tennessee 16

Listen to Tennessee 16: a 65-year-old woman from Macon, Tennessee, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 65

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/05/1956

PLACE OF BIRTH: Macon, Tennessee

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Black

OCCUPATION: customer-service manager

EDUCATION: bachelor’s degree in education

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS: none

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

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

RECORDED BY: Jacqueline Springfield

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 29/09/2021

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 was born in Macon, Tennessee: small town located between two smaller towns, Oakland and Somersville. Most people don’t know where Macon is located, but it’s a very popular town; it kinda joins everything together. Thirty-five minutes from Memphis, Tennessee. You can find yourself walkin’ along the Mississippi, enjoyin’ the evening or the night skies.

I have eight brothers and sisters. We all grew up in a small town — small house. Three rooms: bedroom, livin’ room, and kitchen. It’s funny how we all managed to live there together and never get in each other’s way.

Most thing that I always dreamed of doing was going to school. And that dream came true. Without knowin’ I was gonna get a scholarship, I had practice hard; I played a clarinet, and I was able to get a scholarship to college to play music; and I had that opportunity. After a time, I had a opportunity to get married. Love that! The most joyous thing in my life was havin’ a son. An’ my life flourished from there. But looking back, I’m bless to have lived in a small town — Macon, Tennessee — growin’ up in a small area an’ gettin’ an opportunity to go and see what’s bigger in life.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jacqueline Springfield

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/10/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

Note the presence of the pin-pen merger in words like “then” and “get” and the first syllable of “Memphis” and “Tennessee.” The diphthong in words such as “liking” and “find” become monophthongized. The speaker also exhibits intermittent use of the alveolar nasal /n/ in place of the velar nasal /ŋ/ at the end of words such as “morning” and “having.”

COMMENTARY BY: Jacqueline Springfield

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/10/2021

The archive provides:

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• 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.