Unami dialect of Lenape

[Richard L Walton Jr]

Good Day!  I am exceedingly happy to learn of this project.  I am in possession of cassette tapes produced over a decade ago highlighting pronunciation and syntax recorded from native speakers of the Unami dialect of the Lenape language.  These are not spontaneous recordings, not amateur in nature, and may be at least semi-professional.  I would love to share this with the project, but am not at all sure how to convert the audio on the cassette tapes to an appropriate digital format.  I'm also not sure how to go about uploading the files after they are burned.  Any advice or counsel will be gratefully accepted.
Thanks, very much!

[Anna Belew]

Dear Richard,

That's wonderful!  We would love it if you were to contribute some of these recordings.  As for how to digitize your audio tapes: a LINGUIST List project, EMELD (Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data), has a "School of Best Practice," which contains advice for digitizing various types of media.  There's a how-to for digitizing audio tapes, which you can find here:  http://emeld.org/school/classroom/audio/howto.html 

Hope that helps!  If you run into any difficulty, feel free to get in touch. 

Best,

Anna

[Jason Rissman]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for your post, and Anna, thanks for your advice on digitizing audio tapes. 

Once the audio material is digitized, you'll then need to save it as a video format so that it can be uploaded to YouTube. I've pasted below step-by-step instructions for both PC and Apple computers. 

Also, if you want to include your transcript as subtitles, here are basic instructions for adding captions as well as instructions on exporting transcripts from ELAN to be used as subtitles. 

Hope this helps! Will you report back on your progress and share any advice from your experience?

Jason

Instructions for Uploading Audio to YouTube

If you do not currently have Windows Live Movie Maker, it is available as a free download. Windows Live Movie Maker will allow you to convert an audio track, coupled with an image, into a .WMV video file that is acceptable to YouTube. Once you have installed Windows Live Movie Maker, open the program and proceed with the following steps:

1. Select Add videos and Photos from the bar at the top, and then choose a photo from your hard drive. This image will be displayed in your slideshow. Once you have added a photo, clickAdd music and then select your audio track.

  

2. You will have both an audio track and image in place in the timeline. You will need to adjust the duration of the image to be identical to the duration of the audio track. Double click the green audio bar in the timeline, which will cause the End point to display. Copy the End point number (e.g. 261.49). Double click the image thumbnail in the timeline, and enter a duration equal to the length of the audio track. So if the audio track has a length of 261.49 the image duration should be adjusted to 261.49 as well.

  

3. Once the duration of the audio track and the image are equal, you will have a complete video slideshow ready for conversion and upload. Click the File tab in the upper-left hand corner, and then select Save Movie from the dropdown, then choose Recommended for this project. Next, choose your saving destination, provide a name for your movie, then click Save.

 

4. Now that you have completed these steps, select the .wmv file that you created, and upload it to YouTube.

Apple users: iMovie

iMovie allows you to easily accompany an audio track with images, which can then be exported as a .MOV video and uploaded to YouTube. Once you have opened iMovie and created a new project, proceed with the steps outlined below.

Drag an image file to the project area. The image will appear here, with a default duration of 4 seconds. Drag your audio file to the project area. The audio will appear in a green box around the image thumbnail. You will need to adjust the duration of your image to be equal to the length of your audio track.

  

When you mouse over the left hand corner of the image thumbnail, a gear will appear. If you click this gear, you will have an option in the menu to make Clip adjustments. After you have selected Clip adjustments, enter a length that is equal in time to the length of your original audio track. If the audio track is 60 seconds long, you should set the length of the image clip to be exactly 60 seconds.

Once the duration of your audio and video tracks are equal, your video is ready to be exported to .MOV format and uploaded to YouTube. You will now select Share > Export Using QuickTime. Use the specifications provided below to encode your video for optimal quality on YouTube.

1. Enter a name for your file, and select Movie to QuickTime Movie from the Export dropdown.

 

2. Click Options and make the following changes to Video settings:
   • Compression Type: H.264
   • Frame Rate: 30 is preferred. 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 are also acceptable.
   • Data Rate: Automatic
   • Key Frames: Automatic
   • Frame Reordering: Unchecked
   
     
   
3. Make the following changes to Audio or Sound settings:
   • Format: AAC
   • Click Show advanced settings and choose Constant Bit Rate as encoding strategy.
4. Select Size and choose the original size of the video.
5. The section Prepare for Internet Streaming must be set to Fast Start.

 

6. Now that you have completed these steps, select the .mov file that you created, and upload it to YouTube.

 

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[Richard L Walton Jr]

Thanks, Anna! 

