LINGUIST List 12.2145

Sun Sep 2 2001

Qs: Russell Quote/Source, Digitizing Data Tapes

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Directory

  1. Stephen R. Anderson, Source of Russell quote about dogs
  2. Johanna Rubba, Digitizing data tapes

Message 1: Source of Russell quote about dogs

 Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 17:14:57 -0400
From: Stephen R. Anderson <stephen.andersonyale.edu>
Subject: Source of Russell quote about dogs

A standard quote in our field is Russell's "No matter how eloquently a
dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but
honest." Or at least Russell is claimed by many to have said that. But
where? I hope I will not be accused of laziness if I am reluctant to
read all of Russell to find it...

- Steve Anderson
<stephen.andersonyale.edu>
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Message 2: Digitizing data tapes

 Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 13:53:28 -0700
From: Johanna Rubba <jrubbacalpoly.edu>
Subject: Digitizing data tapes


I have a Mac G4 capable of burning CD's and would like to transfer
linguistic data that I collected from a native speaker from cassette
tapes to CD. I'm not terribly computer-literate, but I have learned how
to transfer music files using SoundEdit16 v. 2, and today I
experimented successfully with recording some of my speech data.
Although not recorded with a super-duper machine for field work, the
recordings are quite clear and of decent quality.

I'm looking for advice on how best to transfer the data to CD. Should I
use SoundEdit, or more specialized software? Suppose SoundEdit is the
easiest for me to access (i.e. free, via my univ.)? If I use SoundEdit,
what are the best settings for rendering the data as close as possible
to the original? The only size issue is what will fit onto a CD. It can
always be compressed later, if I decide to post it to the Web or something.

I would eventually like to be able to look at things like the spectral
profiles of vowels etc. in the language in question, so I'm interested
in, for instance, using an appropriate sampling rate. Also, how do I
view the files in SoundEdit in such a way as to see the spectra clearly?
Their 'spectrum view' is colorful, but not terribly informative.

I'll be glad to post a summary of answers if anyone is interested.
Thanks in advance.

Johanna Rubba Associate Professor, Linguistics 
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 
E-mail: jrubbacalpoly.edu 
Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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