Linguistic and ethnographic sound recordings from early twentieth-century California: Optical scanning, digitization, and access

加州有超过90种土著语言，隶属于21个不同的语系，在语言上比西半球任何一个面积相同的地区都要多样化。一百年前，几乎所有加州本土语言都有人说；在大多数情况下，除了丰富的歌曲文化外，还有活跃的语言社区使用传统的叙事、演讲、仪式、教学和其他语言实践。在二十世纪初的几十年里，从1901年开始，土著人与加州大学伯克利分校的人类学家和语言学家合作，在蜡筒上录制歌曲和口语文本。最终收集的2713个圆筒包含了78种语言的100多个小时的录音，其中包括大约一半的加州本土语言。对于七种语言来说，这些是唯一已知的录音，在许多其他情况下，它们包括独特的演讲练习和其他未知的故事和歌曲。今天，尽管只有不到一半的加州土著语言有母语使用者（在几乎所有情况下，母语使用者都不到六人），但许多土著社区都有积极的语言恢复计划，并欢迎人们能接触到一个世纪前的录音。该项目将应用劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室开发的新技术，为加州大学伯克利分校的所有蜡缸创建音频传输。这包括使用精密光学探头进行光学恢复，该探头可创建圆柱体表面的高分辨率轮廓；该轮廓可以形成三维数字图像。然后，计算机上的算法处理图像，计算触控笔的运动，并从数字上提取音频信号。由此产生的音频传输优于侵入式（使用物理手写笔），甚至可以从破碎的圆柱体中创建。整个圆柱体收藏将在三年的时间内进行扫描和数字化存档，合作伙伴包括赫斯特人类学博物馆（蜡像圆柱体收藏的所在地）、大学图书馆（扫描和数字化将在这里完成）和语言学系（经营加州语言档案馆，一个在线资源，由此产生的音频文件将被存档和访问）。

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).