I first started capturing her storytelling using the video mode on our digital camera, around about April, but she soon refused to let me film her. So I tried writing her stories while she told them, using pen and paper. That lasted for only a few stories too, before she caught on. Since then, I've been recording her using a mini MP3 recorder, which is pretty unobtrusive, and transcribing the audio later. She then objected strongly to this as well... Nowadays I use a combo of MP3 and video to record her before transcribing. I only manage to record a fraction of the stories she tells. I always have a backlog of stories on the recorder that still need transcribing, as it's impossible for me to keep up with her. To help new readers, I've marked my favourite stories with a star (*), so at least you have somewhere to start if you don't know where to begin. Don't forget to check the older archives too - there are some gems in there as well!

Friday 14 September 2007

Introducing the Davinoars, 2007-08-29

Only two more transcriptions to go from the recordings on the 29th of August! This one came with some exciting developments that I will explain in a separate post... look out for the quaint sense of scorn (I've bolded it for easy locating) she introduces in some of the conversations - I found it very funny, hope you will too!

Am using colour-coding again. Green is the shell story, blue is the story within the story and black is for when she's talking with me.

You can listen to Bethany tell this story HERE


By the Little Cook

Little Cook (indecipherable phrase)

In the morning, and they at his place all night, so much learned big by his self, and he didn’t want anybody to go, come and update him all night and all along. But so long he says, “I didn’t know that! Stegosaurus was there... thank you!”

Barosaurus laughed. Then I told him, “What are you doing?” said, “That is not so long, Poock! Pull out that thingy.”

“Pah! This thingy! Psh! He’s a nineown chickening!” he said. “She a neck! Poock!” he said, said Parasaurolophus

“Please Saurolophus, don’t do that like money, that is Aladar’s big fun (sneezes) and each of them, nobody paying them... it couldn’t,” he just said

“No time,” he said. “He get out almost too late, but there was some plasters on him because he didn’t run out. Anybody didn’t look, but only a thingy moved and moved. He was REALLY ALIVE NOW REALLY!!! And everybody stared at him. He was REALLY alive, they said,” said Corythosaurus. “Really alive, you can look at him, he moved and really moved, he was ALIVE!!!!”

Everybody circled above him and this big a circle, they circled around him. They were dancing and cheering and decorating the whole house of... of party candles and party cakes. There were no, no leaf for them but only his favourite in them... tiny thingy and decorations in the whole house, and decorating him too in some costumes and they cheered and happy. They singed, “(SINGS) MY HAPPY DINOSAURS, MY NEW ADVENTURE”, they said, singed and danced and cheered up. They said, “I myself!”

Cook said, “Why??? Why you sing those things?”

“(Strangled voice) Because all we here davinoars(?) singing, dinosaurs,” they said

“BUT WHY???? WHY????” said Cook

“(Strangled voice) Becaaause, there no time to lose”

“Why you saying that type of language?”

“(Strangled voice) Becaaause there no time to lose, we’re davinoars,” they said

They tied the tractors(?) out from him. They lied down and drove the tractors, the davin.. new davinoars (I asked her about the davinoars and was told this: a davinoar is a type of jackindore and is very tricky, of course a nineown creature... she’s also been elaborating on the various backstories to the various new creatures, characters and places. This afternoon, she pointed out the Nineown Open Plains to me on the world map – supposedly in Australia...) said, “(Strangled voice) My new mantra(?),” said the davinoar, the other davinoar, the happy cheer one. Decorating the whole house, said, “(Strangled voice) My new hideout and outside table(?).”


And the group said, “Your voice sounds... my voice.”


“(Strangled voice) No, not really,” said the cheer happy one, decorating the whole house. “(Strangled voice) Not you, it’s not like your voice,” he said, “(strangled voice) not you.”


“But it’s really like you!!!.... MY VOICE!”


The eggs didn’t hatched out yet.... “Huhh! My eggs...” said the predators, “..all my eggs, they didn’t hatch out!” (sounds distressed).


No time did they look.


“ALADAR!!!!! Don’t do that!!!” said Cook.


“That is not nice,” said Aladar to Cook.


“I’m just looking out in the sky,” said the davinoar.


“(Strangled voice) My new open adventure,” said Aladar, to his clear voice.


“Aladar! Why are you saying that language of the davinoars! Bah!!”


“Because it’s got too much alike,” said the ramphorynchus, “friend didn’t say anything,” ramphothingyrynchosaurus said.


“(Strangled voice) My new highness, my new high, my new highness,” said the iguanodon. Everybody cheered and clapped.


“WELCOME! WELCOME!” they said, “WELCOME TO NINEOWN OPEN PLAINS!” they said.


“Woolly mammoth??.... who’s woolly mammoth?.... woolly mammoth.”


They circled above him... they circled above him.....


“Aladar... are you feeling it?” said Corythosaurus.


“Daddy...”


“What???..... PAH!! I don’t like that language! That is Pah! thingy language. TAH!”


“You know what is Pah! thingy then...language?”


“I’m just remembering...

(to me) mommy, you know their language right? ‘Cause did Parasaurolophus said that language just now... it said that language mommy... said Triceratops said that language, also Parasaurolophus... I want something to drink!... Mommy! (Me: Yah...) Parasaurolophus said another language... it’s... it’s a.. it’s a.. it’s a..genie language... so I find it...... hmmm!.... It’s kohn, kuh, kohfoch(??)... Kuh language... alright! It’s Kuh language.”

“Pah! Kuh language! That is not nice, poor language... where were we?...Oh! We were here first!”

After the Nineown Open Plain of the Vulture


(To me) Do you know the Nineown Open Plain of the Vultures, do you know that? Language too? (Me: no I don’t. What language is that?) It’s a.. it’s another language, but it’s not a Nineown Open Plain. It’s a... it’s another language. It’s a.. it’s a Nineown Open Vulture thingy..majiggy. It is this language. F-pen(?) Bethany was a peckinvas(?). This dinosaurs died! So long... so, do you know that? It’s like a dinosaur I showed you, showed you yesterday. After... it’s this one! (Me: Diplodocus?). Yes, she’s talking about him. She’s talking about the new open vultures thingymajiggy house. Do you know his house? His house, you been there everyday yet or not only at night. Been... it so big, it got a round thingy? And Dack... you met him. (Me: Who met him?). You! (M: Me?) Yes. (M: Where?) Inside his house there, the valley of the round thingies? (M: The valley of the round thingies?) Yes. (M: What place is that?) That, that is his house, where he live with his.. with his grandparents? You met him before! (M: Ok.. when?) After.. it was at 11 o’clock! Is it 11 o’clock? (M: I don’t know, I don’t remember). It’s 11 o’clock! It’s 11 o’clock... so, where are we?..... we were here...

So they were not looking out. (Indecipherable whispering).

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