1. 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

2. 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

3. Wilhelm Doegen in 1900 (Ross, p. 16)
1. Sound Archive
Proposed and managed by Wilhelm Doegen ( )
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 ( )
Wilhelm Doegen in 1900 (Ross, p. 16)

4. 2. Latvian in Sound Archive
Twelve Latvian men recorded in POW camps,
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

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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)

8. 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.

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Results: Summary

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

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