Arkansas Nine - Text
The subject is a 67 year-old Causasian female who was born in Van Alstyne, Texas, but moved before she reached her second birthday to Washington County, Arkansas, where she grew up. Listening to her talk is a real pleasure, because one feels one has stepped into a Time Machine and gone back to an era when the people in this country were not so hurried. Her deliberate and measured rate of delivery may possibly reflect her country upbringing on a farm. She was, of course, born during the Depression. Her accent is strongly rhotic. Her medial consonants are sometimes dropped (hundred, wonderful, understand) and there is often a schwa substitution for the final consonant (yellow). Her vowels are often dipthongized (much, thing, ten) and time, tire, price, right, side, and wiped, are pronounced with the characteristic Southern reduction to the first vowel. The 'g' is sometimes dropped at the ends of words (fussing, something) and there is a certain amount of IN/EN substitution (any, many). The pronunciation of farm and market, using the FORCE/NORTH vowel intrigues me because it is a characteristic I have heard a great deal in East Texas.
Recorded by Mavourneen Dwyer, 7.16.03, and edited by Paul Meier 12.12.03. Running time: 00:04:32.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
"I was born July the 10th, 1936 in Van Alstyne, Texas. And then, (uh) when I was about 14 months old, my parents decided to move to Arkansas.
So we moved to Washington County, Arkansas and I grew up in Washington County. (Um) I really had quite a wonderful childhood, even though we were poor. I was the youngest of ten: five girls and five boys.
And (uh) I had wonderful parents. They absolutely adored each other, and just (uh) demonstrated it, and (uh) I just-- I just feel like I had a wonderful childhood. And (uh) like I say, we didn’t have much money, but we had a farm and had plenty to eat.
And (um) my mother made most of our clothes. I remember one time it was Easter and she made me a beautiful yellow dress out of a-- out of two feedsacks. If you don’t know what a feedsack is, we raised chickens-- for the market. And (uh)the feedsacks (uh)-- when the feed would come, they’d come in hundred pounds. And (uh) it was just like cloth you buy in the store. So my mother made me a beautiful yellow dress, with lace on it, and little tiny black ribbon to feed into that lace and then tie the little bows."
Transcribed by Jacqueline Baker and her students in China, August 2007