Eastern Shoshone Lexical Database

University Of Wyoming, Laramie WY

Investigators

Abstract

The Eastern Shoshone language, the member of the Uto-Aztecan language family spoken on the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming, is on the brink of extinction, with fewer than 100 fluent speakers remaining. In comparison with other members of the Uto-Aztecan language family, Eastern Shoshone is under-documented. The Eastern Shoshone Lexical Database, a project created as a partnership between the Eastern Shoshone Cultural Center and the American Indian Studies Program (AIS) at the University of Wyoming (UW), is a two-year research effort to develop an electronic lexical database by consolidating audio and transcribed lexical material. Upon completion, materials resulting from this project will be archived at the American Heritage Center (AHC) at the University of Wyoming. This Eastern Shoshone documentation project will be led by the Director of the American Indian Studies Program at UW and by the Eastern Shoshone Language Coordinator at the Eastern Shoshone Cultural Center. A panel of five elders, a linguistic anthropologist, a research assistant and a summer intern will complete the team. Project staff will extract lexical and linguistic material from existing textual documents as a starting point for the database. Approximately 14,000 Eastern Shoshone words, recorded digitally between 2002-2007, will be transcribed and added to the database in both audio and written formats, along with example phrases and sentences that will be elicited from the panel of elders during the course of this project. The database will include digital recordings of words, sample phrases and sentences, transcriptions of these words, phrases and sentences, English translation, and descriptive information. This project will create the first lexical database of Eastern Shoshone. Materials resulting form the project will provide the basis for the future development of additional language and teaching materials.