Category Archives: Linguistics

Remoteness Index

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For the last few weeks I have been thinking about how can one measure the impact on a language due to a language communities' contact with other languages. I have been looking for ways that remoteness has been measured in the past. I recently ran across a note on my iPhone from when I was in Mexico dated March 8, 2011.

A metric for measuring the language language shift, contact, and relatedness of indigenous languages of Mexico

  • The formation of aerial features
  • Population density
  • Trade and social networks
  • Political affiliation
  • Geographic factors
  • Roads travel opportunities

I remember writing this note: I was standing in front of a topographical map showing terrain regions. This map also had the language areas of Mexico outlined. It occurred to me (having also recently had a conversation with a local anthropologist on the matter of trade routes and mountain passes) that as a factor in language endangerment that these sorts of factors should be accounted for and if it can be accounted for then it should also be able to be graphed (on a map of course). The major issue being that if one just plots a language area without showing population/speaker density in that area then the viewer of that map will get a warped view of the language situation. Population density also does not solely infer where language attrition will likely not occur. And language contact does not automatically happen on the edges of a language area. That is to say, in a country with mountain passes, there will likely be more language contact in the passes as various groups travel to market than in higher elevated mountain villages. This leads to the issue of language diffusion and the representation of language diffusion. But the issue is not just one of language diffusion, it is also one of population diffusion, and population mobility and accessibility to various areas. So in terms of projecting, assessing and plotting language vitality, considering remoteness should be part of the equation. But remoteness is not just a factor on its own, it is more of an index considering the issues mentioned above but specifically considering the issues of geographical remoteness and considering the issues of social remoteness (or contact, even with other villages and cities in the same language and ethnic communities).

I am not currently aware of any index, much less a project which plots this index to a geographical area. However, I have found some previous work worth mentioning which might be related and relevant.

Modeling Language Diffusion With ArcGIS

There is an interesting paper and project on modeling language diffusion with ArcGIS. It was prepared for Worldmap.org by Christopher Deckert in 2004 and presented at the 24th ESRI users conference. [1]Christopher Deckert. 2004. Modeling Language Diffusion With ArcGIS. Paper published in the proceedings of the 24th Annual Esri International User Conference, August 9–13, 2004.  … Continue reading

Remote Areas of the World

The magazine NewScientist has an article from April 2009 [2]Caroline Williams. 20 April 2009. NewScientist. Where's the remotest place on Earth?. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227041.500-wheres-the-remotest-place-on-earth.html. [Link] [Accessed: 27 … Continue reading about the Remotes places in the world it has several maps and abstractions showing how remote (with reference to travel time) places in the world are. The following maps come from the NewScientist article.

Map showing the access ability from one point to another.

Map showing the access ability from one point to another.

Detail of roads in west Africa

Detail of roads in west Africa

Nowhere three weeks from anywhere

Map showing the remoteness of the Tibetan Plateau

The ASGC Remoteness Structure

Another promising resource I found is the ASGC Remoteness Structure which Australia has developed to show how remote parts of Australia are. There is a series of papers explaining the methods behind the algorithms used and the purpose of the study. One of the outputs was the map below. [3]Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care. 2001, Measuring Remoteness: Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA), Revised Edition, Occasional Papers: New Series No. 14 [PDF] [Link] … Continue reading

Australia Remoteness map

Australia Remoteness Map

The Territoriality of Public Health Governance in Mexico

The last resource I am going to mention here is The Territoriality of Public Health Governance in Mexico. A study which plots the Remoteness of Health Care in Mexico. [4] Alberto Díaz-Cayeros and Justin Levitt. August 30, 2011. The Territoriality of Public Health Governance in Mexico. http://irps.ucsd.edu/assets/001/502971.pdf [PDF] [Accessed: 12 February 2012]

References

References
↑1 Christopher Deckert. 2004. Modeling Language Diffusion With ArcGIS. Paper published in the proceedings of the 24th Annual Esri International User Conference, August 9–13, 2004. http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc04/docs/pap1071.pdf [PDF] [Accessed: 27 February 2011]
↑2 Caroline Williams. 20 April 2009. NewScientist. Where's the remotest place on Earth?. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227041.500-wheres-the-remotest-place-on-earth.html. [Link] [Accessed: 27 February 2011]
↑3 Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care. 2001, Measuring Remoteness: Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA), Revised Edition, Occasional Papers: New Series No. 14 [PDF] [Link] [Accessed: 2 February 2012]
↑4 Alberto Díaz-Cayeros and Justin Levitt. August 30, 2011. The Territoriality of Public Health Governance in Mexico. http://irps.ucsd.edu/assets/001/502971.pdf [PDF] [Accessed: 12 February 2012]

