The collection itself consists of 9 metal plate discs with phonetics recordings of grad students, professors, and the aforementioned businessmen and date between 1938 and 1939 with the exception of one which claims to be from 1959.
The other 5 metal plate, vinyl coated records seem to be exclusively recordings of incoming undergrad freshmen and date from between 1946-1947. Most every record in the collection has some version of the "Arthur the rat" passage. The ones that don't have analogue passages serving similar purposes.
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Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Linguistics Dialects Records; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Sometime in the early 1930's, the Columbia and Barnard English departments cooperated to create a program with the goal of both cataloging "acceptable" dialects of American (and Euro-American) English, as well as creating resources to instruct Columbia students in proper English diction. Out of this program came the "Arthur the rat" passage for use in linguistic cataloguing and phonetic critique.
Over the next few decades, a collection of dialects was assembled comprising Columbia/Barnard undergrad Freshman as well as grad students, professors, and local businessmen or executives who were connected to the school. This program ran from at least 1935 to sometime in the 1960s.
The subject is covered in a New York Times Article https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/ 1935/07/21/223757622.html?pageNumber=75. Between 1965-1970, DARE field researchers recorded hundreds of people across the United States telling this story. These recordings serve as a record and reference of the various phonemes in American English.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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| Subject | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dialectology | CLIO Catalog | ArchiveGRID |
| Dialects | CLIO Catalog | ArchiveGRID |
| Linguistics | CLIO Catalog | ArchiveGRID |