Arkansas Two - Text
The speaker is a 22-year-old Caucasian female who was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her mother was born in Erlangen, Germany but moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas at the age of 3 and grew up there. The speaker's father was born and raised in Fort Smith. She is a graduating senior at the University of Arkansas/Fayetteville.
The speaker's breathiness and shortness of breath, especially during the informal speech section on the tape, is asthma-related. Vowels are diphthongized ("huge") and medial consonants are often dropped ("nobody", "something", "except"). Final consonants are occasionally left off as well ("got", "hand"). The final "a" in grandma is pronounced to rhyme with "aw"-("gran-maw"). The "i/e" reversal is quite characteristic ("many", "ends", "centuries", and "anyways"). The speaker's use of the "A" substitution for the "aI" diphthong is prevalent throughout ("entire", "riding my bike" "horizon", "sky", primary", etc).
Recorded by Mavourneen Dwyer, spring 2000, and edited by Paul Meier. Running time: 00:03:53.
TRANSCRIPTION
My mom was born in Erlangen, Germany, and (uh) she moved here when she was three. (Um) And she was raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas. My dad was (um) born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and lived there his whole life, except when he moved to Little Rock, but he moved back.
I have one brother and (um) one of my favorite memories as a child was my brother and I, and my cat, Space. (Uh) We lived in these apartment complexes, and (uh) we weren’t allowed to have cats, but I had my cat anyways, and we (um)-- we used to take her outside and we’d just walk around and let her play. And then we’d pick her up and we’d put her back in the house so nobody would know. And (um) well, one day Space got out and was sittin’ there walkin’ down the sidewalk. And my brother was outside playin’, and I was ridin’ my bike. And (um) the --the landlord, or the owner of the apartment complex, walked up and goes, “Well, that’s a pretty cat,” and (um)-- and my brother-- oh, I mean the landlord goes, “Well, is that (uh)-- is that your cat?”
And Kevin goes, “No, that’s my sister’s.” And so, he basically just told that we had a cat. And so the landlord called my mom and said, “Well, you know, we found out you had a cat…” and, everything like that, and so, “You need to get rid of her.”
Well, we didn’t. We moved, so we could keep her. ’Cause we’d had her before we moved into the apartment, but (um) that’s one of my favorite memories, (uh) was with my brother. ’Cause we had several, and that was just one of them.
(Uh) Another memory I have is (um)-- is about my grandma. (Um) I love going to my grandma’s house. I’ve been goin’-- I go all the time now, but when I was younger I used to go a few times a year, and I’d stay about a week by myself. Me and my brother we’d trade off weeks, ’cause we were never allowed to be there at the same time. ’Cause we would fight.
And, so when I’d always come up, my grandma would always, like, buy food that I like to eat, and she’d always leave it in there, and she’d cook these huge meals for me. And she’d bake all these cakes, and I mean-- I just remember being so happy while I was there, and her house was always immaculate. You couldn’t find a speck of dust anywhere in her house, even if you tried. I-- I-- I wish people would try, you know, just to see, ’cause I don’t think they really would. And (um)…
Well (um), one day me and my grandma were sittin’ in the kitchen. And (um) she’s got a garden and fountain outside in her backyard, and trees, and it’s a really pretty backyard. She’s got (uh) geraniums and (um) roses, every color rose in her back yard. And they have these two trees. And like one of the trees has (um) this cornstalk on-- somethin’ my grandpa made to feed the birds and the squirrels. And then the other one’s got birds-- it’s a bird-feeder. And so the birds and the squirrels always come down and-- and eat the food.
Well (um) one day I was sittin’ in the kitchen, and my grandma said she had to go outside, in the backyard for somethin’. But in the kitchen, the whole wall is a window. So you can see directly into the backyard. And there’s these two trees right like in front of the walkway-- or, right behind the walkway, if you’re sitting where I was sitting. And my grandma-- the squirrel was eatin’ some birdseed, or something (laughs) or some bird_______. And my grandma walked by the squirrel, grabbed the squirrel by the tail, and ran her hand all the way down the squirrel’s tail, and it didn’t even flinch. And I thought that was the most magical thing I’d ever seen in my entire life.
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY JACQUELINE BAKER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR TRANSCRIPTIONS, September 30, 2007