Some current challenges in using GIS Information in the SIL International Corporate Knowledge System

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Preface

This paper is motivated by an experience in collecting, analyzing, and then redeploying (sharing while making relevant to other corporate SIL functions) corporate intellectual assets. These assets are relevant to both products SIL products and services and corporate processes. This paper attempts to document some of the current challenges presented to the SIL staff person as well as present some items for consideration in overcoming these challenges.
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Ethnologue: the linguistic straw-man

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The Ethnologue [1] M. Paul Lewis. (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edn. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. as an academic book, is somewhat of a straw man in linguistics. Many people who write grants for language documentation projects (generally on under described or endangered languages) will cite the Ethnologue and some other resources or lack of resources [2] Steven A. Marlett. 2011. Documenting the Me’phaa genus. DEH-NEH fellowship proposal. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pdf/DEL_NEH_Marlett.pdf. [PDF] [DEL Awards] [Accessed: 15 February 2011] [3] Sadaf Munshi. 2011. Archive of Annotated Burushaski Texts. NSF grant proposal. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pdf/DEL_NSF_Munshi.pdf. [PDF] [DEL Awards] [Accessed: 15 February 2011] [4]Monica A. Macaulay. 2011. Potawatomi Documentation, Lexical Database, and Dictionary. NEH grant proposal. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pdf/DEL_NEH_Macaulay.pdf. [PDF] [DEL Awards] [Accessed: … Continue reading . These efforts seeking funding are usually an effort to get more language data. The rationale for this is two fold:

  1. Because so little is known that we do not know if the Ethnologue is correct.
  2. Because there is a conflict between other published sources and the Ethnologue [5]Roger Blench. n.d. Introduction to the Temein languages http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Nilo-Saharan/Eastern%20Sudanic/Temein%20cluster/Blench%20Temein%20language%20NM%20proceedings.pdf [PDF] … Continue reading .

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References

References
↑1 M. Paul Lewis. (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edn. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International.
↑2 Steven A. Marlett. 2011. Documenting the Me’phaa genus. DEH-NEH fellowship proposal. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pdf/DEL_NEH_Marlett.pdf. [PDF] [DEL Awards] [Accessed: 15 February 2011]
↑3 Sadaf Munshi. 2011. Archive of Annotated Burushaski Texts. NSF grant proposal. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pdf/DEL_NSF_Munshi.pdf. [PDF] [DEL Awards] [Accessed: 15 February 2011]
↑4 Monica A. Macaulay. 2011. Potawatomi Documentation, Lexical Database, and Dictionary. NEH grant proposal. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pdf/DEL_NEH_Macaulay.pdf. [PDF] [DEL Awards] [Accessed: 15 February 2011]
↑5 Roger Blench. n.d. Introduction to the Temein languages http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Nilo-Saharan/Eastern%20Sudanic/Temein%20cluster/Blench%20Temein%20language%20NM%20proceedings.pdf [PDF] [Accessed: 15 February 2011]

The Job

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Today several people are getting together to have a meeting about my job(s)… So I thought I would post a few diagrams to try and explain my job(s).

Hugh's Life

A digram of different areas of my life

The core Area of my Job

My Core Area of involvement

The Core Things I am involved in

Some of the outside things I am involved in:

The Details

The Detailed Stuff

DSpace and the Presentation Layer

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Drupal

Because I have been on the team doing the SIL.org redesign, I have been looking at the Open Source landscape looking at what is available to connect Drupal with DSpace data stores. We are planning on making DSpace the back-end repository, with another CMS running the presentation and interactive layers. I found a module which parses DSpace's XML feeds in development. However, this is not the only thing that I am looking at. I am also looking at how we might deploy Omeka. Presenting the entire contents of a Digital Language and Culture Archive, and citations for their physical contents is no small task. In addition to past content there is also future content. That is to say archiving is also not devoid of publishing - so there is also the PKP project [sic redundant]. (SIL also currently has a publishing house, whose content need CSV or version control and editorial workflows, which interact with archiving and presentation functions.)

