| Resources for the Konkow Language
Creation of a linguistic database for Konkow, a
language of northern California with no native speakers remaining, and
preparation of a vocabulary, analyzed texts, and grammatical descriptions, as resources
for teaching the language to second-language learners.
(edited by staff) Konkow (ISO 639-3 code: mjd), also known as Northwestern Maidu, Concow,
or Koyoongk’awi, is an indigenous language of northern California and a member
of the Maiduan language family. Konkow no longer has any first-language
speakers, but there is a growing body of second-language learners with an
increasing amount of fluency, as a result of community revitalization projects.
The Konkow language has no published dictionary, no published texts, and there
is a general lack of accessible reference material. While a description of Konkow was undertaken
by Russell Ultan for his 1967 dissertation (unpublished), its dense style makes
it challenging to interpret, especially for community members untrained in
linguistic theory. This project is a
collaboration between an academically trained linguist and a community member
with years of experience in Konkow language and culture revitalization. Its goals are: (1) to create some basic
reference materials for the language and (2) to increase access to archival
Konkow language materials. The applicant will catalog and digitize a collection
of archival material and include it in a searchable, online database, which
will be made available as an Open Language
Archives Community (OLAC) resource at
language-archives.org and at the California Language Archive. Drawing on the archival materials and Ultan’s
analysis, the project will produce a short Konkow vocabulary, two fully
analyzed texts, and a series of pedagogically oriented grammatical
descriptions.
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Project fields:
Program:
Documenting Endangered Languages - Preservation
Division:
Preservation and Access
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Totals:
$114,293 (approved)
$114,293 (awarded)
Grant period:
10/1/2017 – 4/30/2019
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