Home › Glossary › Letter L

Local-speech lyric

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A lyric poem composed in local dialect or vernacular speech, capturing regional idiom, rhythm, and cultural authenticity.

Detailed Definition
A local-speech lyric employs regional dialect or vernacular to express personal emotion or meditation, anchoring subjective experience in particular speech communities. This approach validates non-standard language while exploring how place shapes voice and how regional identity informs feeling.
Example
Example in poetry:
Local-speech lyric: Frost’s “The Death of the Hired Man” uses New England vernacular; Lucille Clifton’s poems channel African American oral rhythms; A poem in Scots dialect: “Ae fond kiss, and then we sever”; Contemporary poets like Natalie Diaz embed Mojave language in English lines; Local speech grounds lyric in community and authenticity.
Additional Notes
A lyric poem written in regional or local speech patterns, capturing the authentic voice of a particular place or community.
Also Known As
Regional lyric Vernacular poetry Dialect verse Local-speech poem Dialect sonnet
Skip to main content