California Language Archive Clicks with Multiple Resources for Indigenous Languages

From http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/06/20/california-language-archive

As of today (Monday, June 20), much of the University of California, Berkeley’s vast language resources is accessible, free of charge, to anyone with Internet access via the new California Language Archive (CLA) website and its catalog of UC Berkeley materials – the largest indigenous language archive at a U.S. university.

The site is filled with downloadable digital content that includes rare audio recordings and written documentation. A few examples include 51 hours of Wintu songs and conversations, the hummingbird fire story recited in the nearly extinct language of Nisenan, and handwritten notes on Chochenyo that are based on linguist and ethnographer J.P. Harrington’s work with the language’s last good speaker.

The archive has a special focus on California, but includes languages all the way from Alaska to South America and from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. It is the online face of a collaboration/unification of two distinct UC Berkeley archives – the Berkeley Language Center (BLC) and the linguistics department’s Survey of California and Other Indian Languages research center, which curates the BLC’s linguistic field recordings.

Read the full article at http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/06/20/california-language-archive

The new California Language Archive website is available at http://cla.berkeley.edu