North Carolina Fifteen - Text
This Caucasian female, now 37 years old, was born in 1963 in Mitchell County where she still lives.
She grew up in very modest circumstances and has never lived for more than a year outside her home
county. She has visited England more than once. She is a high school graduate and is employed at the
Penland School of Crafts as registrar.The school itself attracts teachers and students from all over
the East Coast and as far away as California. She thinks it is possible that her dialect may have been
altered slightly by this contact. She notes that it is "less strong" than her mother's, which is common
phenomenon all over the United States as new contacts, television, and the youth culture separate the
younger generation from their elders. Her Mitchell Co. extended family continues to be an important part
of her social circle.
The subject's speech differs from that of her Yancey County neighbors in part because she
does not elongate as many vowels or turn them into diphthongs as frequently. Even the frequently
heard pronunciation of words like "time", "white" and "night" employs a shortened neutral vowel.
"R's" are not as retracted either.
Consonants are occasionally dropped ("sentimental" becomes "senimenal"), "t's" become
"d's" ("little", "futile" "deserted"). The "-ing" ending is usually contracted to "-in'"
("pickin'", "bringin'", "plantin'", but on the other hand "morning" and "liking" are not.
Some vowels and diphthongs are preceded by a schwa: ("teen", "be" and "Steve"); ("face" and "David").
"You", "do" and "goose" employ a diphthong, the first part of which is a high front vowel.
Note the pronunciations of "cure" and "duke".
Recorded by Pat Toole, August 2000; edited by Paul Meier, March 2001. Running time: 00:03.46
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
I grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina, three brothers, one sister, had very loving parents. My dad was,um, a romantic at heart, loves to travel. Um, we were forever going on picnic, camping, routing the parkway in his van, going camping. Um, I can remember going to the woods picking wild flowers with him, or digging them up and bringin’ ‘em home and plantin’ ‘em in the yard. Um, my grandparents both are from the mountains as well. Uh, my grandfather’s name was Velvus, which is sort of a strange name. Um, he lived on a big farm. He had 20,000 chickens at one point when I was a little girl. I have—still have sort of have nightmares about having to help kill chickens and remember the smell of the feathers boiling in the big iron pot that we put ‘em in after they’d cut their heads off. My grandmother was a wonderful woman as well. Just really good memories. My oldest sister and my two middle brothers, David and Steve, they were playing witch one day (laughs). My sister had to leave an’ she told my brother David, while she was gone, to hang my brother (laughs). And my brother took him literally—took her literally and proceeded to hang my brother Steve on the back clothesline in the backyard with a scarf or something—I don’t know, I wasn’t born—but, um, my mother happens to walk outside and sees my brother turning blue hanging on the (laughs) clothesline. Um, and my brother David, he’s like, “I just was doing what Ranita told me to do,” you know. But, um, had my mother not walked out when she did, I think it would’ve—it would’ve been (laughs) really bad. Um, we were forever doin’ something crazy like that. It’s a miracle that we all survived into adult— . . .
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY SANDRA LINDBERG 24 APRIL, 2008.