The speech of Australian adolescents: research data and recordings collected by A.G. Mitchell and Arthur Delbridge in 1959 and 1960

Mitchell, A. G. (Alexander George); Delbridge, Arthur

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Open Access

Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Mitchell, A. G. (Alexander George)
dc.contributor.author	Delbridge, Arthur
dc.contributor.other	Vonwiller, J.
dc.contributor.other	Rogers, I.
dc.contributor.other	Cleirigh, C.
dc.contributor.other	Taylor, B.
dc.contributor.other	Evans, G.
dc.contributor.other	Baldauf, R.
dc.contributor.other	Vaughan-Taylor, K.
dc.contributor.other	Meares, P.
dc.coverage.temporal	1959-1960	en_AU
dc.date.accessioned	2023-08-22T06:25:05Z
dc.date.available	2023-08-22T06:25:05Z
dc.date.issued	1998	en_AU
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/2123/31585
dc.identifier.uri	https://data.ldaca.edu.au/collection?id=arcp%3A%2F%2Fname%2Cdoi10.25910%252Fjkwy-wk76&_crateId=arcp%3A%2F%2Fname%2Cdoi10.25910%252Fjkwy-wk76
dc.description.abstract	This dataset contains research data and recordings of Australian English as spoken by 7736 students at 330 schools across Australia, collected 1959-1960. The recordings were made on reel-to-reel tapes and were used to create the 1965 monograph 'The speech of Australian adolescents: a survey' and the revised 1965 publication 'The pronunciation of English in Australia' (originally published in 1946). The original reel-to-reel tapes were digitised by the National Film and Sound Archive, transferred to DAT recordings, and the digitised version was reissued as an online database 'The Mitchell and Delbridge tapes' by the University of Sydney in 1997-1998. The website included contextual documents and annotations to the online database, included in this dataset.	en_AU
dc.language.iso	en	en_AU
dc.publisher	The University of Sydney	en_AU
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0	en_AU
dc.subject	English language	en_AU
dc.subject	Pronunciation	en_AU
dc.subject	Australian English	en_AU
dc.subject	Linguistics	en_AU
dc.title	The speech of Australian adolescents: research data and recordings collected by A.G. Mitchell and Arthur Delbridge in 1959 and 1960	en_AU
dc.title.alternative	The Mitchell and Delbridge tapes	en_AU
dc.type	Dataset	en_AU
dc.identifier.doi	10.25910/jkwy-wk76
dc.description.method	SA tapes = 40 tapes of 35 schools (39 recordings) QLD tapes = 69 tapes of 58 schools (68 recordings) NSW tapes = 107 tapes of 160 schools (186 recordings) VIC tapes = 70 tapes of 57 schools (89 recordings) TAS tapes = 14 tapes of 12 schools (12 recordings) WA tapes = 10 tapes of 8 schools (10 recordings) Schools were sometimes recorded twice or the recording was split across two tapes. Ultimately there were 402 separate recordings of 330 schools on 297 tapes. Additional Notes: Materials: Despite the careful instructions, not all recordings have the requested materials. Mitchell & Delbridge established the set of 6 vowels that they considered would demonstrate divergence in speaker accents, if an accent existed. These 6 vowels were elicited through the 6 words - "beat boot say so high how". Two sentences were also designed to elicit dialect type differences in a larger context. In the digitised versions the set of words was labelled "s1" - the sentences "s2" & "s3".- and the continuous speech "n." For example, the recordings for student number 7736 would be labelled S7736s1.wav S7736s2.wav S7736s3.wav S7736n.wav Repeat Recordings: Some schools were recorded twice. Several schools in the Brisbane area used a recording facility at the QLD University. Unfortunately, there was a problem as the recording supervisors did not use the script sent by M&D and thus the students did not produce a set of materials comparable to that produced by other pupils from other schools. Instead, these QLD students recorded monologues. They were re-recorded later at their home school. From examination of the paper records, it appears that the second recording did not always include the same students. As there are no names or identifying features in the records, there is no way of knowing which students were recorded twice, so each student recording of this type was given a separate UID. If it seemed that a match between recordings of a student could be achieved (based on rather unique historical records matching), then a note about the possible match was made in the miscellaneous column. Tape Numbering and Naming in the M&D project: All the tapes were numbered. A copy of the list of these tapes for all the States is in the Appendix. There are missing 'numbers' in the tape lists. Delbridge reported that some schools recorded on the wrong side of the tape, or the recording was so low in volume, or of such poor quality, that it was rendered unusable. The numbers for these tapes will be missing as the tapes were then reused and re-numbered. It is not uncommon for several schools to be on the one tape, especially in Queensland. This arrangement is reflected in the numbering of the DATs. Numbering of tapes will be, for example, n79; q60_61; s35a; s35b; s35c. The alphabet character refers to the State, n=NSW q=QLD v=VIC s=SA w=WA t=TAS. Tape number "X_Y" indicates the material for this school carries across 2 tapes; Tapes numbered 'X' 'Xa' may refer to a repeated recording. Alternatively, this may refer to the fact that there is more than one school on a tape. The name of the school will decide this. Paper Records: The historical information was investigated and a consistent set of criteria was identified for the project. This was entered onto a table with 13 fields. Paper records were produced with these in table form. In the electronic version of the records the material is kept in a relational database with a graphic user interface to facilitate interrogation of the data holdings. Field 1 UID-unique identification number e.g.1210 Field 2 State e.g. Qld Field 3 Town/City eg Quirindi Field 4 School e.g Quirindi State High School Field 5 Date of Recording e.g 1959 Field 6 Tape number & Speaker number on tape Field 7 Sex e.g. m Field 8 Place of Birth (of student) Field 9 Father's Place of Birth e.g. Somewhere in China Field 10 Father's Occupation e.g. storekeeper Field 11 Mother's Place of Birth e.g. China Field 12 miscellaneous Field 13 environment e.g. Recorded at QLD Uni The tape number and student number was retained in the historical record to enable users who will be working from the DATs to know which DAT has the speaker they want and where that speaker is on the tape. Numbering of the tapes for each State began at '1' in the original tapes, so the first letter of the State name was use to make each tape unique. Some very basic figures were extracted to illustrate some of the features of this collection. Note that there will be differences between these numbers and those given by Mitchell & Delbridge in their publications as these figures include the repeated schools and do not include recordings which have deteriorated too much to be digitised. A total of 7736 student records were created. Number State 3885 NSW 1291 Vic 1234 Qld 847 SA 289 Tas 189 WA Of these, The gender division was- 3648 male and 4087 female students. The recordings were made over three years, the vast majority made in 1960. Number Date 106 1958 1742 1959 5823 1960 39 Not Known A comparison of birth places reveals that fathers were more likely to come from diverse birth places, and it was the impression of the staff that more fathers than mothers came from overseas. Total number of different student birth places 1174 Total number of different father's birth places 1721 Total number of different mother's birth places 1559 There are 2076 separate fathers occupations listed. The largest category was for "farmer". The paper records were re-printed and published in 6 volumes for which this book is a companion.	en_AU
dc.relation.other	University of Sydney Pro Vice Chancellor's Office	en_AU
dc.relation.other	APPEN Speech Technology	en_AU
usyd.faculty	SeS faculties schools::Faculty of Arts	en_AU
usyd.faculty	SeS faculties schools::Faculty of Engineering::School of Electrical and Information Engineering	en_AU
usyd.department	Language Centre	en_AU
workflow.metadata.only	Yes	en_AU