North Carolina Twelve - Text
This 42 year old Caucasian female was born in 1958 in the same Yancey County in which she now resides. She has lived for just one year outside the place of her birth, in Boone NC, (named after the famous trapper and non-homebody, Daniel Boone) which is also in the northwestern part of the state.
She lives with her husband and children in a double-wide trailer on a hillside and works as a teacher's assistant. She sings both in her church and their community theater.
The subject's speech generally is formed toward the back of the mouth. Not only are "r's" and "l's" strongly retracted, but so are most vowels. Consonants are often dropped: "sentimental" becomes "senimenal"; "little" becomes "li'l", "wanted: drops the "t", "got your" becomes "gotcher". The "ing" at the end of words like "suffering", "calling" and "working" is consistently contracted to "sufferin'", callin'", etc.
Note that the diphthong in "white', "time", and "I" becomes the neutral vowel. The words "stressed', "mess" and "vet" become two syllables as the schwa is added to the vowel. Note that the words "square","there", "rare","Jill" and "name" also become two syllable words. "Can't" has a diphthong ("cain't"). On the other hand, "sure" and "cure" are single syllable words.
Note the replacement of the vowel in "pencil, "then", "get" and "expensive" with the higher front vowel. The pure vowel in "fleece" and disease" is preceded by a schwa.
"Yellow" ends wih a schwa.
Recorded by Pat Toole August 2000; edited by Paul Meier, March 2001. Running time: 00:04.12
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
Well, I got a joke for you. There was this little boy, and he decided that he wanted a bicycle for
his birthday. So he goes in and he tells his mama, he says, "Mama, I want a bicycle for my birthday."
And mama said, "Well, son, I'm sorry. But I'm not sure that you've been quite good enough for a bicycle
for your birthday this year." And she said, "I think you oughtta go up to your room and talk to God
about it." So, the little boy went up to his room, and he thought about it for a while, and uh, he
decided he'd write God a letter. So he gets out his pencil and paper and writes God a letter.
He says, "Dear God, I've been a very good boy this year and I think I deserve a bicycle for my
birthday." Well, he knew that wasn't quite right, so he threw that in the trash (wadded it up and
threw it in the trash), and got another piece of paper. And he wrote a letter and said, "Dear God,
I've been a pretty good boy this year and I think I deserve a bicycle for my birthday." Well, he
knew that wasn't quite right either, so he wadded it up, threw it in the trash, and got another
piece of paper and started writing again. He said, "Dear God, I think I've been a good boy this
year and I think I deserve a bike for my birthday. Well, that wasn't gonna do it either, so he
wadded it up, threw it in the trash and got out one more piece of paper and wrote a letter and
said, "Dear God, I have not been a good boy this year, I do not deserve a bicycle for my birthday.
In fact, I probably don't deserve anything for my birthday this year." And of course that would never
do, so he tore that up ad thought for another minute and an idea came to him so he went running down
the stairs and he, um, went up to his mama and says. "I'll be back in a minute, mama, I'm goin' to the
church." And she says, "Well be careful crossing the road." So he went running down to the church and
went flying in and went to the front of the church and he stood there and he saw this little bitty
statue of the Virgin Mary. So he looked up at her, and he grabbed that statue and he shoved her in
his coat and he went running back in the house and went running back to his room and got the little
statue out and put it on his desk and looked at it for a minute and said, "Dear God, I've got your
mama. If you wanna see her again, get me a bike for my birthday!
Transcribed by Lisa Donnelly, April 2001