Omeaka

Wally Grotophorst has a really good reflection on Omeaka and DSpace, I am not sure that it is current but it does present the problem space quite well. [1]Wally Grotophorst. 4 March 2008. DSpace And Omeka. iNODE: The weblog of Digital Programs and Systems at George Mason University Libraries. http://timesync.gmu.edu/wordpress/?p=485 . [Accessed: 26 … Continue reading Tom Scheinfeldt at Omeka also has a nice write up on why Omeka exists, titled "Omeka and It's peers". It is really important to understand Omeka's place in the eco system of content delivery to content consumers by qualified site administrators. [2] Tom Scheinfeldt. 21 September 2010. Omeka and It's peers. http://omeka.org/blog/2010/09/21/omeka-and-peers/ [Accessed: 26 November 2011] [Link] [Also Posted on Tom's Blog]

@Mire talks about What DSpace could learn from Omeka. [3] @Mire. 20 May 2010. What DSpace could learn from Omeka. http://www.facebook.com/notes/mire/what-dspace-could-learn-from-omeka/393758568767 . [Accessed: 26 November 2011] [Link]

Dspace Mailing list discussion discussing some DSpace technologies for mixing with OAI-ORE and Fedora, Omeka, and Drupal.

http://omeka.org/forums/topic/omeka-and-harvesting-from-dspace
http://omeka.org/forums/topic/import-to-dspace

References

References
↑1 Wally Grotophorst. 4 March 2008. DSpace And Omeka. iNODE: The weblog of Digital Programs and Systems at George Mason University Libraries. http://timesync.gmu.edu/wordpress/?p=485 . [Accessed: 26 November 2011] [Link]
↑2 Tom Scheinfeldt. 21 September 2010. Omeka and It's peers. http://omeka.org/blog/2010/09/21/omeka-and-peers/ [Accessed: 26 November 2011] [Link] [Also Posted on Tom's Blog]
↑3 @Mire. 20 May 2010. What DSpace could learn from Omeka. http://www.facebook.com/notes/mire/what-dspace-could-learn-from-omeka/393758568767 . [Accessed: 26 November 2011] [Link]

Paper Writing

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Over the past several months I have been wrestling with academic expression on the web. I have been trying to think through what it should look like. What do I want my footprint to be? How do I want to participate in the discussions I am involved in? Part of the struggle has been with content distribution v.s. content publishing. In using the web as a content distribution platform the web technology question looks more like "how are we going to arrange these PDFs". Where as the web publishing question looks more like blog posts published directly to web browser oriented venues. Academic writing has traditionally been the written discussion between professionals in various pursuits of life. But as the web has shaped how we communicate academia must (and is) consider how it is going to participate in the discussion. If social media and its various forms are where the discussion is happening then how is academia going to stay relevant or connected? This is most relevant in the area of citations and links. These questions are not just relevant for the individual but are also relevant to academic institutions like, SIL International, Linguistic Society of America, Academy of the Sciences, etc.

Should be considering is that in a world where academic writing is reduced, where is their place. The LSA has a journal, Language, which I enjoy reading. But are they the center of academic thought that they once were? is their presentation of knowledge really the medium of use today?

While I agree that the web is radically changing the way information is decimated. I doubt that the structure of argumentation will change. We may have to find new ways of expressing the points of the argument but an argument will still have points. So, till our professors stop making us write papers, and allow us to tweet our contradictions, and assertions of scientific fact.... How to build an argument and how to write a paper are still important.

I have come across some interesting resources. One of them reminded me of something taught in my undergraduate degree. My philosophy professor made us learn an outline for paper writing which has proven most helpful.

Here is the original outline

1:Issue: What is integration

2. Position: for integration

+3. Argument 1: social pluses
-4. Objection 1 social negatives
+5. Reply 1: with out the negatives of life are we really preparing students for life

+6. Argument 2: Child’s desire
-7. Objection 2: state responsibilities
+8. Reply 2: Parents ultimate rights/responsibilities

+9. Argument 3:
-10. Objection 3:
+11. Reply 3:

+12. Argument 4:
-13. Objection 4:
+14. Reply 4:

-15. Objection to the position: Separation
-16. Argument for the objection to the position: separation is necessary for lower salaries on school budgets
+17. Objection to the objection to the position:
-18. Reply to the Argument for the objection to the position: Even with a higher budgets on salaries lowering the student to teacher ratio and paying more would help all student overall.

