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

加州有90多种土著语言，分属21个不同的语系，在语言上比西半球任何一个地区都要多样化。一百年前，几乎所有的加州土著语言仍然有说话者；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。从1901年开始，在二十世纪初的几十年里，土著人民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。由此产生的2713个圆柱体的集合包含78种语言的100多个小时的录音，其中包括大约一半的加州土著语言。对于七种语言，这些是唯一已知的录音，在许多其他情况下，它们包括独特的言语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会说第一语言(几乎所有情况下都不到六个)，但许多土著社区都有积极的语言恢复计划，并欢迎人们使用一个世纪前的录音。该项目将应用劳伦斯·伯克利国家实验室开发的新技术，对加州大学伯克利分校的所有蜡筒进行音频传输。这涉及到使用精密光学探头进行光学修复，该探头可以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，计算机上的算法对图像进行处理，以计算指示笔的运动并以数字方式提取音频信号。由此产生的音频传输优于侵入性产生的音频传输(使用物理指示笔)，甚至可以从破碎的圆柱体中创建。与赫斯特人类学博物馆(蜡筒收藏所在的地方)、大学图书馆(将在那里进行扫描和数字化)以及语言学部(负责运营加州语言档案馆的在线资源)的合作，将在三年窗口内对整个圆柱体藏品进行扫描和数字存档，产生的音频文件将在那里存档和获取。

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).