Historical information: Robert Louis Oswalt, Pomoan language scholar, received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964. His fieldwork on Kashaya (Southwestern Pomo) began in 1957 and led to his dissertation, A Kashaya Grammar, and the publication of the book Kashaya Texts in 1964. Dr. Oswalt continued to work on Pomoan languages until 2005, conducting fieldwork on Kashaya, Southern Pomo, Northeastern Pomo, Northern Pomo, and Central Pomo and exploring the historical relationships within the Pomoan family. The Kashaya and Southern Pomo dictionaries that Dr. Oswalt compiled during his decades of fieldwork on those languages were never published.
Scope and content: These Papers document the linguistic work of Robert Oswalt, including his fieldwork on Pomoan languages and Yuki, Kru-Gbato, Aleut, and Bribri, his research on historical linguistics and other linguistic topics, and his professional activities. The papers include field notebooks containing vocabulary and elicited sentences for Kashaya, Southern Pomo, Northeastern Pomo, Northern Pomo and Central Pomo, with additional longer texts in Kashaya and Southern Pomo, vocabulary file slips for Kashaya, Southern Pomo, and Central Pomo, as well as notes on grammar and Pomoan cognates. His primary consultants for Kashaya were Essie Parrish and Bernice Scott Torrez, and his Kashaya consultants also included David Antone, Violet Parrish Chappelle, Gladys James Gonzales, Allen James, Herman James, Mary James, Milton (Bun) Lucas, Vana Lawson, Kate Marando, Julia Pinola Marrufo, Sidney Parrish, Laura Fish Somersall, and Vivian Wilder. His primary consultants for Southern Pomo were Elsie Allen and Elizabeth Dollar and his Southern Pomo consultants also included Olive Fulwilder Effie Mabel Luff, Lucy Andrews Macy, and Laura Fish Somersall. His Northeastern Pomo consultants included Oscar McDaniel and Sharky Moore, his Northern Pomo consultants included Annie Lake and Edna Guerrero, and his Central Pomo consultants included Salome Bartlett Alcantra, Frank Luff, and Clara Williams. He conducted Aleut fieldwork with consultant Kathryn Seller and Bribri fieldwork with consultant Guillermina Nelson-Rodrigues. His consultants for Yuki included Arthur Anderson and Bill Frank. The Papers include oral histories collected from linguist Abraham Halpern and Pomoan language consultants Essie Parrish, Elizabeth Dollar, Elsie Allen as well as photocopies of Kashaya and Southern Pomo genealogical and census records and other documents and material related to Pomoan languages, ethnography, and history. Research notes and photocopies of materials on methods for historical linguistics and several other linguistic topics are also contained in the Papers. Drafts of manuscripts and conference handouts created during Dr. Oswalt's career, including incomplete drafts of his Kashaya dictionary, are also included in the collection.
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Elsie Allen, Elizabeth Dollar, Edna Guerrero, Achora Hanyava, Annie Lake, Milton "Bun" Lucas, Oscar McDaniel, Sharky Moore, Essie Parrish, Bernice Scott Torrez, Clara Williams, and Robert L. Oswalt. Robert Louis Oswalt Papers on Pomoan Languages, Oswalt, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2C24TDG.
Associated materials: Audio recordings associated with the Papers are in the Berkeley Language Center, Berkeley, California (LA 98).
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: [Yuki field notebook], Oswalt.007.006, in "Robert Louis Oswalt Papers on Pomoan Languages", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2WM1BP9.
We acknowledge with respect the Ohlone people on whose traditional, ancestral, and unceded land we work and whose historical relationships with that land continue to this day.