SOUND MUSEUM

Hokitika Guardian, 14 September 1932, Page 8

SOUND MUSEUM

RESEARCH IN GERMANY. VOICE PHOTOGRAPHY. VARIETIES OF HUMAN SPEECH. i * ic ; Only in tlie lapt few years has meehaiiioail : progress madie it possible to form a museum of sounds, and it is oarly in 'Berlin that this possibility ■ is, 'systepaiaticalliy ' exploited iii the service -of scientific phonetics by Professor Wilhelm Doegen/' 'Director .of,-the• Sound'‘iiisUftite.' ;V ' ‘ /'/ " / i 3,'he .-. ’ gtainophohe arid the oscillo- • giiaph.- '/a photograph of sbtihd secured /By the . saihiei metliod as the talking film) have'.'made it possible to iriyestigatb' the noises of human utterance far; more closely than the most subtly devised system of phonetic .transcription. It is/ due of Professor Doegen’s claims 16 distinction, that he recognised this early find seized the opportunity provided by . the prisoners of war in Giermariy to/secure records of as many varieties of- human speech *as, German}', had opponents. ' ' ■*-•■■.

I■! The ; Prussian education authorities could -see no value in : the Professor’s jp}an, apd he; would not have been able to carry, it out bad it not appealed to tlje imagination of an official at the War Ministry, who gave him .passes to ;all the > camps, and to that of the Empprer Williap} himsellf, who personally contributed :■ 'toward the expenses in curbed/./ ./ .'

i [ i .... . 1. / WAR CAMP DIALECTS. The records secured during the wai form the • nucleus of the great col/lecrtfmi.o.f 9060 in the Institute of: Sound; housed iii-"the same building , !as the Prussian State Library. No fewer ‘than’ -23 English dialects are- - repre!'sbnted,Vy Aldrthe tongues of Ru«fcia are there; many negro languages, and : the-.'aU> ; < important languages > of-; -Asia Jar© . represented. • ' -’ '■< ?: /- A- photograph is .always preserved of jthe. man ‘whose voice is recorded on l ;tlie/cdpper disc for future centuries to hear ; jy phonetic transcription 1 arid" a translation.; into German’ is ‘provided for thei usei of students.

: Gramophone records have, of course, long been, used for the teaching of languages! and they are used for this purpose; in. Professorl Dbegen’s Institute.; But /this , iS/ not . the most important-object-of ‘ the cplieotion, which is rather 1 ioi make possible a microscopic cxaminiation >of human utterance, in which can. be found the distinguishing | marks of "different racial types, just i as in, tlije body itself. / .I’xotessor Doegan believes, that from, the records of - voices, it is possible -to fidentify. the;descendants - pf various ini vaclers ■ of ; Englanc|; ! aad -Germany. • ■ Ir j qualities -of .intonation . it, is possible t< jobserve close community of type bej tween. Saxons and ...Czechs, neighbours ! viheispeftk >:differe,h| lahgfiages -and' be/'qaig ,to differielnt ' /nationalities, but mian y of whose remote ancestors prob . ajbl.y belong to the same tribe.

/ : ; ! r / VISIBLE, RECORD. The oscillograph which offers a visiblei'as. well -as an : audible record of a vpice, makes* it poss-iblfei for the experienced phoneticist. to distinguish types of utterance- and so of rlace by tlie eye without the'assistance of the ear. .nNgfw fieldsi of -ihrestigationr,- new pos sibilates of comparison /have thus been madie possible. Professor Doegen ever believes that it is still possible to detect, traces of a Mongolian intonatior in Eastern Germlany' where the -horsemen of Jenghis Khan left descendants (still-) distinguisliabl'e; to the ’ eye) in the- thirteeAth century—an unexpected mpnument to those;brief and terrible inpurpions from Central Asia. .Tho bound Institute is also systematically ••j'eGoriding f voices < of distinquiished ; Gormans in .all'■ walks of life-f-beginnirig, ;of ■•course, with* that' of President von' Hiiidenberg—'and :of diptirlguished visitors to Berlin. •1‘It; has ,even aeldepartmerit-which records the barks,.. “miaus’L arid irif loiwer creation. m i ;