Voices from the Past: Latvian Recordings in POW Camps during WW I Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies Philadelphia, May, 2016 Voices from the Past: Latvian Recordings in POW Camps during WW I Dzintra Bond, Dace Markus, Verna Stockmal Ohio University, Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy

Topics 1. Sound archive at Humboldt University, Berlin 2. Latvians in POW camps 3. Evaluating Latvian as spoken almost 100 years ago Purpose: Provide guidance for examining changes in pronunciation over time

Wilhelm Doegen in 1900 (Ross, p. 16) 1. Sound Archive Proposed and managed by Wilhelm Doegen (1877 -1967) Studied at Humboldt University and University of Oxford English teacher interested in phonetics Recordings in archive were designed to sample languages, folk lore, music Assisted by Hermann Jacobsohn (1879-1933) Wilhelm Doegen in 1900 (Ross, p. 16)

2. Latvian in Sound Archive Twelve Latvian men recorded in POW camps, 1916-1918 Recordings from 17 women and 29 men including Janis Endzelins; several choirs; recorded in Riga, 1924 Folk songs, folk tales, poems, word lists From various parts of Latvia, often showing dialect features 5 samples damaged or missing

Latvians Recorded in POW Camps for Enlisted Men Number of Speakers Near City Chemniz 3 Leipzig Döberitz 4 Berlin Heilsberg 1 Műnster Merseburg Magdeburg Wittenberg Klein Wittenberg

Life in POW Camps Manageable but uncomfortable for enlisted men, better for officers Crowded, inadequate food, work assignments, some use in propaganda Sleeping and probably living area in POW camp near Chemniz (Doegen, p. 45)

Recording in POW Camps Making a recording Gramophone: stylus incised groove on shellac disk May have required talkers to speak loudly Limited length of recordings. Recordings are scratchy Talkers may have exaggerated some speech characteristics to produce intelligible recording (Ross, p. 18)

3. Evaluating Latvian The purpose of asking for evaluations of the recordings is to obtain a preliminary assessment of reactions to the pronunciation of the language after about 100 turbulent years.

Method: Talkers 4 relatively young men recorded in POW camps and Latvian linguist Janis Endzelins 1. Meier, Jan 39 Livland/Rodenpois (Riga) 3/23/1916 2. Janson, Johan 30 Kurland/Kalcem (Mitau) 6/17/1916 3. Bersin, Fritz 24 Kurland/Wege Forf (Tukkum) 6/29/1916 4. Baitel, Jahnis 36 Bauske (Kurland) Pagast Zeraukst 7/28/1918 5. Endzelins, Janis 51 Livland/Kaugershof [Kauguri] Wolmar [Valmiera] 4/10/1924

Method: Materials Two speech samples produced by each talker, excerpted from recited folk songs or poems Excerpts produced without hesitations or obvious mispronunciations Not known whether the talkers were speaking from memory or reading

Method: Procedure Four members of the Latvian language faculties at the University of Latvia and the Latvian Academy of Sciences served as listeners Each provided evaluations and comments for the speech samples Used a prepared survey form focusing on intelligibility, the pronunciation of segments, rhythm and an estimate of generation of talkers The scale on the form ranged from 1, defined as intelligible and contemporary speech, to 5, different and difficult to understand

Results: Summary

Results: Endzelins Highly intelligible Vowels and consonants are contemporary Rhythm theatrical, characteristic of previous generations Speech old fashioned, i.e. “my grandfathers’ generation”

Results: Other 4 Talkers Good intelligibility Consonants and vowels almost identical to contemporary pronunciation Speech of the talkers represented earlier generations Rhythm has changed most, judged as theatrical, unnatural, typical of old- fashioned style Tendency to shorten vowels in final syllables One talker emphasized inappropriate syllables in some words due to exaggerated adherence to the beat of the verse

Conclusion and Future Research Listeners did not have significant difficulty with the intelligibility of the speech samples, apart from issues for which recording technology was responsible Listeners say that the pronunciation of segmentals was contemporary Listeners noted differences in rhythm and stress, that is, in prosodic patterns Our further work with voices from the past will examine the use of prosody both impressionistically and acoustically We also intend to compare contemporary recordings of test phrases with the recordings from WWI

Acknowledgements This project could not have been completed without the assistance of Robert Fox, Jaan Ross and Michael Willenbucher The generosity of Humboldt University in sharing the recordings from the sound archive is also gratefully acknowledged This project has been approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Ohio State University

References Doegen, W. 1919. Kriegsgefangene Volker. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. Lippus, P. and Ross, J. 2011. Voices from POW camps: a comparative study of spoken and sung Estonian utterances in sound recordings from the Berlin Lautarchiv (1916-1918). Paper presented at Ohio State University Ross, J. (ed.) 2012. Encapsulated Voices: Estonian Sound Recordings from the German Prisoner of War Camps, 1916-1918. Koln: Bohlan Verlag.