Rare 1935 Recordings Bring Louisiana Creole Voices to Light

Found and analysed them. Mayeux uncovered and analysed recordings collected by Turner.

Clue: Linguist Oliver Mayeux has uncovered and analysed recordings made in 1935 of people speaking Louisiana Creole. They were collected by the pioneering Black scholar Lorenzo Dow Turner, the University of Cambridge reported on October 30.

The everyday speech of communities rarely recorded then. The passage says the recordings preserve voices from communities whose everyday speech was rarely recorded at the time.

Clue: The language developed in Louisiana and has its own grammar, although much of its vocabulary comes from French. It is now endangered. The recordings preserve voices from communities whose everyday speech was rarely recorded at the time.

They provide extended speech; earlier audio includes singing.. The passage contrasts earlier songs with extended spoken material.

Clue: Earlier recordings of people singing in Louisiana Creole are known, but the Turner material gives researchers examples of extended speech. The recordings include the New Orleans variety of the language.