Washo language
Indigenous language isolate spoken in the Western United States / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Washo language?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Washo /ˈwɒʃoʊ/[2] (or Washoe; endonym wá꞉šiw ʔítlu)[3] is an endangered Native American language isolate spoken by the Washo on the California–Nevada border in the drainages of the Truckee and Carson Rivers, especially around Lake Tahoe. While there are only 20 elderly native speakers of Washo,[1] since 1994 there has been a small immersion school that has produced a number of moderately fluent younger speakers. The immersion school has since closed its doors and the language program now operates through the Cultural Resource Department for the Washoe Tribe. The language is still very much endangered; however, there has been a renaissance in the language revitalization movement as many of the students who attended the original immersion school have become teachers.
This article should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{lang}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used. (May 2019) |
Washo | |
---|---|
wá꞉šiw ʔítlu | |
Native to | United States |
Region | California–Nevada border |
Ethnicity | Washoe people |
Native speakers | 20 (2008)[1] |
Language isolate
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 | was |
ISO 639-3 | was |
Glottolog | wash1253 |
ELP | Washo |
Pre-contact distribution of the Washo language |
Person | Wá:šiw |
---|---|
People | Waší:šiw |
Language | Wá:šiw ʔítlu |
Country | Waší:šiw Ɂítdeh |
Ethnographic Washo speakers belonged to the Great Basin culture area and they were the only non-Numic group of that area.[4] The language has borrowed from the neighboring Uto-Aztecan, Maiduan and Miwokan languages and is connected to both the Great Basin and Northern California sprachbunds.