Andre Wallace: Primary Research
Introduction of Interviewee:
The person I decided to interview was Brandon Pope, a 19 year old, Ball State University sophomore from Richmond, IN. He spent much of his childhood in Columbus, OH, before moving to Richmond in middle school. Because of this, I felt Brandon had enough experience in both states, and cities to have his own dialect and linguistic styles be influenced. Even though both cities were found to be within the range of the Midland dialect of speech, Brandon during the interview admitted that even he heard differences, however so slight, in the way people from Columbus talked, compared to the way people in Richmond talked. During the interview Brandon said “I found myself changing my speech patterns when I go to Columbus, without even knowing that I am doing it.”
Lexical Terms/ Phonology in Interview:
During the interview I asked Brandon a series of questions, starting with listing different words, which include the words Aunt, crayon, and caught/cot. Through this I heard that Brandon, like many within the Indiana dialect of speech, said the word Aunt with the “ant” sound (Golder). He said the word crayon using 2 syllables “cray-ahn” (Golder). When asked what he called a bed that you sleep on in hotel. Rooms, Brandon was at first confused by the question answering with the simple answer, “a bed.” But after some I rephrased my question, he said the word cot, using the sound terminology “cawt.” When asked to pronounce the word caught, I was able to find him using the “cawght” form and it was apparent that Brandon was using the cot-caught merger (Golder). The cot-caught merger is a relatively new form of dialect hitting the Midwest, and was expected of someone of Brandon’s age (Gordan). All these things were common places within the Midland dialect.
In the interview Brandon decided to talk about his life and how things were different from Ohio and Indiana, and within this I found that Brandon used, once again, more Midland dialect phonology. This one was much slighter and less noticeable because I know many people who do it, but it was the fact that to set up parts of his answers, he would use things like “um” and “like.” This does not seem like much, but it is phonology that is typically found within the younger generation of speech. These are considered utterances that are said to be used in speech to set up what the speaker is trying to say (Allen). Along with these utterances, Brandon also used the concepts of speech repair, which according to Allen is the repetition of a sentence fixing what the person messed up on. In this speech repair, he also used discourse markers to set up the importance of what he was saying (Allen). He used words like firstly, well, and more importantly to give an order to what he was saying (Allen).
African American English Variation (AAVE):
By the end of the interview, I asked Brandon what he felt he changed in his speech when going from Richmond to Columbus. He said “In all honesty it wasn’t necessarily a change in dialect from place to place, but a change in culture in which I use certain words.” He went on to explain that the culture of Richmond didn’t allow him to use his identity in speech as much as he did in Columbus. In terms of Identity I went on to infer it meant Richmond kept him from using his full range and use of the African American Vernacular English, or Black English, or in other terms Ebonics. The AAVE is a dialect spoken mainly by African Americans and used within the African American culture (McLucas).As we talked Brandon explained, it was more of a good thing he moved to Richmond, and that Richmond restricted him from the AAVE dialect of speech. Brandon Pope is journalism major, and by choosing this must use a basic form of language, and dialect. He says that because of where he is from and has grown up, it is not a hard transition. His only difficulty is remembering where he is, and that certain words, ideas, and viewpoints will not be widely accepted in the journalist culture. Brandon went on in the interview to give an example of what he meant by this, and his example was the use of the word Dope. Dope is a term used within the AAVE which means something is extremely cool (Urban). Brandon said he can’t use words like that within his profession because it is frowned upon, even though it is part of his everyday speech.
Changes in tone and dialect:
During the interview I saw that Brandon took different tones with different subject, and that his speech would go from relaxed to intellectual with every change in subject. When talking about his time in Richmond and Columbus, Brandon was like a little kid reliving those memories. When talking about Ohio State and Cleveland sports Brandon took on the voice and rhetoric of a sports news analyst, giving statistics and the history of the sports teams. When asked about the Sandusky and Penn State issue, Brandon took a stern, angry disposition, in which his true dialect was shown at its most. While angry, Brandon showed a wide variety of Midland dialect, from the verb tensing, to the vowel fronting. It was in this rage that I was able to see the true essence of his dialect and rhetoric.