19. Restate issue with final opinion:

This website was given as the resource from which the outline pulled its content. http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues43.html

This argument still needed to demonstrate the dichotomy of a paragraph.

Introduction :: why should the reader read this? - the grab.
Definition :: What are you talking about?
Relationship to higher-level thought :: how does this relate to what the reader knows?
Conclusion :: what does your claim imply?
Transition :: What question does this lead us to ask?In this outline he showed that one needs a

Proposition

Some supporting elements
Some supporting elements
Some supporting elements

Then to strengthen the argument a counter proposition is needed.

One could choose to be very crafty and make the counter argument a counter to one of the supporting elements of the original proposition. But regardless of the quality of the counter proposition, it still needs several supporting elements.

Element supporting counter position
Element supporting counter position
Element supporting counter position

Then the author needs some discourse to deconstruct the counter supporting elements and explain why they are not valid contradictions supporting the counter position. During this discourse the opposing opinion is clearly presented. Eventually, this discourse will then refute the counter proposition. At which time a second counter proposition is needed.

Second counter proposition

Element supporting counter position
Element supporting counter position
Element supporting counter position

More discourse.... and the process repeats itself until a point is proven or considered well laid out.

The importance of the point in explaining the opposing side better than the opposing side can, was recently brought back into focus as I read a post by Nagesh Belludi [1]Nagesh Belludi. 12 December 2008. [Effective Arguments] Explain Your Opponent’s Perspective. [Accessed: 11 November 2011] … Continue reading . Recently I have also encountered several works of interest regarding academic discourse. The following presentation from Beyond the PDF [2]Anita de Waard, Paul Thompson, Maria Liakata, Raheel Nawaz and Sophia Ananiadou. Comparing scientific discourse annotation schemes for enhanced knowledge extraction. Paper presented at the Beyond the … Continue reading Has a really good break down in the first 10 minutes of the presentation on the discourse structure of an academic paper.

From time to time, I read an academic paper, or journal article which really shines. It is engaging, it tells a compelling story, presents new insights and knowledge, and it brings me to a new conclusion or awareness of my surroundings.
I recently had the pleasure of reading a paper by Alexandre François, on some phonology aspects of a language he was doing research in. [3] Alexandre François. 2010. Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment. Phonology Vol. 27 (3):393-434. DOI:10.1017/S0952675710000205 [Link] He did a marvelous job at presenting an issue, the evidence to be considered, and then also the propositions and the objections. He brought the reader with him as he explained the issues. The level of background knowledge needed was minimized, yet this work was not focused on presenting just the background issues and story. It is a recommended read if you are interested in phonology sorts of things, but also if you are interested in looking at the presentation of argumentation.

References

References
↑1 Nagesh Belludi. 12 December 2008. [Effective Arguments] Explain Your Opponent’s Perspective. [Accessed: 11 November 2011] http://www.rightattitudes.com/2008/12/12/explain-your-opponents-perspective/ [Link]
↑2 Anita de Waard, Paul Thompson, Maria Liakata, Raheel Nawaz and Sophia Ananiadou. Comparing scientific discourse annotation schemes for enhanced knowledge extraction. Paper presented at the Beyond the PDF Workshop: January 19-21, 2011 University of California San Diego. [Accessed 8 November 2011] https://sites.google.com/site/beyondthepdf/workshop-papers/comparing-scientific-discourse-annotation [Abstract] [YouTube Video]
↑3 Alexandre François. 2010. Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment. Phonology Vol. 27 (3):393-434. DOI:10.1017/S0952675710000205 [Link]

A Story Breeds A Story

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While I was in Malaysia, I had the honor to meet and talk to quite a bit with Professor Emeritus Howard McKaughan. We talked a about his linguistics based work in Mexico, the Philippines, and in Malaysia. He can tell stories, interesting stories.

Howard - Story Telling

Howard - Story Telling

There is something unique about his generation of Americans (currently in their 80s and 90s). It is their ability to craft and tell stories. I feel that this is a cultural point I don’t have. It could be because I am third culture, or because I talk to much of the macro-details, or it might simply be because I am long winded.
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Some Notes on Using FLEx

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During the workshop there was ample opportunity to observe how 80 people interact with the same piece of software.

About 80 people

About 80 people attending the workshop.

