You can explore the holdings of the TGDA by using either the Browse or Search tools available at this site. You can access the holdings of the TGDA in two different ways.
The first option is geared towards the general public who is interested in listening to Texas German. To listen to and view the materials available in the TGDA database, your computer will need to have VCL player and Acrobat Reader installed (other media players such as Quicktime or Windows Media Player may also be used to listen to the materials in the TGDA database). The sound files accessed using this option are in MP3 format (easily accessible using a dial-up connection). The text files accessed using this option contain a word-by-word transcription as well as translation in HTML.
The second option is geared towards professional linguists and anthropologists who are interested in gaining access to more detailed information. To listen to and view more detailed information, your computer will need to have ELAN (EUDICO Linguistic Annotator, developed at the Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics) installed. Once ELAN is installed, you may download portions of sociolinguistic interviews conducted with native speakers of Texas German. Besides offering word-by-word transcriptions and translations, this option will also give you more detailed phonetic transcriptions, information on code-switching, and information on syntactic structure. Since the sound files are in wav format, you will also be able to conduct detailed phonetic analyses on the Texas German data. This option requires a high-speed connection to the Internet.
Please explore this site, the TGDA database, and keep your eye on What’s New to learn about recent additions to the archive and new functionalities added to this site.
As of November 2015, the TGDA contains more than 800 hours of interviews with more than 500 Texas German speakers. At the moment, about 25% of these recordings are available for public access. The remainder will be released for public access between 2016-2018.
The TGDP and the TGDA are grateful for the technical assistance of the members of the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of South America (AILLA) at the University of Texas at Austin.