I will certainly check out the EMELD "School of Best Practice" how-to link.  I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction. 

I unearthed the cassette tapes from my collection last night after returning home and discovered that they are from "Touching Leaves Indian Crafts" by Nora Thompson Dean.  I have no idea if that her business is still in operation as I think she passed in 1984.

I will be sure to stay in touch.  Thanks, again!
Rich

[Richard L Walton Jr]

Hey, Jason!

Thanks for your post!  It actually did not occur to me to save the audio as a video file for upload to YouTube.  That's a great idea!  I hope I am up to the task.  The guidelines you provided appear very thorough at first glance; it's quite amazing. 

I will let you know how I am progressing; although this is all in my free time, so I expect to move slowly.

Thanks, again!
Rich

[Sebastian Drude]

Hi Richard,

 

I am happy that you are planning to digitize and archive your tapes; I hope many other researchers follow this example!

 

Besides the EMELD school of best practice with advice on how to digitize the tapes yourself, you can also send them to some center that would digitize them for you.  The Language Archive in principle volunteers to do that for free for valuable recordings, if the recordings are to be archived with our institute.

 

Proper archiving, in order to preserve the material in high quality for future generations, is something you should consider anyway.  Uploading things to youtube is arguably not the best way to properly archive valuable material, for reasons concerning the file formats and quality, but also because youtube is a private enterprise without any guarantee that it will be still available in 20 or 40 years. 

 

The Language Archive also offers a reliable high-quality long-term archiving of language material for free.  There might be other options closer or otherwise preferable to you; but I strongly suggest to you and others in a similar situation to think about archiving valuable data with a serious long-term non-profit archive or data center.

 

If you would like to digitize and / or archive your recordings with The Language Archive, I suggest that you get in touch off-list with Paul Trilsbeck (in CC) to learn more about the details.

 

Best,

 

Sebastian Drude

 

Dr. Sebastian Drude, Scientific Coordinator, The Language Archive

Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics

P.O. Box 310, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Email: Sebasti...@mpi.nl, Phone: (+31) 24-3521.470

 

From: Richard L Walton Jr [mailto:rich...@comcast.net]
Sent: Dienstag, 26. Juni 2012 14:45
To: language-do...@endangeredlanguages.com
Cc: Anna Belew
Subject: Re: [language-documentation] Re: Unami dialect of Lenape

 

Hey, Jason!

Thanks for your post!  It actually did not occur to me to save the audio as a video file for upload to YouTube.  That's a great idea!  I hope I am up to the task.  The guidelines you provided appear very thorough at first glance; it's quite amazing. 

I will let you know how I am progressing; although this is all in my free time, so I expect to move slowly.

Thanks, again!
Rich

On Monday, June 25, 2012 3:49:50 PM UTC-4, JRiss wrote:

Hi Richard,

 

Thanks for your post, and Anna, thanks for your advice on digitizing audio tapes. 

 

Once the audio material is digitized, you'll then need to save it as a video format so that it can be uploaded to YouTube. I've pasted below step-by-step instructions for both PC and Apple computers. 

 

Also, if you want to include your transcript as subtitles, here are basic instructions for adding captions as well as instructions on exporting transcripts from ELAN to be used as subtitles. 

 

Hope this helps! Will you report back on your progress and share any advice from your experience?

 

 

Jason

 

Instructions for Uploading Audio to YouTube

If you do not currently have Windows Live Movie Maker, it is available as a free download. Windows Live Movie Maker will allow you to convert an audio track, coupled with an image, into a .WMV video file that is acceptable to YouTube. Once you have installed Windows Live Movie Maker, open the program and proceed with the following steps:

1. Select Add videos and Photos from the bar at the top, and then choose a photo from your hard drive. This image will be displayed in your slideshow. Once you have added a photo, clickAdd music and then select your audio track.

  

2. You will have both an audio track and image in place in the timeline. You will need to adjust the duration of the image to be identical to the duration of the audio track. Double click the green audio bar in the timeline, which will cause the End point to display. Copy the End point number (e.g. 261.49). Double click the image thumbnail in the timeline, and enter a duration equal to the length of the audio track. So if the audio track has a length of 261.49 the image duration should be adjusted to 261.49 as well.

  

3. Once the duration of the audio track and the image are equal, you will have a complete video slideshow ready for conversion and upload. Click the File tab in the upper-left hand corner, and then select Save Movie from the dropdown, then choose Recommended for this project. Next, choose your saving destination, provide a name for your movie, then click Save.