Of the 80 participants no more than 10 were from the university. While I was presenting my session I asked some technology owned questions and I found out that: Continue reading →

Teaching FLEx in Malaysia

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In October, Becky and I were invited to present FLEx at the Universiti of Malaysia, Sabah as part of a workshop for compiling native dictionaries and managing cultural data. I learned a lot about dictionaries, about using FLEx to organize dictionary data, about Webonary and about Malaysia.

One of the things this workshop helped me to clearly articulate was that there are four knowledge content areas which dictionary creators need:

  1. Knowledge about Theoretical Linguistics to understand the language being described and the categories possible in the dictionary.
  2. Knowledge about the language being analyzed and described so that they can apply the appropriate options available to this situation.
  3. Knowledge about how to manage the editorial process for the dictionary (including entry submission).
  4. Knowledge about how to use the software to implement the editorial process.

This workshop’s focus was only on the software used to implement the editorial process (mostly the data collection part of the editorial process). So in some ways it felt like we weren’t giving the participants all the tools they will need (or even showing them all the tools they will need). But we had to realize that it is not our responsibility to give them all the tools they need or to expose them to these issues. They need local contacts for that. Regardless of these issue we were still ecstatic that there were about 80 people in attendance.

About 80 people

Opening Cerimonies at UMS

Becky took most of the sessions on FLEx. She presented on using FLEx as a tool for collecting words and various things about words. We covered several input methods and features in the application.

Becky talking about FLEx as a tool

Becky helping people doing exercises

I presented a session on explaining how to get data out of FLEx. We talked about putting dictionary data on the web and turning it into .epub files.

Hugh presenting on getting things out of FLEx

I think one of the more interesting things that I learned was about expectations, culture and photographs.
Many people wanted photographs with us (or of us). This is not totally unexpected. What was unexpected was that rather than taking one photo and sharing it (passing it around), everyone wanted their own picture. Not their own picture with us but a picture with us made with their own camera! It was in that moment that I had an epiphany. Having training in Language Documentation I am aware and concerned with rules and laws concerning privacy. In the U.S. when dealing with issues of informed consent and intellectual property, it can not be assumed that if I want to take a picture of you that I, the owner of the camera, own the picture. Furthermore it can not be assumed that I have the right to do with that picture as I please. i.e. Post it to the internet. This may be in part that our laws are based on our semantics. It may be in part our culture. But there I realized that if the photo is taken with your camera you own the photo. You can do with it as you please. The asking for permission is that you have asked for permission to take the photo.

Taking our picture

Taking their picture, while they were taking a picture of us. Since he who owns the camera, owns the picture...

I took this last picture at about the same time I had the epiphany.

Presentation version vs. Archival version of Digital Audio files

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What is an archival version of an audio file?

An archival version of an audio file is a file which represents the original sound faithfully. In archiving we want to keep a version of the audio which can be used to make other products and also be used directly itself if needed. This is usually done through PCM. There are several file types which are associated with PCM or RAW uncompressed faithful (to the original signal) digital audio. These are:

  • Standard Wave
  • AIFF
  • Wave 64
  • Broadcast Wave Format (BWF)One way to understand the difference between audio file formats is understanding how different format are used. One place which has been helpful to me has been the DOBBIN website as they explain their software and how it can change audio from one PCM based format to another.

Each one of these file types has the flexibility to have various kinds of components. i.e. several channels of audio can be in the same file. Or one can have .wav files with different bit depths or sampling rates. But they are each a archive friendly format. Before one says that a file is suitable for archiving simply based on its file format one must also consider things like sample rates, bit depth, embedded metadata, channels in the file, etc. I was introduced to DOBBIN as an application resource for audio archivists by a presentation by Rob Poretti. [1] Rob Poretti. 2011. Audio Analysis and Processing in Multi-Media File Formats. ARSC 2011. [Accessed: 24 October 2011] http://www.arsc-audio.org/conference/audio2011/extra/48-Poretti.pptx [Link] One additional thing that is worth noting in terms of archival versions of digital audio pertains to born digital materials. Sometimes audio is recored directly to a lossy compressed audio format. It would be entirely appropriate to archive a born-digital filetype based on the content. However it should be noted that in this case the recordings should have been done in a PCM file format.

What is a presentation version? (of an audio file)

A presentation version is a file created with a content use in mind. There are several general characteristics of this kind of file:

  1. It is one that does not retain the whole PCM content.
  2. It is usually designed for a specific application. (Use on a portable device, or personal audio player)
  3. It can be thought of as a derivative product from an original audio or video stream.

