Washo language

Washo
wá꞉šiw ʔítlu
Native toUnited States
RegionCaliforniaNevada border
EthnicityWashoe people
Native speakers
20 (2008)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-2was
ISO 639-3was
Glottologwash1253
ELPWasho
Pre-contact distribution of the Washo language
PersonWá:šiw
PeopleWaší:šiw
LanguageWá:šiw ʔítlu
CountryWaší:šiw Ɂítdeh

Washo /ˈwɒʃ/[2] (or Washoe; endonym wá꞉šiw ʔítlu)[3] is an endangered Native American language isolate spoken by the Washo on the CaliforniaNevada border in the drainages of the Truckee and Carson Rivers, especially around Lake Tahoe. While there are only 20 elderly native speakers of Washo,[1] since 1994 there had been a small immersion school that has produced a number of moderately fluent younger speakers. The immersion school has since closed its doors and the language program now operates through the Cultural Resource Department for the Washoe Tribe. The language is still very much endangered; however, there has been a renaissance in the language revitalization movement as many of the students who attended the original immersion school have become teachers.

Ethnographic Washo speakers belonged to the Great Basin culture area and they were the only non-Numic group of that area.[4] The language has borrowed from the neighboring Uto-Aztecan, Maiduan and Miwokan languages and is connected to both the Great Basin and Northern California sprachbunds.

  1. ^ a b Victor Golla (2011) California Indian Languages
  2. ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
  3. ^ "The Washo Project: wá꞉šiw ʔítlu". The Washo Project. University of Chicago. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  4. ^ d'Azevedo 1986

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