| NSF Org: |
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 20, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 20, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1500779 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Colleen M. Fitzgerald
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | June 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | May 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $200,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $200,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1608 4TH ST STE 201 BERKELEY CA US 94710-1749 (510)643-3891 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
CA US 94704-5940 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | DEL |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
California has over 90 indigenous languages belonging to 21 different language families, and is linguistically more diverse than any area of its size in the western hemisphere. A hundred years ago, almost all California Native languages still had speakers; in most cases there were active speech communities using traditional narrative, oratory, ritual, teaching, and other speech practices in addition to rich song cultures. During the early decades of the twentieth century, beginning in 1901, Native people recorded songs and spoken texts on wax cylinders in collaboration with anthropologists and linguists at the University of California, Berkeley. The resulting collection of 2,713 cylinders contains over 100 hours of recordings in 78 languages, including about half of California's Native languages. For seven languages these are the only known sound recordings, and in many other cases they include unique speech practices and otherwise unknown stories and songs. Today, though fewer than half of California's indigenous languages have any first-language speakers (in almost all cases fewer than half a dozen), many Native communities have active language restoration programs and would welcome access to sound recordings made a century ago.
This project will apply new technology developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to create audio transfers of all wax cylinders at UC Berkeley. This involves optical restoration using a precision optical probe that creates a high-resolution profile of the cylinder surface; this profile can be formed into a three-dimensional digital image. An algorithm on a computer then processes the image to calculate the stylus motion and numerically extract the audio signal. The resulting audio transfers are superior to those produced invasively (with a physical stylus), and can even be created from broken cylinders. The entire cylinder collection will be scanned and digitally archived within a three-year window, in a collaboration involving the Hearst Museum of Anthropology (where the wax cylinder collection is housed), the University Library (where the scanning and digitization will be done), and the Department of Linguistics (which operates the California Language Archive, an online resource where the resulting audio files will be archived and accessible).
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The goal of this project was to create new, accessible, high-quality audio files derived from an American cultural treasure held at the University of California, Berkeley: three thousand recordings of Native American song and speech, from California and elsewhere in the west in the first decades of the twentieth century. These include the only known recordings of eight languages of California.
The recordings in question were made on wax cylinders, a fragile medium. The project used innovative technology developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to produce new digital versions of these recordings. In this technology (called IRENE/3D), a precision optical probe creates a high-resolution profile of the cylinder surface, which can be formed into a three-dimensional digital image. A computer algorithm then processes the image to calculate the stylus motion and numerically extract the audio signal. In this way sound is derived without contacting the surface of the cylinder.
A total of 3,132 wax cylinders were scanned, including several dozen broken cylinders which had never been heard before. For long-term research, there are now permanent preservation packages with high-resolution image files and derivative audio files. For public use now, these audio files have been transferred to the California Language Archive (cla.berkeley.edu), where they are accessible via an online catalog. All information about the collection is public, and recordings are available on request (with a 1-2 day processing delay) to any researchers who describe their educational, personal, or research purpose. Based on consultation with their indigenous communities of origin, some recordings are immediately available online.
This project thus makes available to researchers a unique collection of early twentieth century sound recordings of language and music from indigenous communities. In addition, as a pilot project involving new optical-scanning technology, IRENE/3D creates infrastructure for subsequent projects with other early sound recordings.
More broadly, incalculable cultural wealth is represented in this wax cylinder collection, including not only otherwise unrecorded languages but also speech and song styles that have been lost in indigenous communities themselves. These communities can now use the newly created and curated sound recordings from their (great-)grandparents to strengthen cultural and language revitalization programs.
Last Modified: 11/19/2018
Modified by: Andrew J Garrett
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