'O'lomah!

Welcome to the Yurok Language Project website! Our goal is to provide as much information as possible about the Yurok language, its structure and usage, and its relations to cultural and geographical setting. We work with the Yurok Tribe, with members of the Yurok community, and with Yurok community groups. Please don't hesitate to write with questions or requests. Wokhlew k'ee ma k'e-nuue'mow'!

Project news (October 2014)

Newly published! Basic Yurok (volume 16 of the Survey Reports series, xxiii + 309 pages): "meant to be used by Yurok language teachers and advanced learners, in support of language restoration in the Yurok community. Part I (chapters 1-10) provides information about the sounds of Yurok and about basic grammatical and vocabulary patterns. Many were identified by the Yurok Tribe for teacher certification purposes. Part II (chapters 11-25) introduces the meanings and forms of the most common Yurok verbs. Over 200 different verbs are covered, in 117 numbered sections."

Spotlight text: Ethnobiology

In 1962 or 1963 the linguist William Bright interviewed Yurok elder Alice Spott, recording a conversation on ethnobiology. He was interested in the meanings of general terms like "fish" and "tree", but their conversation also contains a wealth of cultural detail about the uses and significance of plants and animals. Read and listen to the full text here.