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This project is part of a large long term effort to preserve and make accessible an extensive collection of spoken language data from Yiddish speakers. Tapes of over 6000 hours of spoken language were collected over a 50 year period, for the purpose of building a dialectological Atlas of Ashkenazic Yiddish across Europe.
The collection was initiated by Professor Uriel Weinreich, chair of the Department of Linguistics at Columbia University. Professor Mikhl Herzog continued the project after Dr. Weinreich's death. The tapes, many in badly need of preservation, were recently donated to the Libraries of Columbia University.
Funding for preservation has been requested from the Mellon Foundation. After preservation, digitization of selected materials, with linguistically motivated markup and access will be undertaken.