Audio extracted from stock video

[lowbattery71]

This audio clip was extracted from a short video clip I captured yesterday. The dining room I was in was completely empty and employees and patrons were not present within at least 20 feet of my location. The segment in question is the voice heard at the beginning of the clip.

I was filming with an Insignia NS-DCC5HB09, which I believe records it's audio track in WAV format. I used Tunebite 7 to extract the audio from the video clip. Unfortunately this has degraded the quality of the audio even worse than the original.

I am getting in touch with the historian I have been working with to find out some background information to see if it will correlate with what I believe may be said. I give full permission to anyone who feels like cleaning this clip up as long as they don't claim it as their own.

Let me know what you think. Opinions of any sort are always welcome.

Attachments:

[Rosemarie]

Where's the audio clip?

[lowbattery71]

In the original post, click on where it says
Attachment: Stones Public House January 2010 and Misc 017.mp3 (110.5 KB)

It just worked when I tried it again.

[Rosemarie]

Sorry, yes I found the clip. Im afraid I cant make much out of it because its quite garbled - I hear what sounds like a voice all the way through and a loud bang.

I might give it another listen another time when its not so late over here!

[lowbattery71]

The highlighted section at the beginning shows where the capture took place. It was at the very beginning of the video.

Hope this helps. The bang and later ambient sounds came from teh kitchen area.

[Rosemarie]

Ok, Ill give it another listen and focus the area you pointed out - I dont suppose there's any way you can get it back to its original format?

[lowbattery71]

The video is too big to attach here so I put it on my Youtube account. Here's the link.

[Rosemarie]

When I first heard this I thought it said something like 'save...save my soul/son/stone but listening to it on you tube it doesnt even sound english! More like Chinese! But Im using my notebook at the moment so the volumes not brilliant. I'll have another listen when I get to my laptop.

Weird though

[lowbattery71]

That's what I thought...Chinese. Looking into records right now to see if I can get census records for that location to see if Chinese workers ever worked/lived there. There was a group of Chinese that owned it about 15 years ago as well.

Wish I had caught it on my recorder. Would love to have been able to analyze the analog signal. And it is weird. I definitely didn't hear that when I was filming.

[Rosemarie]

Well, I speak some Mandarin and I know the difference between that and Cantonese so I'm going to have another listen - I should imagine if it is Chinese it would be Cantonese as the majority of Chinese who left China in the past were from either the Canton Region on the mainland or Hong Kong.

[Rosemarie]

Ok this is driving me freakin nuts! Ive listened to it soooo many times I can even hear it in my sleep! It sounds Cantonese to me. Perhaps something like:
'Yee, lai sai sun/san/sung/song/sang?

I know 'yee' is '2' in Cantonese - but in this clip, Im not sure of the intonation which could mean its a different word.

'Sai sung' (I cant put the accents over the letters) - is a Vietnamese dish of roasted sandworm - but thats not its local Vietnamese name. In Vietnamese its 'con moi'. I know a lot of Chinese is spoken in Vietnam where it borders Southern China, but I wouldnt know if this was a Cantonese name for the food - if it is in fact that in the first place.

I do know that all these words can be found in Cantonese - but what they all mean in this order I dont know without checking and even then I wouldnt be 100% sure because it might be something else entirely. Do you know anyone who speaks Cantonese? Perhaps they could tell you if Im talking out my ear or not? At least that way, if it isnt Cantonese you can eliminate that line of enquiry and move onto something else.

[lowbattery71]

I'll have to ask around. Just trying to figure out just how I captured a possible Cantonese EVP in a 175 year old New England Rail House is driving me nuts!

Thanks for your help, Rosemarie! This is a strange one.

[Rosemarie]

A rail house? Do you mean like a station connected to a railway? If so, have you considered 'coolies' being transported for work elsewhere? They may not appear in the census records as they wouldnt be living there. Maybe some sort of workers manifestos? I dont know what kind of records you have access to.

(Im not being rude calling them 'Coolies' as that was the term used way back - so please do not be offended).

[lowbattery71]

No offense here. Actually it was a hotel built just before the railway came through. I'm putting together a photo-montage to let folks take a virtual tour of the place which I should have up pretty soon (if Microsoft will stop crashing in Windows Live Photo Gallery).

It's quite possible that migrant workers worked there, and that is what I am trying to determine. If I can get detailed census records from the 1850's through the mid-1900's I can see who lived and worked there (over the years many workers were given lodging there. One actually died there in the 1950s, though not Chinese).

[Rosemarie]

It just occurred to me - do you have a local Chinese Community History Society? They may well be able to help with any possible translation (again, assuming it is Cantonese). And they may be able to help with workers records etc. Just a thought.