In terms of file formats, there is not just one file format which is a presentation format. There are many formats. This is because there are many ways to use audio. For instance there are special audio file types optimized for various kinds of applications like:

  • 3G and WiFi Audio and A/V services
  • Internet audio for streaming and download
  • Digital Radio
  • Digital Satellite and Cable
  • Portable playersA brief look a an explanation by Cube-Tec might help to get the gears moving. It is part of the inspiration for this post.

This means there is a long list of potential audio formats for the presentation form.

  • AAC (aac)
  • AC3 (ac3)
  • Amiga IFF/SVX8/SV16 (iff)
  • Apple/SGI (aiff/aifc)
  • Audio Visual Research (avr)
  • Berkeley/IRCAM/CARL (irca)
  • CDXA, like Video-CD (dat)
  • DTS (dts)
  • DVD-Video (ifo)
  • Ensoniq PARIS (paf)
  • FastTracker2 Extended (xi)
  • Flac (flac)
  • Matlab (mat)
  • Matroska (mkv/mka/mks)
  • Midi Sample dump Format (sds)
  • Monkey’s Audio (ape/mac)
  • Mpeg 1&2 container (mpeg/mpg/vob)
  • Mpeg 4 container (mp4)
  • Mpeg audio specific (mp2/mp3)
  • Mpeg video specific (mpgv/mpv/m1v/m2v)
  • Ogg (ogg/ogm)
  • Portable Voice format (pvf)
  • Quicktime (qt/mov)
  • Real (rm/rmvb/ra)
  • Riff (avi/wav)
  • Sound Designer 2 (sd2)
  • Sun/NeXT (au)
  • Windows Media (asf/wma/wmv)

Aside from just the file format difference in media files (.wav vs. .mp3) there are three other differences to be aware of:

  1. Media stream quality variations
  2. Media container formats
  3. Possibilities with embedded metadata

Media stream quality variations

Within the same file type there might be a variation of quality of audio. For instance Mp3 files can have a variable rate encoding or they can have a steady rate of encoding. When they have a steady rate of encoding they can have a High or a low rate of encoding. WAV files can also have a high or a low bit depth and a high or a low sample rate. Some file types can have more channels than others. For instance AAC files can have up to 48 channels where as Mp3 files can only have up to 5.1 channels. [2]Various Contributors. 21 October 2011 at 21:44 . Wikipedia: Advanced Audio Coding, AAC’s improvements over MP3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding#AAC.27s_improvements_over_MP3 … Continue reading

One argument I have heard in favor of saving disk space is to use lossless compression rather than WAV files for archive quality (and as archive version) recordings. As far as archiving is concerned, these lossless compression formats are still product oriented file formats. One thing to realize is that not every file format can hold the same kind of audio. Some formats have limits on the bit depth of the samples they can contain, or they have a limit on the number of audio channels they can have in a file. This is demonstrated in the table below, taken from wikipedia. [3]Various Contributors. 21 October 2011 at 10:26 . Wikipedia:Comparison of audio formats, Technical Details of Lossless Audio Compression Formats. … Continue reading This is where understanding the relationship between a file format, a file extension and a media container format is really important.

Audio compression formatAlgorithmSample RateBits per sampleLatencyStereoMultichannel
ALACLossless44.1 kHz to 192 kHz16, 24[41]?YesYes
FLACLossless1 Hz to 655350 Hz8, 16, 20, 24, (32)4.3ms - 92ms (46.4ms typical)YesYes: Up to 8 channels
Monkey's AudioLossless8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz??YesNo
RealAudio LosslessLosslessVaries (see article)Varies (see article)VariesYesYes: Up to 6 channels
True AudioLossless0–4 GHz1 to > 64?YesYes: Up to 65535 channels
WavPack LosslessLossless, Hybrid1 Hz to 16.777216 MHzvaries in lossless mode; 2.2 minimum in lossy mode?YesYes: Up to 256 channels
Windows Media Audio LosslessLossless8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 kHz16, 24>100msYesYes:Up to 6 channels

Media container formats

Media container formats can look like file types but they really are containers of file types (think like a folder with an extension). Often they allow for the bundling of audio and video files with metadata and then enable this set of data to act like a single file. On wikipedia there is a really nicecomparison of container formats.

