The database is in pre-beta development.
Some data and functions may still be missing or contain errors.
Some data and functions may still be missing or contain errors.
PROJECT
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Our online database project began in the fall of 2014 at
the Department of Linguistics
at the University of California, Berkeley
in collaboration with the Language Program
at the Wiyot Tribe.
Our aim is to provide a searchable dictionary and text corpus for
language learning and revitalization efforts within the tribe,
as well as linguistics research.
As of December 2015, we have digitized, parsed, and annotated around 2,800 dictionary entries and 10,000 words from 83 texts recorded by linguist Karl Teeter (1929-2007), who worked closely with the last known native speaker Della Prince (1877-1962) in the 1950s.
The database and website are hosted by the Department of Linguistics at UC Berkeley, and are developed and maintained by Herman Leung in collaboration with Lynnika Butler at the Wiyot Tribe, with advisement from Andrew Garrett, contribution from undergraduate student Elizabeth Lieu, and technical advisement from Ronald Sprouse.
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Wiyot food basket (19th – early 20th century)
[Photo: P.A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology]
THE WIYOT LANGUAGE
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The Wiyot language was historically spoken in northwestern coastal
California around the Humboldt Bay. It is distantly related to
its northern neighbor, Yurok, as well as to Algonquian languages
spoken across central and eastern North America (such as Blackfoot and
Objibwe, among many others).
There were three dialectal varieties of Wiyot: Patawat around Mad River to the north, Wiki around Humboldt Bay, and Wiyat around Eel River to the south. Although very little data had been recorded on the Patawat variety, a comparable amount of documentation had been carried out on the other two, including major contributions from linguists Gladys Reichard in the 1920s and Karl Teeter in the 1950s. [1]
Efforts by tribe members to revive the language have been underway since the early 2000s, and are currently spearheaded by the Wiyot Tribe's Language Program.
References
[1] Golla, Victor. 2011. California Indian Languages. University of California Press, pp.62-65.
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Map of the historical territory of the Wiyot language and its people (northern California).
[Image modified from Victor Golla's (2011) California Indian Languages, p.65]
CONTACT
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Wiyot man's hat (19th – early 20th century)
[Photo: P.A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology]
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For questions related to Wiyot grammar or language use,
please contact
Lynnika Butler, resident linguist and
Language Director at the Wiyot Tribe.
If you would like to report issues regarding the content on the website, including the interactive functions or any irregularities in the language data, please contact Herman Leung.
SCHEDULE
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| Alpha testing and development | Jan 2016 - present |
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| First beta release | TBA |
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| Second beta release | TBA |
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| Longer term | |
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DEVELOPMENT LOG
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| Immediate | Before Beta Release |
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| After Beta Release |
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| Long Term |
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| Unresolved Issues |
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| Reported Problems |
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| Completed |
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