Washo language
| Washo | |
|---|---|
| wá:šiw ʔítlu | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | California–Nevada border |
| Ethnicity | Washoe people |
|
Native speakers
|
20 (2008) |
|
Hokan (?)
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | wash1253 |
Pre-contact distribution of the Washo language
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Washo /ˈwɒʃoʊ/ (or Washoe; endonym wá:šiw ʔítlu) is an endangered Native American language isolate spoken by the Washo on the California–Nevada border in the drainages of the Truckee and Carson Rivers, especially around Lake Tahoe. While there are only 20 elderly native speakers of Washo, since 1994 there has 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. The language has borrowed from the neighboring Uto-Aztecan, Maiduan and Miwokan languages and is connected to both the Great Basin and California sprachbunds.
Washo shows very little geographic variation. Jacobsen (1986:108) wrote, "When there are two variants of a feature, generally one is found in a more northerly area and the other in a more southerly one, but the lines separating the two areas for the different features do not always coincide."
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