Nova Scotia Two - Text
Subject is white female, born in 1961, high school educated, presently working as a telephone sales associate. Born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Spent 2 years (around age 30) living in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada before returning to Halifax. She is the sister of Nova Scotia1 and the aunt of Nova Scotia3. Of interest is the rising intonation and the strong example of the mid central starting point known as Canadian Raising with the pronunciation of the word 'about'. Listen for the closed 'a' in words such as 'handicap', 'track', 'dance', and then the addition of the strong 'r' coloration with words such as 'start' and 'charge'. Note also that the word 'project' is used twice and pronounced differently each time. Recorded on November 14, 1999 by Susan Stackhouse and edited 02/05/00 by Paul Meier. Running time 00:02:45
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
I thought I’d start with just telling you that I was (um) 38 years old, I’m single and (uh) I worked many jobs from working with the mentally handicapped to working as a, as a trackman with the CNR, the Canadian National Railroad and -- right now I am working as a Sears associate (uh), catalogue shopping and -- I have few things that you might not find too boring so I thought that I’d start with a few (ah), a few embarrassing moments that I’ve had. One is related to acting and I thought I try my hand out at acting for a while just with the Kippoboscho (spelling?) Company here in Halifax, and (ah) just as a extra so that was fine and maybe a little dance I’d have to do but the gentleman in charge decided that he was going to write a little play about a lady who was (uh) pregnant lady and who got stuck on an elevator and went into labor. And, of course, he couldn't find anybody to do this with him and so he was pulling me aside and asking me to do it and I said well I’m not an actress, you know, I just like being the center of attention so I get on stage every now and again. But he insisted, so even with my memory I tried to, to memorize all of the (uh), the play, which I did but I memorized it word by word. So, when he started to ab [sic] lib, I got off track there and I was waiting for the last word which never came and so I skipped from the first scene to the third scene, ha ha ha. So the play was a little shorter than I had expected it to be and everyone else. So afterwards when we’re talking to the people I swear they must have thought, I was a actual pregnant woman because they -- (huh huh huh), I had a pillow in, in my blouse and stuff but they must have figured, I must, he must have found the first pregnant woman that he could have to play the part.
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY KAMAL DEEP, EDITED BY PAUL MEIER, 03 May, 2008