Historical information:Jesse O. Sawyer (1918-1986) received his Ph.D. in English and Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley in 1955. From 1957-1962 he was the director of the English Program for Foreign Students in the Department of Speech at UC Berkeley, then a Senior Lecturer in linguistics from 1962 until his death in 1986. From 1961 onwards he was also the Director of UC Berkeley's Language Lab, now the Berkeley Language Center. Over the course of his career he worked on a variety of topics related to the indigenous languages of California, especially the documentation of Wappo in close cooperation with speaker Laura Fish Somersal.
Scope and content:The Papers document Sawyer's nearly three decades of research on indigenous languages of California, especially members of the Yukian family. The collection includes Wappo field notes collected from the late 1950s to the 1980s and derived materials such as vocabulary files and descriptive and comparative articles. His principal Wappo consultant was Laura Fish Somersal, with additional data provided by Jack Wobo. Sawyer's Yuki consultants were Minnie Fulwider, Arthur Anderson, and Leland Fulwider. The collection also includes Sawyer's notes and linguistic data from other languages of California taken from various published and unpublished sources.
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Laura Somersal and Jesse O. Sawyer. Jesse O. Sawyer Papers on Yukian Languages, Sawyer, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2PC309Q.
Associated materials:Audio recordings associated with the Papers are in the Berkeley Language Center, Berkeley, California (LA 56, LA 88, LA 90, LA 102).
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).
Historical information:Sydney M. Lamb is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Yale University (1951) and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley (1957). His doctoral dissertation was a grammar of the Mono language based on fieldwork conducted around North Fork, California in the summers of 1953 and 1954. He was a Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley from 1958-1964 and Yale University from 1968-1977. He left academia to work in the computer industry from 1977-1981, but subsequently joined the faculty of the Department of Linguistics at Rice University, where he has spent the remainder of his academic career.
Scope and content:The Papers document Lamb's research on Indian languages of California and surrounding areas from 1953-1955. One microfilm reel in the collection also includes copies of Victor Golla's notebooks from his fieldwork on Hupa at Hoopa Valley in the summer of 1963; for more details, see details under the Victor Golla Papers on the Hupa Language.
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Lucy Kinsman and Sydney M. Lamb. Sydney M. Lamb Papers on California Indian Languages, Lamb, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2JW8BTD.
Associated materials:Audio recordings associated with the Papers are in the Berkeley Language Center, Berkeley, California (LA 31, LA 60, LA 80, LA 235, LA 236).
Scope and content:Linguistic field recordings: linguistic data; ethnographic data; songs; dialogues (from LP phonodisc), conversations, reminiscences, untitled texts. Some English glosses provided. Translation to or from English.; Digitization supported by NEH Preservation/Access Grant
Repository: Berkeley Language Center
Preferred citation: Irene Alturas Amante, Laura Somersal, and Jesse O. Sawyer. The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings, LA 90, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/collection/10057.
Scope and content:The collection includes recordings of texts and conversations in Southern Pomo.
Repository: Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
Preferred citation: Roy Siniard. The Roy Siniard collection of Southern Pomo sound recordings, 2014-04, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X20V89S7.
Historical information:These items represent recordings of Wappo, spoken by Laura Somersal and elicited by Sandra Thompson and Charles Li of the University of California Santa Barbara. The recordings were created beginning in 1975 at Laura Somersal's home, and Thompson and Li continued to work with Laura until her death in 1990.
Scope and content:2 DVDs containing 15 audio recordings of elicitation sessions
Repository: Berkeley Language Center
Preferred citation: Laura Somersal, Charles Li, and Sandra Thompson. Wappo sound recordings, LA 253, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2BV7DRR.
Associated materials:"A Reference Grammar of Wappo" by Sandra A. Thompson, Joseph Sung-Yul Park, and Charles N. Li (University of California Press, 2006) is based on the recordings contained in this Collection.
Preferred citation: A Wappo conversation with some elicitation. Elicitation from Radin., LA 90.060, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15847.
Preferred citation: A continuation of the miscellaneous words and phrases like "The grass is growing", LA 90.023, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15810.
Preferred citation: Continuation of hodgepodge discussion. Includes discussion of Wappo culture., LA 90.013, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15800.
Preferred citation: Continued elicitation from Radin with some general discussion. Includes phrases like "Who will dig?" and "take in the laundry.", LA 90.026, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15813.
Preferred citation: Continued elicitation from Radin. Conversation in Wappo segues into general discussion., LA 90.027, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15814.
Preferred citation: Conversation about coyote and his stories. Conversation also steers into a discussion of the different Wappo dialects., LA 90.010, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15797.
Preferred citation: Conversation and discussion, LA 90.047, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15834.
Preferred citation: Conversation followed by a general discussion. Includes some miscellaneous word elicitation., LA 90.021, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15808.
Preferred citation: Conversation in Wappo, LA 90.032, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15819.
Preferred citation: Conversation of an unknown topic, LA 90.061, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15848.
Preferred citation: Conversation segues into a general discussion. Includes some random elicitation., LA 90.045, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15832.
Preferred citation: Conversation with a minimal amount of elicitation. Elicitation from Radin., LA 90.062, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15849.
Preferred citation: Conversation with an unknown topic, LA 90.007, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15794.
Preferred citation: Conversations in English and Wappo, LA 90.028, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15815.
Preferred citation: Conversations of varied topics, LA 90.033, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15820.
Preferred citation: Conversations with some elicitation. Words are related to insects and rodents., LA 90.037, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15824.
Preferred citation: Conversations with some elicitation. Words generally pertinent to trees., LA 90.036, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15823.
Preferred citation: Dance song, LA 90.055, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15842.
Preferred citation: Discussion about smoking and what words were to be elicited next, LA 90.006, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15793.
Preferred citation: Discussion of eating, LA 90.024, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15811.
Preferred citation: Discussion of funeral customs and familial terms, LA 90.049, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15836.
Preferred citation: Eliciation from Radin of phrases like "to dance up and down", LA 90.064, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15851.
Preferred citation: Elicitation continues with words and phrases like "He pushes it out," "stretching," and "bird's beak", LA 90.046, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15833.
Preferred citation: Elicitation for spectrograms, LA 90.078, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15865.
Preferred citation: Elicitation from Radin. Includes phrases like "I'm going along" and "Animals waling." Some discussion is included., LA 90.048, in "The Jesse O. Sawyer collection of Wappo sound recordings", Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, http://cla.berkeley.edu/item/15835.
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.