William H. Jacobsen Materials on Indigenous Languages of North America

• Collection identifier: 2014-21
• Relations to this Collection: 2018-32 derives from this Collection
• Finding aid: 2014-21_finding_aid.pdf
• Primary contributor: William H. Jacobsen (researcher)
• Additional contributors: Tommy Alto (consultant); Sylvia Andrews (consultant, developer); Amy Barber (consultant); Nora Barker (consultant); Blind Mike (consultant); Florence Brown (consultant); Martin Brown (consultant); Charles Butler (consultant); Haltie Charlie (consultant); Mary Chipps (consultant); Lyda Colfax (consultant); Bill Cornbread (consultant); Gloria Cranmer Webster (consultant); Sam Dick (consultant); Marvin Dressler (consultant, participant); Joshua Edgar (consultant); Dolores Encinales (consultant); Lizzie Evans (consultant); Benny Fillmore (consultant); Bill Fillmore (consultant); Clara Frank (consultant); John Frank (consultant); Shirley Frank (consultant); Vernelle Frank (consultant); Art George Jr. (consultant); Agnes George (consultant); Henry Higgins (consultant); Molly Higgins (consultant); Bertha Holbrook (consultant); Herman Holbrook (consultant); Connie Hunter (consultant); Harold Ides (consultant); Hildred Ides (consultant, annotator); Isabel Ides (consultant); Ishi (consultant); Theresa Jackson (consultant); Adele James (consultant, developer, participant); Roma James (consultant); Roy James (consultant); Steven James (consultant); Wally John (consultant); Viola Johnson (consultant); Charlie Jones Sr. (consultant); Marie Kizer (consultant); Ralph LaChester (consultant); Sebastian LaChester (consultant); Ed Mara (consultant); Joanne Martinez (consultant, participant); Daniel McDonald (consultant); David Mora (consultant); Frank Morgan (consultant); George Okoli (consultant); Chris Pane (consultant); Hank Pete (consultant); Elario Quintana (consultant, author); Mabel Robertson (consultant); Fred Sam (consultant); Eleanore Smokey (consultant, developer); George Snooks (consultant); John Wager (consultant); John Walker (consultant); Irene Ward (consultant); John Wiger (consultant); Elwood Wyatt (consultant); Tina Wyatt (consultant); Darlene Ammons (researcher); Lloyd B. Anderson (researcher); Richard B. Applegate (researcher); Florence E. Arnett (researcher); Garry Arrowsmith (researcher); Robert Austerlitz (researcher, depicted); M.A. Baumoff (author); Madison Beeler (researcher); William Bright (researcher); David Burkeuroad (researcher); Amy Cohn (researcher); Grace Dangberg (author, researcher); Henry Davis (author); Wilson Duff (author); Walter Dyk (researcher); Barbara Efrat (researcher); William Elmendorf (researcher); Laura Fillmore (author, researcher, developer, participant, recorder); Arlington A. Flinn Jr. (author); Darla Garey-Sage (researcher); Victor Golla (researcher); Jim Goss (researcher); James P. Green (researcher); Mary R. Haas (researcher); John Harrington (researcher); Alice Harris (researcher); Henry W. Henshaw (researcher); Carolyn J. Jenkins (researcher); Charles Keeler (researcher); Terry J. Klokeid (researcher); Aert H. Kuipers (researcher); Julia Chin Kwan (researcher); Ronald Langacker (researcher); Simeon L Lee (author); Gordon Marsh (researcher); Sally McLendon (researcher); Marianne Mithun (researcher, depicted); Mauricio J. Mixco (researcher); Brooke Mordy (researcher); Bruce E. Nevin (researcher, annotator); Michael P. Nichols (researcher); Robert L. Oswalt (researcher, depicted); David A. Pharies (researcher); E. Phelps (researcher); Jay Powell (researcher); Stephen Powers (researcher); Richard Rhodes (researcher); Robert Ridgeway (researcher); Julia A. Sableski (researcher); Edward Sapir (researcher); Raymond Sastil (researcher); Michael Silverstein (researcher, depicted); G. Sloan (researcher); Soemarmo (researcher); Wayne Suttles (researcher); Morris Swadesh (researcher); Yoeliko Tagaskira (researcher); Laurence C. Thompson (researcher); M. Terry Thompson (researcher); Paul R. Turner (researcher); Barrick Van Winkle (researcher); Lisa Wahnetah (author, developer, participant); Thomas T. Waterman (researcher); Kenneth W. Whistler (researcher); Werner Winter (researcher); Rachel Wojdak (author); Warren d'Azevedo (researcher, recorder); Jaime de Angulo (researcher); Lee R. hfeldt (researcher); Haruo Aoki (depicted); Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker (recorder); Anne Biggoose (participant); Richard N. Boneno (illustrator); Howard Collett Jr. (editor, recorder); Rena J. Enjady (developer); Helen Fillmore (developer); Hunter Fillmore (participant); Alfred S. Hayes (developer); William H. Jacobsen (annotator, depicted, developer, participant, performer, transcriber); Gloria James (developer); Harvey Jim (participant); Terrence Kaufman (depicted); Margaret Langdon (depicted); Alan Lomax (compiler, recorder); Yakov Malkiel (depicted); Henry Moses Rupert (illustrator); William Shipley (recorder); Carnegie Smokey (recorder); Stanley Starosta (annotator); Howard Wahnetah (editor); Tiva Bear Wahnetah (participant)
