DIALECT Transcripts

Real-Life Confusion Caused by Smith Island /aw/ (Females, age 15 and 13)


Audio:


LAE: We say down [dæIn] and south [sæI(] and all that; we don't say it the way you talk--I don't know how to say it.
FW: Down [daUn] and sound [saUnd].
LAE: Yeah, like that.
DE: One time I was in the Salisbury Mall, and I had this brown [bræIn] pocketbook. And I went in the shoe store, and I left it in there, and I went in there and told that man, I said, "Have you seen a brown [bræIn] pocketbook in here?" He couldn't understand me, how I said it. And he went back there and got--he understood 'pocketbook'. He went back there and he said, "Is this yours?" I said, "Yeah."
FW: Did you point to it and say, "See? See what color it is?"
DE: Yeah. I tried to talk--I said brown [braUn]. I couldn't say it good; he still couldn't understand me.


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