 

 

 

4. Now that you have completed these steps, select the .wmv file that you created, and upload it to YouTube.

Apple users: iMovie

iMovie allows you to easily accompany an audio track with images, which can then be exported as a .MOV video and uploaded to YouTube. Once you have opened iMovie and created a new project, proceed with the steps outlined below.

Drag an image file to the project area. The image will appear here, with a default duration of 4 seconds. Drag your audio file to the project area. The audio will appear in a green box around the image thumbnail. You will need to adjust the duration of your image to be equal to the length of your audio track.

  

When you mouse over the left hand corner of the image thumbnail, a gear will appear. If you click this gear, you will have an option in the menu to make Clip adjustments. After you have selected Clip adjustments, enter a length that is equal in time to the length of your original audio track. If the audio track is 60 seconds long, you should set the length of the image clip to be exactly 60 seconds.

Once the duration of your audio and video tracks are equal, your video is ready to be exported to .MOV format and uploaded to YouTube. You will now select Share > Export Using QuickTime. Use the specifications provided below to encode your video for optimal quality on YouTube.

1. Enter a name for your file, and select Movie to QuickTime Movie from the Export dropdown.

 

2. Click Options and make the following changes to Video settings:

• Compression Type: H.264
• Frame Rate: 30 is preferred. 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 are also acceptable.
• Data Rate: Automatic
• Key Frames: Automatic
• Frame Reordering: Unchecked

  

3. Make the following changes to Audio or Sound settings:

• Format: AAC
• Click Show advanced settings and choose Constant Bit Rate as encoding strategy.

4. Select Size and choose the original size of the video.
5. The section Prepare for Internet Streaming must be set to Fast Start.

 

6. Now that you have completed these steps, select the .mov file that you created, and upload it to YouTube.

 

On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 12:24 PM, Anna Belew <anna....@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Richard,

 

That's wonderful!  We would love it if you were to contribute some of these recordings.  As for how to digitize your audio tapes: a LINGUIST List project, EMELD (Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data), has a "School of Best Practice," which contains advice for digitizing various types of media.  There's a how-to for digitizing audio tapes, which you can find here:  http://emeld.org/school/classroom/audio/howto.html 

 

Hope that helps!  If you run into any difficulty, feel free to get in touch. 

 

Best,

Anna

On Monday, June 25, 2012 2:20:07 PM UTC-4, Richard L Walton Jr wrote:

Good Day!  I am exceedingly happy to learn of this project.  I am in possession of cassette tapes produced over a decade ago highlighting pronunciation and syntax recorded from native speakers of the Unami dialect of the Lenape language.  These are not spontaneous recordings, not amateur in nature, and may be at least semi-professional.  I would love to share this with the project, but am not at all sure how to convert the audio on the cassette tapes to an appropriate digital format.  I'm also not sure how to go about uploading the files after they are burned.  Any advice or counsel will be gratefully accepted.
Thanks, very much!

--

 

--
 
 
 

[rich...@comcast.net]

Hi Sebastian,

Thanks, very much, for your email.  You raise some excellent points; I have a great deal to think about and value your input.
I'm sure that we can balance both the urgency to archive and preserve with the desire to share what we have with the largest possible audience.  I will take everything I learn into consideration.

Thanks, again!
Rich Walton

[Cameron Pratt]

Dear Mr. Walton Jr.

 

I have looked around on this website in awhile, and see your post has been nearly a year ago, but I have another solution to your tape --> digital problem. You can contact Dr. Mary Linn at the University of Oklahoma (google search) she works in the Native Languages department. She also works for the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. The museum has professional equipment to digitize your language tapes. Addtionally, the language data they collect from your tapes can be archived on databases and shared with whomever whats to access it. This service is free of charge.

 

A note to anyone else that reads this post. Tapes will deteriorate over time, if anyone has old tapes ie. reel to reel, 8 tracks, or cassette tapes have a professional digitized them before you lose data. Sometime people find old language tapes and the tapes have deteriorate to the point that if they are played the tape just break or be ruined. So, send them to a professional to have the data copied before all is lost.

 

Where is the spellckeck on this?

 

Kind Regards,

 

Cameron Pratt

[Allan Adam]

Hello

To get audıo from analog to dıgıtal ıs not as cumbersome as ıt may seem…as long as you have a means of connectıng to a computer and recordıng capabılıty on ıt…you can transfer ıt. Even the guıtar band pgm on mac has that abılıty. And, you can also edıt and mp3 the dıgıtal versıon to.

Allan Adam

www.allanadam.com

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