The person I decided to interview was Brandon Pope, a 19 year old, Ball State University sophomore from Richmond, IN. He spent much of his childhood in Columbus, OH, before moving to Richmond in middle school. Because of this, I felt Brandon had enough experience in both states, and cities to have his own dialect and linguistic styles be influenced. Even though both cities were found to be within the range of the Midland dialect of speech, Brandon during the interview admitted that even he heard differences, however so slight, in the way people from Columbus talked, compared to the way people in Richmond talked. During the interview Brandon said “I found myself changing my speech patterns when I go to Columbus, without even knowing that I am doing it.”
Lexical Terms/ Phonology in Interview:
During the interview I asked Brandon a series of questions, starting with listing different words, which include the words Aunt, crayon, and caught/cot. Through this I heard that Brandon, like many within the Indiana dialect of speech, said the word Aunt with the “ant” sound (Golder). He said the word crayon using 2 syllables “cray-ahn” (Golder). When asked what he called a bed that you sleep on in hotel. Rooms, Brandon was at first confused by the question answering with the simple answer, “a bed.” But after some I rephrased my question, he said the word cot, using the sound terminology “cawt.” When asked to pronounce the word caught, I was able to find him using the “cawght” form and it was apparent that Brandon was using the cot-caught merger (Golder). The cot-caught merger is a relatively new form of dialect hitting the Midwest, and was expected of someone of Brandon’s age (Gordan). All these things were common places within the Midland dialect.
In the interview Brandon decided to talk about his life and how things were different from Ohio and Indiana, and within this I found that Brandon used, once again, more Midland dialect phonology. This one was much slighter and less noticeable because I know many people who do it, but it was the fact that to set up parts of his answers, he would use things like “um” and “like.” This does not seem like much, but it is phonology that is typically found within the younger generation of speech. These are considered utterances that are said to be used in speech to set up what the speaker is trying to say (Allen). Along with these utterances, Brandon also used the concepts of speech repair, which according to Allen is the repetition of a sentence fixing what the person messed up on. In this speech repair, he also used discourse markers to set up the importance of what he was saying (Allen). He used words like firstly, well, and more importantly to give an order to what he was saying (Allen).
African American English Variation (AAVE):
By the end of the interview, I asked Brandon what he felt he changed in his speech when going from Richmond to Columbus. He said “In all honesty it wasn’t necessarily a change in dialect from place to place, but a change in culture in which I use certain words.” He went on to explain that the culture of Richmond didn’t allow him to use his identity in speech as much as he did in Columbus. In terms of Identity I went on to infer it meant Richmond kept him from using his full range and use of the African American Vernacular English, or Black English, or in other terms Ebonics. The AAVE is a dialect spoken mainly by African Americans and used within the African American culture (McLucas).As we talked Brandon explained, it was more of a good thing he moved to Richmond, and that Richmond restricted him from the AAVE dialect of speech. Brandon Pope is journalism major, and by choosing this must use a basic form of language, and dialect. He says that because of where he is from and has grown up, it is not a hard transition. His only difficulty is remembering where he is, and that certain words, ideas, and viewpoints will not be widely accepted in the journalist culture. Brandon went on in the interview to give an example of what he meant by this, and his example was the use of the word Dope. Dope is a term used within the AAVE which means something is extremely cool (Urban). Brandon said he can’t use words like that within his profession because it is frowned upon, even though it is part of his everyday speech.
Changes in tone and dialect:
During the interview I saw that Brandon took different tones with different subject, and that his speech would go from relaxed to intellectual with every change in subject. When talking about his time in Richmond and Columbus, Brandon was like a little kid reliving those memories. When talking about Ohio State and Cleveland sports Brandon took on the voice and rhetoric of a sports news analyst, giving statistics and the history of the sports teams. When asked about the Sandusky and Penn State issue, Brandon took a stern, angry disposition, in which his true dialect was shown at its most. While angry, Brandon showed a wide variety of Midland dialect, from the verb tensing, to the vowel fronting. It was in this rage that I was able to see the true essence of his dialect and rhetoric.