Washo language

Washo or Washoe 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 were only 20 elderly native speakers of Washo as of 2011, 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 operates through the Cultural Resource Department for the Washoe Tribe. The language remains very 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 Northern California sprachbunds.

History

In 2012, Lakeview Commons Park in South Lake Tahoe was renamed in the Washo language. "The Washoe Tribe has presented the name Tahnu Leweh which, in native language, means "all the people's place." It is a name the Tribe would like to gift to El Dorado County and South Lake Tahoe as a symbol of peace, prosperity and goodness."

Classification

Washo is usually considered a language isolate. That is, it shares no demonstrated link with any other language, including its three direct neighboring languages, Northern Paiute, Maidu, and Sierra Miwok. It is sometimes classified as a Hokan language, but this language family is not universally accepted among specialists, nor is Washo's connection to it.
The language was first described in A Grammar of the Washo Language by William H. Jacobsen, Jr., in a University of [California, Berkeley], PhD dissertation and this remains the sole complete description of the language. There is no significant dialect variation.

Dialects

Washo shows very little geographic variation. Jacobsen 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."

Phonology

Vowels

There are six distinct vowel qualities found in the Washo language, each of which occurs long and short. The sound quality of a vowel is dependent upon their length and the consonant they precede, as well as the stress put on the vowel.

Orthography	IPA	Example
á or a á꞉ or a꞉		lakꞌaʔ 'one' dá꞉bal 'sagebrush'
é or e é꞉ or e꞉		dem'éme'w 'his rib' mé꞉hu 'boy'
í or i í꞉ or i꞉		dipúlul 'my car' sí꞉su 'bird'
ó or o ó꞉ or o꞉		nanhólwa 'golden currant' ćidó꞉dokhu 'robin'
ú or u ú꞉ or u꞉		gukú꞉ 'owl' šú꞉gil 'sunflower'
ɨ ɨ:		ćɨk'ɨ
ay		máyŋa
ey		béyu

Vowels marked with the acute accent are pronounced with stress, such as in the Washo ćigábut.
In Washo, vowels can have either long or short length qualities; the longer quality is noted by appending a colon to the vowel, as in the above example míši milí꞉giyi'. Vowels with such a mark are usually pronounced for twice the normal length. This can be seen in the difference between the words móko mó꞉ko. However, vowels pronounced this way may not always be followed by a colon.
Jacobsen described in detail various vowel alternations that distinguished the Washo speech communities.

Consonants

Sequences not represented by a single letter in Washo almost always tend to occur in borrowed English words, such as the nd in kꞌindí.

Orthography	IPA	Example
p		paćil 'pus'; lapɨš 'my body'; dawmaʔgá꞉p 'wet place'
t		taniw 'miwak'; data꞉gil 'his knife'; tꞌá꞉tꞌat 'magpie'
k		kaŋa 'cave'; maku 'decayed tooth'; bá꞉ćuk 'ammunition'
ʔ		daʔaw 'lake'; dá꞉daʔ
pꞌ or pʼ		pꞌá꞉wa 'in the valley'; dá꞉pꞌá꞉pɨš 'his lungs'
tꞌ or tʼ		tꞌá꞉gim 'pinenut'; tꞌá꞉tꞌat 'magpie'
ć or cʼ		ćámduʔ 'chokecherry'; dićá'ćaʔ 'my chin'
kꞌ or kʼ		kꞌá꞉ŋi 'it's roaring'; kꞌá꞉kꞌaʔ 'heron'
b'		bá꞉ćuk 'ammunition'; dá꞉bal 'sagebrush'
d		da꞉bal 'sagebrush'; dá꞉daʔ 'bed'
z		gá꞉zagaza 'a type of bird'
g		gá꞉zagaza 'a type of bird'; tꞌá꞉gim 'pinenut'
s		súkuʔ 'dog'; ya꞉saʔ 'again'; ʔayɨs 'antelope'
š		šáwaʔ 'white fir'; dišá'šaʔ 'my mother's sister'; wá꞉laš' 'bread'
h		hélmeʔ 'three'; ʔa꞉huyi 'they are standing'
m		má꞉mayʔ 'conical burden basket, used for pine nuts'; bá꞉muš 'muskrat'; tꞌá꞉gim 'pinenut'
n		nanholwa 'golden currant'; á꞉ni 'ant'
ŋ		ŋáwŋa'ŋ 'child'
l'		lakꞌaʔ 'one'; wá꞉laš 'bread'; paćil 'pus'
w		wá꞉laš 'bread'; pꞌa꞉wa 'in the valley'; daʔaw 'lake'
y		ya꞉saʔ 'again'; dayáʔ 'leaf'
M		Mášdɨmmi 'he's hiding'
Ŋ		dewŊétiʔ 'hillside sloping down'
L		madukwáwLu 'sunflower'
W		Wáʔi 'he's the one who's doing it'
Y		tꞌá꞉Yaŋi 'he's hunting'

In the area around Woodfords, California, the local Washo dialect substituted for, thus, sí꞉su 'bird' was pronounced thithu.

Morphology

Washo has a complex tense system.
Washo uses partial or total reduplication of verbs or nouns to indicate repetitive aspect or plural number. Washo uses both prefixation and suffixation on nouns and verbs.

Verbs

Verbal inflection is rich with a large number of tenses. Tense is usually carried by a suffix that attaches to the verb. The tense suffix may signal recent past, intermediate past, the long-ago-but-remembered past, the distant past, the intermediate future, or the distant future. For example, the suffix -leg indicates that the verb describes an event that took place in the recent past, usually earlier the previous day as seen in the Washo sentence, dabóʔo lew búʔlegi.

Suffix Letter	Meaning	Used	Example
-ayʔ	intermediate past	earlier than the current day, but not the distant past	di hulúyay
-gul	long ago, remembered past	within the lifetime of the speaker	gedí yeyemi ʔúšgulaygi
-lul	distant past	before the lifetime of the speaker	ga móŋil halúliya
-a	recent past	action just finished	lépꞌamaʔ
-i	present	actions currently in progress	míši milí꞉giyi
-aša	near future	soon	dimú sek hayášaʔi
-tiʔ	intermediate future	within the day	ʔilćáćimiʔ etiʔi
-gab	distant future	the following day or later	milí꞉gi gabigi

Nouns

Possession in Washo is shown by prefixes added to the object. There are two sets of prefixes added: the first set if the object begins with a vowel and the second set if the object begins with a consonant.

Vowel-initial Prefix	Usage	Example
l-	first-person possessive	láŋal
m-	second-person possessive	máŋal
tꞌ-	third-person possessive	tꞌáŋal
d-	unidentified possessive	dáŋal
Consonant-initial Prefix	Usage	Example
di-	first-person possessive	diháŋa
ʔum-	second-person possessive	ʔumháŋa
da-	third-person possessive	daháŋa dakꞌómol
de-	third person possessive	deMélɨw dedí꞉geš debɨkꞌɨ degúšuʔ
	unidentified possessive	háŋa