• Languages: Abaza (abq); Achumawi (acv); Algonquian; Atakapa (aqp); Atsugewi (atw); Barbareño (boi); Basque (eus); Central Sierra Miwok (csm); Chemakum; Chimakuan; Chimariko (cid); Chinook Jargon (chn); Chontal (chf); Chukchansi; Chumashan; Coahuilteco; Comanche (com); Comecrudo; Cora; Cotoname; Dene; Ditidaht (noo); Esselen (esq); Finnish (fin); Haida (hai); Haisla (has); Heiltsuk-Oowekyala (hei); Hill Patwin; Hokan; Hopi (hop); Igbo (ibo); Island Halkomelem; Jicaque (jic); Karankawa; Karuk (kyh); Kashaya (kju); Kawaiisu (xaw); Kiliwa (klb); Kiowa; Kiowa-Tanoan; Kui (kxu); Kumeyaay (dih); Kwak'wala (kwk); Kwtsaan (yum); Kyoquot (dialect); Lake Miwok (lmw); Lencan (len); Luiseño (lui); Maidu (nmu); Maiduan; Makah (myh); Mohawk (moh); Mojave (mov); Mono (mnr); Muskogean; Na-Dené; Nivkh (niv); Northern Paiute (pao); Northern Sierra Miwok (nsq); Northern Yana; Northern Yukian (yuk); Nuu-chah-nulth (noo); Nuxalk (blc); Penutian; Plains Miwok (pmw); Pomoan; Quileute (qui); Rarámuri (tar); Salinan (sln); Salishan; Samala (inz); Seri (sei); Shasta (sht); Shoshone (shh); Skagit; Solano; Southern Paiute; Southern Sierra Miwok (skd); Spanish (spa); Tagalog (tgl); Tlingit (tli); Tonkawa (tqw); Tsimshian (tsi); Tubatulabal (tub); Uto-Aztecan; Wakashan; Washo (was); Wiyot (wiy); Worrorra (wro); Yahi; Yana (ynn); Yaqui (yaq); Yokuts (yok); Yuman; Yuman-Cochimi
• Dates: 1952-2004
• Extent: 36 boxes, 14.17 linear feet
• Catalog history: The Materials replace SCL Jacobsen, the "William H. Jacobsen Papers on Indigenous Languages of North America"
• Historical information: William H. Jacobsen (1931-2014) was born on November 15, 1931 in San Diego, CA to Cmdr. William H. Jacobsen, USN ret., and Julie Froatz Jacobsen. He graduated from Point Loma High School, San Diego, in 1949, and went on to graduate from Harvard University in 1953. Jacobsen then pursued graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he engaged in fieldwork on Salinan and Washo under the auspices of the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages. While at UC Berkeley, he also worked on an early machine language translation project. He received his Doctoral Degree from UC Berkeley in 1964 with a thesis entitled “A Grammar of the Washo Language”, supervised by Mary Haas, which endures as the most complete grammar of Washo published to date. He also worked as an assistant professor of anthropology (1961-1962) and linguistics (1962-1964) at the University of Washington, spending many of his summers in Neah Bay, WA, working with Makah elders to record their language. Most of Jacobsen’s academic career was spent as a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada, Reno where he taught for thirty years (1965-1994). Throughout his academic career Jacobsen was a prolific and versatile scholar, devising writing systems, creating materials for teaching tribal members Washo and Makah, and publishing many papers on linguistic topics. Jacobsen was an active contributor within the Americanist linguistic community not only through his research, which touched upon a diverse array of languages from Hokan to Wakashan and beyond, but also through steady correspondence and collaboration with colleagues and students. In addition to his work on indigenous languages of North America, Jacobsen was well-known for his extensive work on Basque, which he engaged in through his involvement in the Center for Basque Studies at UNR. Altogether, Jacobsen was familiar with all the main Romance languages and Sanskrit in addition to being a specialist in Washo, Makah, Salinan, Nez Perce, Nootkan, and Basque. He served as president of the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas, received the Outstanding Researcher Award from the University of Nevada, and received the Nevada Humanities Award. Jacobsen officially retired from UNR in 1994 but continued to engage with the linguistics community as an emeritus professor. Jacobsen passed away on August 18, 2014 in Reno, NV, at age 82.
