Documentation of the Washo Language (WAS)

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With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Alan Yu will undertake a three-year comprehensive multimedia documentation of Washo, one of the most critically endangered and least documented of Native American languages. The Washo language, which belongs to the Hokan family, is currently spoken by about 13-20 elderly speakers who live in several townships near the California-Nevada border southeast of Lake Tahoe. A full documentation of Washo as it is spoken today will be undertaken. The main objective during the proposed tenure of this project is a detailed study of the phonetics and phonology of the Washo language since a solid understanding of the phonetics and phonology of the language is paramount to understanding the other components of the language (e.g., the morpho-syntax, syntax, and discourse). Another priority for this project is the creation of a web-accessible digital archive to make Washo data accessible to scholars and, of equal or greater importance, to the native community itself. The concrete goal of this digital archive is to produce a bilingual lexicon (including textual references, etymology, audio material and usage notes) of 3000 entries, and less complete documentation (perhaps only morphological information and gloss) for an additional 2000 entries, for a total of 5000 lexical entries.