UCSB Professors Preserve Native American Language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

UCSB Professors Preserve Native American Language

By Kristina Kurasz, April 5, 2007
http://www.independent.com/online_onlys/2007/04/ucsb_professors_preserve_nativ.html

The spoken language of the Wappo Native American tribe almost ceased to
exist when Laura Somersal, the last remaining fluent speaker, died sixteen
years ago. The efforts of UCSB linguistics professors Sandra Thompson and
Charles Li have prevented the language from becoming completely extinct.
The pair recently published the most extensive data and grammatical
research ever conducted on the Wappo language in A Reference Grammar of the
Wappo. In the ten years it took to gather information, Li and Thompson
traveled to Northern California every six to eight weeks to record Somersal
speak and put the language in context.

Although research began in 1975, the technology required to properly
organize the word structure was not available until recently. This valuable
preservation is in keeping with the current movement to document and archive
indigenous languages on the verge of extinction.

Kristina Kurasz is an Independent intern.