Conversational Pomo Documentation Project

California Indian Museum And Cultural Center, Santa Rosa CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will create a web-based, spoken dictionary of Eastern Pomo with a Pomo elder who is the lone fluent native speaker, to meet the speech community's need for modern documentation of this fast disappearing language. One of seven distinct Pomoan languages, Eastern Pomo fills a unique gap in this family of languages and is seriously under-documented. The spoken dictionary will be constructed within the Pomo Language Repository, an existing, password-protected, web application that features a searchable database of digital Pomo language resources. In creating the first digital spoken dictionary of Eastern Pomo, this project will model methods for contextualizing Pomo language documentation within a modern conversational learning framework, while providing an accessible resource for Eastern Pomo learners, teachers and scholars. The research team for this project will consist of a linguist, Pomo community members who staff the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center (CIMCC) Pomo Language Preservation Program, and the speaker of Eastern Pomo. The team will begin the project by working with CIMCC's database specialist to create a lexical database, the structure of which will guide the subsequent fieldwork. The team will then work together to record 80 hours or more of the language data needed to create the dictionary. Modern documentation of Eastern Pomo is scarce. With only one fluent speaker remaining, it is vital to create a modern record of the language practices characteristic of Eastern Pomo to inform on-going conversational growth in the language as conversation is the heart of language revitalization and cultural development.