The Texas German Dialect Archive (TGDA) holds copies of recorded interviews conducted by members of the TGDP. The TGDA is a web-accessible database of audio and textual materials from Texas German. The holdings of this archive are primarily audio recordings of sociolinguistic interviews conducted with native speakers of Texas German.
The creation of this archive has three primary goals:
- to preserve irreplaceable recordings of and materials relating to Texas German
- to write a popular account of Texas German that can be used in historical preservation efforts. TGDP will share this material with local schools, preservation societies, and museums concerned with preserving cultural heritage through language. TGDP will also put together an archival tape collection of selected descriptions, narratives, and oral histories for these institutions
- to render these materials accessible to a wider academic audience in order to promote further original research
The realization of these goals is guided by two primary objectives:
- to archive these materials as digital records that can be stored and maintained in perpetuity, and
- to make these materials available in a manner that is guided by our responsibility to protect the intellectual and cultural property rights of the individuals and groups from whom these materials originate
The TGDP is a project led by faculty and students in Germanic Linguistics in the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.