Recording: dead language, baby's lullaby, possibly African

Seriously… I tried looking an Yahoo! and Google for this. The problem is, a proper description of it is a little too long for any search engine, and so I’ve turned here, to the Staright Dope message board.

I’m looking for a recording, but not just any recording. This particular recording is the only known recording of a now-dead language, which I believe to be African in origin. I’ve only heard the recording once before, but if I had to guess I’d would say the recording was done at some time in the 1930’s- give or take 10 or 20 years. I recall a very specific remark about this recording though… it’s of a woman singing a lullaby in her native language to her baby, who can also be heard at times in the background (making “googly oogly”-type sounds).

Yeah. I know. I haven’t really given you guys much to go on. While it is specifically the recording I’m looking for, all I really need to know is what language it is a recording of- and perhaps who took the recording. Anything more than would be helpful too, I’m sure, but it’s the language’s name I need in order to narrow down my search for this recording.

Thanks to anyone who might know what I’m talking about.

Was it in any way recognizable as partly English? The Gullah dialect in the Sea Islands of SC is heavily influenced by the West African languages.

You might try browsing the Smithsonian site, or their music-publishing arm Folkways. They have all sorts of stuff in their catalogue, including African music.

I couldn’t find any recordings online yet, but there was a story in the paper a few weeks ago that says they intend to put everything up for 99 cents a track, just like the other legal music sites.

Here it is.