Washoe language

E488512

The Washoe language is a critically endangered Native American language isolate traditionally spoken by the Washoe people of the Lake Tahoe region in California and Nevada.

Jump to: Surface forms Statements Referenced by

Observed surface forms (1)

Statements (48)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Native American language
language
language isolate
classificationNote considered an isolate despite proposals linking it to other families
country United States of America
surface form: United States
culturalDomain ceremonies
oral history
traditional stories
culturalSignificance central to Washoe cultural identity
documentationStatus partially documented
endangermentStatus critically endangered
ethnicGroup Washoe people NERFINISHED
hasAlternateName Washo NERFINISHED
hasLinguisticStudy subject of descriptive and comparative studies
hasLoanwordSource English NERFINISHED
Spanish NERFINISHED
neighboring Native American languages
hasMorphologicalFeature complex verb morphology
hasMorphologicalType agglutinative morphology
hasPhonologicalFeature contrastive vowel length
glottalized consonants
rich consonant inventory
hasResourceType dictionaries
grammars
text collections
hasSpeakerStatus very few fluent speakers remaining
hasWordOrder relatively free word order
hasWordOrderTendency SOV
intergenerationalTransmission severely disrupted
isNot Numic language
Penutian language
Uto-Aztecan language
iso639-3Code was
languageFamily language isolate
linguisticArea Great Basin linguistic area NERFINISHED
Sierra Nevada region NERFINISHED
neighboringLanguageRegion Maidu language area NERFINISHED
Miwok language area
Northern Paiute language area
region Lake Tahoe region NERFINISHED
revitalizationStatus subject of language revitalization efforts
scriptStatus primarily written in practical orthographies developed by linguists
spokenBy small number of elderly speakers
state California, United States
surface form: California

Nevada
taughtIn community language programs
traditionalTerritory areas surrounding Lake Tahoe
writingSystem Latin alphabet
surface form: Latin script

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Peter Washoe ("Washoe Pete") or the Washoe people language Washoe language
subject surface form: Washoe people
Washoe people nameEtymology Washoe language
this entity surface form: "Washoe" derived from an autonym often rendered as Waší:šiw or similar forms