Illinois Six - Text
Subject is male, Caucasian (Italian heritage), from Ravenswood Illinois on the border with Indiana. Age 18, this full-time student's speech features the very "flat" sound that characterizes the mid-west; similar "flattened" sounds can be heard in other Northern cities, such as Detroit MI and Buffalo NY. Recorded by Eric Armstrong, and edited by Shawn M. Muller. Running time, 00:03:11.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
*When I was about five years old I um, I always used to like Flintstone vitamins. So my um, my parents they would always keep it on top of a cabinet, and they, they always told me take one vitamin, but I would always take, y'know, one or maybe two time, y'know, two times a day I would take it. And one day I just got up there and I saw a bottle and, they put it up real high, when I just went up there and I *took the whole bottle. My sister caught me taking 'em and *she told my parents and I went to go hide under a couch, 'cause I was* t.. *'cause I was, y'know, scared 'cause I knew it was something bad because I was, I was warned not to take more than one, but I would always y'know [???] when I finally succeeded to take the whole bottle. So my sister went and told my parents and they said that they were going to take me to hospital. So they called the the hospital and said *that *I overdosed and they said "Well, ask him if he sees stars or feels any dizzy... *feels any drowsiness" and I said "no, I feel fine". So when I, they go "Oh oh we're going to have to take you in". And I I went to the doctor, *to the hospital, emergency toom, and they gave me this liquid to drink. And, it was like a gold like type of drink and soon as it hit the back of my throat I just vomited right away and* and they told me to drink the whole thing. I could not drink the whole thing. I just drank little bit of it. They kept telling me to drink a little more, they had to get it all the iron out of my system. That's why I had to go in for the hos... to the hospital 'cause of the iron is in my system.
My family, my father's from Sicily and he came to America about twenty-five years ago. He was about seventeen. And um my mother, she was born in Buffalo, New York. The, the neighborhood I grew up in, I was born here in Chicago* on the North Side and I live on Damon and Lawrence in Ravenswood area. My family's very large, and my my mother has family in Buffalo, New York, and in R-Romes, Rome, Italy, and Kansas City as well, but* my father has lots of family in Brazil. There's, we have sixty-three cousins in Brazil and *family in London. We have, we have 'bout twenty-five people n that live in London and the rest live, mostly his brothers and sisters a.. all live here. Most of his cousins live out there. I lived in Buffalo, New York, for two, two and a half years *when I was in second and third and fourth grade and I moved back t.. here in Chicago same same neighborhood.
Transcribed by Kevin Flynn, March 2006