For All Your Southern Sound Needs, A Sonic Dictionary

Jan 13, 2014


Mary Caton Lingold talking to her Sounds of the South class
Credit Alex Granados



Turns out some English school boys started singing it at a rugby game after hearing it during chapel services. The song stuck and became canon.

Shelbourn chose both the song and the rugby chant as sounds that he included in a new project, a sonic dictionary developed by English Graduate Student Mary Caton Lingold.

Lingold teaches the Sounds of the South class. As part of the class, she had her students collect sounds that were typical of the south. Those sounds became part of an online exhibit, but they were also added to the sonic dictionary.

Sounds of the South English class at Duke University
Credit Alex Granados

She came up with the sonic dictionary during a class a few semesters back. She was trying to find a music reference to send her students to.

"This idea came about when I was teaching a course on music genres and working with students who were non-specialists in music to describe the sounds of musical instruments and distinguish particular genres," she said. "We found this could be challenging because there's not any reference sources that students can turn to..."

Check out the sonic dictionary for yourself.