• Scope and content: These materials document the linguistic work of William H. Jacobsen on various indigenous languages of North America, especially Washo, Makah, and Salinan, as well as on other languages and linguistic topics Jacobsen came into contact with throughout his academic career. The collection includes Jacobsen’s original field notebooks from work on Washo, Makah, and Salinan, as well as smaller aggregates of field notes on Diegueño, Northern Paiute, Kwak’wala, and Cowichan. In addition to original field notes, the collection includes derived research notes; many of these derived materials were organized by Jacobsen into separate folders by topic, and have been catalogued as they were found in order to reflect Jacobsen’s own organization. These research notes encompass work on Washo, Makah and other Southern Wakashan languages, Salinan, Yana and other Hokan languages, other Californian languages, and other topics related to general linguistic theory. A set of finished or near-finished manuscripts and handouts is also included, in many cases constituting completed work derived from Jacobsen’s research notes. Also included are transcriptions of texts and conversations in Washo and Makah, notes from collaborative work with Grace Dangberg on Washo texts, and materials Jacobsen developed in order to teach both Washo and Makah. Original file slips from Jacobsen’s work in organizing lexical material from Washo, Makah, Salinan, comparative Wakashan and Hokan, and Tagalog are also included. In addition to materials from Jacobsen’s original fieldwork and research, the collection includes a wealth of materials that Jacobsen obtained from other researchers. These obtained materials include an extensive collection of original Washo field notebooks originally belonging to Grace Dangberg, Gordon Marsh, Walter Dyk, Phillip Barker and William Shipley, and Brooke Mordy. In addition, the collection includes file slips and derived field notes from various sources. On Washo, these materials include Gordon Marsh’s file slips, research notes from Grace Dangberg and Walter Dyk, and photocopies of various vocabulary lists obtained from the Smithsonian Institution; on Wakashan, this includes a set of file slips from an unknown source; and on Yana, this includes a variety of research notes and a box of file slips obtained from Bruce Nevin, along with various photocopied materials on Yana obtained from museums. Other obtained materials include derived work on Washo texts by Brooke Mordy and on Yahi by T. T. Waterman, a collection of rare, unpublished, or difficult to obtain manuscripts concerning various North American indigenous languages, and published curricular materials on Washo and Makah. Various materials related to Jacobsen’s academic, scholarly, and teaching activities are catalogued as a separate series in the collection, in addition to being scattered throughout Jacobsen’s research notes. Finally, the collection includes a set of sound recordings that were discovered in Jacobsen’s possession but are not otherwise catalogued in earlier CLA collections. These recordings include recordings of Washo, Makah, Bella Coola, Ibo, Abaza, and at least one other unidentified language; some of the recordings were made by Jacobsen with various identified consultants, while others were obtained from colleagues including Brooke Mordy, Laura Fillmore, and Warren d’Azevedo, among possible others.
• Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
• Suggested citation: William H. Jacobsen. William H. Jacobsen Materials on Indigenous Languages of North America, 2014-21, California Language Archive, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2028PGT.
• Associated materials: Audio recordings associated with the Materials can be accessed online through the California Language Archive. In particular, audio recordings are located in The William H. Jacobsen, Jr. collection of Antoniaño Salinan sound recordings (LA 69), The William H. Jacobsen, Jr. collection of Washo sound recordings (LA 53), and the William H. Jacobsen, Jr. collection of Makah sound recordings (LA 52).