West Virginia Three - Text
Recorded 10/23/2000 by Lynn Watson.
Subject is 50+ male, white, coal miner, auto sales. Grew up in Crab Orchard, West Virginia, which was once a country area outside Beckley, West Virginia, but has been built up so that it is now more suburban. Spent some time overseas during his father's military assignments. Subject talks about his earliest experience as a coal miner and what it was like the first time he felt what the miners called a "bump"-when the earth shifted. (WV1, WV2 and WV3 are: father, mother and son, respectively.)
(Symbols based on SAMPA. For the SAMPA website click here) Note [I] for [E]. [aI] shifts back towards [A], but more closed. General diphthongization of vowel sounds. [oU] to [@oU]. [O] to [AU]. Lip rounding and oral space are diminished. General centralization of vowels. Strong nasal resonance and strong "r-coloring" are characteristic of the dialect. Some dropping of syllables and final consonants, e.g. "ole" for "old" and "'lectricians" for "electricians." Note consistent pronunciation of "cure" [kCU@r] in the three related West Virginia samples. Running time: 00:03:15.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
This is a story about when I first started in the coal mines. I was 18 years old, and I was excited about going in the coal mines. Because at the time, that was the biggest paying job in that area, and I was excited about being one of the big wheels...making big money. That's what they call, when you make a lot of money, they call it big money.
So, I went in the coal mines, and...it's not like it is now where they
they put in you have to have somebody with you all times. Then, they put you up in the face area, and they left you by yourself, and you had to shovel, and that was to prove to them that you could do the work...
Well, I had never heard the top work or do what they call "bump"...
that's when the mountain settles
and it just puts out a big bump ...and about the third time I heard it, I
had never seen anybody all night long...I went by the
electricians they said I was about two foot off the ground
(laugh) when I run by 'em I was goin' so fast.
But, it's uhh, it was an experience...it started like in January 13 1967, and I was in the coal mines until about six months ago, and this is...2000. So quite a time in the coal mines.
Transcribed by Toshimi Hironaka. March, 2005.