Arkansas Four - Text
The subject is an educated 56 year-old Caucasian female, born and raised in Arkansas. She lived there all her life. Her parents and both sets of grandparents were also born and raised in Arkansas. Her speech is strongly rhotic (r-colored). The i/e substitution is to be heard in words like "many" and "attend". Vowels in words like "bridge", "band", and "red", are lengthened and sometimes diphthongized. The vowel in "do" and "university" are also diphthongized. The long "i" of "time" and "sign" always receives an "ah" substitution. There is a certain degree of nasality in the tone that can be typical of the Arkansas dialect. Pitch variety is more evident when the speaker is talking about her family, upbringing and personal life.
Recorded by Mavourneen Dwyer, 2.25.01, and edited by Paul Meier. Running time: 00:04:09.
TRANSCRIPTION
I currently live in Bella Vista, Arkansas. I was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas, when my parents were both students at the University. My dad got his law degree while up here at the University, and once we moved to Little Rock, he started his law practice there for a short time, before getting diverted into other occupational professions. Law, I guess, just didn’t suit him.
(Um) My dad was originally from Harrison, Arkansas, and my mother (uh) was born and raised in eastern Arkansas in a little town called Marmaduke. And she was-- she later moved with my grandmother to another small town called Wynn, (uh) mostly an agricultural community, a lot of cotton and this type of stuff, back in the early ’40s and ’50s.
(Um) Some of the memories I had-- I was raised in Little Rock, like I said, when my dad moved there to set up law practice. (Um) Don’t remember much about growing up there until 1957, when we had the great Central High School… Incident, as we like to refer to it. (Uh) I remember schools closing at that time because of the Central High School problem, and having to attend elementary school in our church, since the schools were closed for two or three weeks at that time.
(Um) Little Rock was a nice place growing up. Can’t say that I would want to live there now. (Uh) Northwest Arkansas was a wonderful place to live. My grandparents, on my dad’s side, were from Northwest Arkansas, and then my grandparents on my mother’s side were from Eastern Arkansas. So it was a-- kind of a clash of cultures….
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY JACQUELINE BAKER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR TRANSCRIPTIONS, October 1, 2007