The Phonogram Archives of the University of Zurich
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The "Wiener Phonograph" from 1909 is the first audio recording device of the Phonogram Archives. It is on display in our offices in the main building of the University of Zurich close to the library of the "Phonetik Bibliothek".
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A wax disc can be mounted on the brown fixture. The recorded sound is engraved into the disc by the needle.
About the Phonogram Archives
The Phonogram Archives (ISIL CH-001390-6) is the oldest audio archive in Switzerland, with a history spanning over more than 100 years. The Phonogram Archives were founded in 1909 as an independent organisational unit affiliated with the University of Zurich. With the university reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, the Phonogram Archives became an institute of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. From 2014 to 2018, the Phonogram Archive was affiliated with the institute of Comparative Linguistics, and since 1 January 2018, it has been part of the Department of Computational Linguistics at the University of Zurich.
Our objectives include the collection, documentation, study and publication of dialectological sound recordings of all four Swiss national languages. This includes varieties of all major language areas in Switzerland, such as Swiss German dialects, franco-provençal Patois, the Lombard dialects of Ticino as well as from parts of the Canton of Grisons and also the Rhaeto-Romance idioms.
A brief history and recording projects of the Phonogram Archives
1909: First recording campaigns by Albert Bachmann (1863-1934).
1909-1923: Collaboration with the Phonogrammarchiv in Vienna.
1913: Instititionalisation: Albert Bachmann, Louis Gauchat (1866-1942), and Robert von Planta (1864-1937).
1924-1929: Collaboration with the Lautbibliothek der Preußischen Staatsbibliothek in Berlin.
1934-1939: Recordin campaigns with a gelatine disc recorder.
1939 and 1963: Recording campaigns in connection with national exhibitions.
1954-1959: Major recording campaign accompanying the language documentation project Sprachatlas der Deutschen Schweiz (SDS).
1968-1970: Major recording campaign in the Svizzera italiana (cantons of Ticino and Grisons).
1980-1985: Major recording campaign in the Canton of Grisons.
1980-1985: Recording campaign in the city of Bern.
Since 2000: Focus on rappraisal and digitization of historical recordings.
Holdings
The first recordings by the Phonogram Archives are dating back to 1909, and the collection has now grown to around 5,000 audio recordings. Approximately 3,000 of these are recordings of Swiss dialects produced by the Phonogram Archives itself. The remaining recordings come from the field of linguistics – mainly dialectology – and from commercial audio recordings.
Due to the many technical revolutions in the history of sound recording technology, we possess a broad collection of various sound media and corresponding playback devices.
Get an overview of the Phonogram Archives' collection and the various types of sound recordings that have been added over time.
The Phonogram Archives also possess a text archive, which is currently being digitised.
Audio Samples
You are welcome to listen to a few audio samples to get an idea of our recordings. To do so, click on the map below to display recordings from the corresponding region in a new browser window (available in German).
Each square on the map represents the geographical centre of the political municipality of a recording, not the actual location where it was recorded.
You can listen to the first 30 seconds of a recording created by the Phonogram Archive for each of the locations listed.
Alternatively, you can browse through the audio recordings in the archive via our search portal (available in German) and listen to audio samples.
Legend
green = Alemannic dialects
red = Franco-provençal dialects
turquoise = French dialects
blue = Lombard dialects
yellow = Rhaeto-Romance dialects
purple = Other