MP4 is one such container format. Apple Lossless data is stored within an MP4 container with the filename extension .m4a – this extension is also used by Apple for AAC audio data in an MP4 container (same container, different audio encoding). However, Apple Lossless is not a variant of AAC (which is a lossy format), but rather a distinct lossless format that uses linear prediction similar to other lossless codecs such as FLAC and Shorten. [4] Various Contributors. 6 October 2011 at 03:11. Wikipedia: Apple Lossless. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless [Link] Files with a .m4a generally do not have a video stream even though MP4 containers can also have a video stream.

MP4 can contain:

  • Video: MPEG-4 Part 10 (H.264) and MPEG-4 Part 2
    Other compression formats are less used: MPEG-2 and MPEG-1
  • Audio: Advanced Audio Coding (AAC)
    Also MPEG-4 Part 3 audio objects, such as Audio Lossless Coding (ALS), Scalable Lossless Coding (SLS), MP3, MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2), MPEG-1 Audio Layer I (MP1), CELP, HVXC (speech), TwinVQ, Text To Speech Interface (TTSI) and Structured Audio Orchestra Language (SAOL)
    Other compression formats are less used: Apple Lossless
  • Subtitles: MPEG-4 Timed Text (also known as 3GPP Timed Text).
    Nero Digital uses DVD Video subtitles in MP4 files [5] Various Contributors. 11 October 2011 at 15:00. Wikipedia: MPEG-4 Part 14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.m4a [Link]

This means that an .mp3 file can be contained inside of an .mp4 file. This also means that audio files are not always what they seem to be on the surface. This is why I advocate for an archive of digital files which archives for a digital publishing house to also use technical metadata as discovery metadata. Filetype is not enough to know about a file.

Possibilities with embedded metadata

Audio files also very greatly on what kinds of embedded metadata and metadata formats they support. MPEG-7, BWF and MP4 all support embedded metadata. But this does not mean that audio players in the consumer market or prosumer market respect this embedded metadata. ARSC has in interesting report on the support for embedded metadata in audio recording software. [6]Chris Lacinak, Walter Forsber. 2011. A Study of Embedded Metadata Support in Audio Recording Software: Summary of Findings and Conclusion. ARSC Technical Committee. … Continue reading Aside from this disregard for embedded metadata there are various metadata formats which are embedded in different file types, one common type ID3, is popular with .mp3 files. But even ID3 comes in different versions.

In archiving Language and Culture Materials our complete package often includes audio but rarely is just audio. However, understanding the audio components of the complete package help us understand what it needs to look like in the archive. In my experience in working with the Language and Culture Archive most contributors are not aware of the difference between Archival and Presentation versions of audio formats and those who think they do, generally are not aware of the differences in codecs used (sometimes with the same file extension). From the archive’s perspective this is a continual point of user/submitter education. This past week have taken the time to listen to a few presentations by Audio Archivist from the 2011 ARSC convention. These in general show that the kinds of issues that I have been dealing with in the Language and Culture Archive are not unique to our context.

The Complete Audio Package

The Complete Audio Package

References

References
↑1 Rob Poretti. 2011. Audio Analysis and Processing in Multi-Media File Formats. ARSC 2011. [Accessed: 24 October 2011] http://www.arsc-audio.org/conference/audio2011/extra/48-Poretti.pptx [Link]
↑2 Various Contributors. 21 October 2011 at 21:44 . Wikipedia: Advanced Audio Coding, AAC’s improvements over MP3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding#AAC.27s_improvements_over_MP3 [Link]
↑3 Various Contributors. 21 October 2011 at 10:26 . Wikipedia:Comparison of audio formats, Technical Details of Lossless Audio Compression Formats. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_audio_codecs#Technical_Details_of_Lossless_Audio_Compression_Formats [Link]
↑4 Various Contributors. 6 October 2011 at 03:11. Wikipedia: Apple Lossless. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless [Link]
↑5 Various Contributors. 11 October 2011 at 15:00. Wikipedia: MPEG-4 Part 14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.m4a [Link]
↑6 Chris Lacinak, Walter Forsber. 2011. A Study of Embedded Metadata Support in Audio Recording Software: Summary of Findings and Conclusion. ARSC Technical Committee. http://www.arsc-audio.org/pdf/ARSC_TC_MD_Study.pdf [Link]