This is a blog for my posts on the Washo language. I am not a professional linguist, but I am interested in the language. I have studied all the materials that I could find without a subscription. I have searched the resources on Washo and cannot find that anyobody has a blog dedicated to it.
My educational background is in Classical Languages, but I have studied many other languages as well, as well as linguistics and archaeology. Why have I chosen Washo? I spend a lot of time up at Lake Tahoe, and I was always disappointed that (so I believed) the lake had no indigenous mythologies, because I associated the Washo with the Carson Valley area rather than the mountains. Around the turn of the century, I bought Jacobsen's Beginning Washo, but I did not do much with the material until recently, when I decided to put my formidable linguistic talents to good use and to support an endangered language by spreading knowledge and enthusiasm about it. The actual fate of the language is in the hands of its proper owners, the Washo themselves, and I am under no illusion that it is my language to take as my ancestors took the lands of other tribes. I felt it proper, however, given my love (which some might term obsession) for all languages, to get to know the "true" language of the place where I have spent so many years.
The structure I hope to use is a break down of each of Jacobsen's lessons, drawing also on the Washo Project website and various articles on the subject. I shall try to explain all terms in a clear manner and maintain a jovial tone as much as possible.
