Michigan Five - Text
This Detroit native provides a rather typical example of a Southwestern Michigan dialect. Listen for the characteristic Michigan tendency to move the back vowel in 'honest' into a sound which is closer to a front vowel. This is demonstrated in the words, "drops, beyond, pot, office, constantly " and " processed." Michigan a's are exhibited in, "campus, at," and "animals." This change is usually more exaggerated when preceding a nasal consonant. The 'o' diphthong sound in "home" and "own" are characteristically tightened, leaning toward a pure vowel sound. "Are," is a good example of the somewhat dark 'r' heard in this area, also heard in 'for' which is pronounced, "fer," also common among Michigan speakers.
This sample was recorded by Cynthia Blaise. Running time: 00:02:04
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
I’ve worked at Wayne State for the last ten years. I’m now in my eleventh year and I’m in my third office on campus. I enjoy the campus, I love the student life and I enjoy having the activities, um, at my disposable—disposal on campus. Currently, I work in the alumni association office. And I am more like an office manager. I, uh, make sure that everything runs smoothly, personnel positions are filled constantly, paperwork and bills are paid and processed accurately. I’ve only been in this job for the last seven months. I enjoy it tremendously. The work sometime is tedious but the people make it worthwhile to come into work every day. In addition to my work at Wayne State, I also housesit as a means of additional income. By housesitting, I, um, volunteer to watch people’s pets, um, when they go out of town. I get to, uh, leave my home and have a mini-vacation. I get to walk their animals. I get to play with other dogs that I know I could never have in my home. And I get to see parts of the city that I usually don’t get to see. I love to hit—housesit on the east side of this city because that’s where most of the nicer homes are. I get to experience their restaurants and their neighborhoods and feel a lot safer, um, at their homes than I do, actually, at my own.
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY JOHN WRIGHT 11 AUGUST, 2008