Kansas Six - Text
This sample was contributed by the subject, who also transcribed the unscripted part of the recording as follows:I was born in Sacramento, California. My father was in the Air Force until I was nineteen. At the age of three months [for me], we moved to Topeka, Kansas, where I lived until I was ten. After that, we've moved around [and lived at] a bunch of places, none for very long. [As a child,] I've lived in central Texas, [at] an Air Force base in Japan [and near Omaha, Nebraska]; as an adult, I've lived in Atlanta, I've lived in Texas since 1988 -- but I think it's in Topeka that I got the accent that I have.
Now, I found the International Dialects of English Archive when I was reading the book 1634: The Baltic War by Eric Flint, and a running joke in that book is about the strangeness of the West Virginia accents. I got curious what a West Virginia accent was, I found this website, and I was able to assuage my curiosity. I got really excited about this site because I'm writing a book, and I need to know something about English accents. (I've never been to England.) So, I went over to the England section, and found the sixty-three English accents, and listened to them.
The only ones I knew before were a Cockney accent, and -- the only other one that I knew about, was "Received Pronunciation."
The term Received Pronunciation confuses me. Why is it called that? I sure as heck haven't received it! Was it lost in the mail?
So anyway, I've had great fun listening to the International Dialects of English Archive, and I think I should be placed in its "Kansas" section.
I'm fifty-three years old, I'm white, male of course, currently working as a novelist. I've completed four years of college. The date of the recording: July fifth, 2007.
Recorded by the subject. Edited Paul Meier July 21, 2007. Running time 00:05:20