jenifer daniels ♎ :verified:from reddit /TIL: #TIL a family in Georgia claimed to have passed down a song in an unknown language from the time of their enslavement; scientists identified the song as a genuine West African funeral song in the Mende language that had survived multiple transmissions from mother to daughter over multiple centuries
Fish Id Wardrobe@jentrification Impressive that there has been little or no degradation. Good to know. Perhaps this will help us assess the accuracy of information in other oral traditions
Solomon Foster@fishidwardrobe @jentrification Re accuracy -- I've spent a bit of time researching traditional Great Lakes ballads, and have found that (for instance) the names of the ships in a song usually builds a consistent picture with the maritime records and lets you narrow down when the song happened, even when the song was only collected after 50+ years in the oral tradition. eg https://whiskyandwater.wordpress.com/2020/09/24/the-loss-of-the-antelope/