Chumash language brought back from the brink (fwd link)

[phil cash cash]

latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-chumash20apr20,1,2363937.story

Chumash language brought back from the brink

The last fluent speaker of Samala died in 1965, but thanks to a trove of
anthropological notes, a linguist has drafted a 608-page dictionary to keep the
tribal tongue alive.

By Steve Chawkins
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

April 20, 2008

SANTA YNEZ — A generation ago, the ancient Chumash tongue of Samala was all but
dead, its songs and sagas buried in a university basement beneath mountains of
yellowing research notes.

But now Samala is the talk of the reservation.

Thanks largely to a non-American Indian graduate student who was working for
pocket money 40 years ago, the tribe has unveiled the first major Samala
dictionary, a key moment in the language's rebirth.

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