This page was prepared by Gene Buckley.
I first starting learning about Kashaya as a graduate student at UC
Berkeley, in a field methods class in 1989-1990. It was directed by Leanne
Hinton, and our language consultant was Milton (Bun) Lucas. My dissertation, Theoretical
Aspects of Kashaya Phonology and Morphology, was completed in 1992; a slightly
revised version was published in 1994. Since then I have written about many topics in Kashaya, which can be seen on my curriculum
vitae.
I have been working for several years to convert and update Robert Oswalt's unpublished
dictionary materials into a lexical database for publication, as well as developing
digital resources for language learners. These are described below.
Main resources
These pages are accessible from any computer or smartphone, and reflect the most recent work I have been doing.
Sound recordings of Kashaya words and (some) sentences, as pronounced by eight different speakers. Includes all the texts published by Oswalt 1964, with sound recordings for most of them. Intended for learning vocabulary and pronunciation. Updated periodically.
The beginnings of an online reference to Kashaya grammar, with many examples. The goal is to explain this complex language in ways that are useful to both linguists and language learners.
This web site has updated versions of the dictionary entries, which
can be viewed one entry at a time. You can search by either Kashaya or
English. Some background material still needs to be added. The boldface words
are clickable links to other entries.
Additional text resources
The first two of these resources show some of the texts and examples on which the analysis of Kashaya are based. The others give more information about the Kashaya lexicon.
The pdf files are older versions that do not reflect the latest form of the
dictionary database; they can be viewed on a computer, or printed
out if desired.
These pages provide word-by-word translations and analysis of Kashaya from several sources. They include the entire set of texts published by Bob Oswalt in 1964, as well as unpublished texts collected in 1940 by Abraham Halpern. Also available are a complete list of all the Kashaya words, phrases, and sentences included in Oswalt's 1961 dissertation, and more than 2000 individual words and sentences transcribed in 1940 by Halpern.
See also this text file consisting of the same texts reformatted as simple lines for easier searching and analysis; it was generated in May 2020 using a Python script written by Isabella Mandis.
Words for family relations, laid out in all their complexity, with an
introduction about how the different forms should be used. This is an
updated subpart of the full vocabulary list. PDF format.
This older web site has both Kashaya-English (browse
by letter) and English-Kashaya (use
the index at the left side), but it has not been updated recently. See
the About page
for some information about the sounds and spelling system for the language
as well as the structure of the dictionary entries.
[May 2013]
Android Apps
These items run on Android smartphones or tablets; no iOS apps have been developed, but the web pages above can be used on an iPhone browser. They are not being further developed at this time.
Pictures and sound recordings of Kashaya words, for learning vocabulary.
Includes a quiz function. Based on an app originally designed for Northern
Pomo, by Edwin Ko and Cathy O'Connor. Implemented for Kashaya by Edwin Ko.
This is in the Google Play store, and can be installed like any other
app.
Plays individual sounds to help people learn to pronounce the sounds
of the language, with recordings by five different speakers. Pictures
and sound recordings of Kashaya words organized by general meaning, for
learning vocabulary. Includes a quiz on the vocabulary.
Provided as a link to an apk file;
if you click on the link using an Android device, it should offer to
download the file, and then you have the opportunity to install it. (You
might have to go to the Downloads app to complete this.) The first
time you run the app, you will have to get the "update" when asked, in
order to load the sound files.
This app combines the functions of two previous apps, which are still
available for downloading:
This app makes the dictionary available on a phone
or tablet. See the user manual for
an overview of functions. If you click on the link using an Android device,
it should offer to download the file, and then you have the opportunity
to install it. (You might have to go to the Downloads app to complete
this.)
[January 2017]
Other resources
These other pages are descriptions of various aspects of Kashaya.
The territories of the Pomoan languages (including Kashaya).
Preliminary work with the Oswalt dictionary materials was supported by a University Research Foundation grant from the University of Pennsylvania in the summer of 2011. Additional editing assistance was provided in summer 2016 by two students under the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program (PURM).
Major improvement of the lexical database, and some of the recordings included in the Sounds and Words apps, were made possible by a Documenting Endangered Languages grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in these documents or programs do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.
