Linguist Hans-Peter Stoffel from the University of Auckland, a researcher of Croatian language in New Zealand, donated 41 audio cassettes with speech recordings from the 1970s to the Croatian Language Institute in 2024. The old dialects of Dalmatian immigrants to New Zealand have been preserved on tapes for more than a century. The material was in bad condition at the time of donation. Therefore, the project Dalmatian Speeches in New Zealand: digitization, processing and analysis of Hans-Peter Stoffel’s audio material was designed. The goal is to digitize, process, analyze and make the records openly available through an infrastructure that enables interoperability based on relevant schemes and protocols for collecting metadata (eKultura portal and Croatian emigrant press repository). Digitized material will enable research in a range of areas, including cultural heritage research and scientific research. The project was supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and funds for digitization were allocated in 2025. The project is managed by the Institute for the Croatian Language in coolaboration with the University of Zagreb and the University of Zadar. Project team members are Ivana Kurtović Budja (Institute for the Croatian Language), Ivana Hebrang Grgić (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb) and Josip Lasić (University of Zadar).
Project workflow
Digitized audio recordings (H. P. Stoffel digital collection)