Voice archives in Arabic dialectology: the case of the southern Tunisian recordings in the Berliner Lautarchiv.

Some of the earliest voice recordings of Arabic made for linguistic purposes date from World War I and were made by German authorities who recorded prisoners of war in the Halbmondlager camp outside of Berlin. This study analyzes two voice records in particular, which are labelled 'Tripolitanisch-Arabisch (Tunesien)' and stem from what is now southern Tunisia. This study seeks to historicise the scientific context of these voice records as well as interpret the linguistic data preserved by them in the light of Arabic dialectology. It also raises questions about the reliability of both voice recordings and printed linguistic data from the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]