October 3, 2021
Here's the latest from the California Language Archive:
- Steve Parker (Dallas International University; SIL International) has archived audio and video recordings of Chamikuro (Arawak; Peru) from 28 virtual sessions with speaker Antonio Inuma Orbe conducted in December 2020 and January 2021 (see 009-037), adding them to his extant collection of field notes on the language from the 1980s. With the exception of a few recordings made in 2019 by Lee Bendezú Bendezú of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, these recordings are the only known recordings of Chamikuro: Don Antonio is one of a handful of remaining speakers, two of whom have passed away since May 2020. Funded by the Endangered Language Fund, Prof. Parker's project was originally supposed to take place in person in the city of Yurimaguas and in the riverine community of Pampa Hermosa; the COVID-19 pandemic restricted the project to a virtual format, facilitated by Pedro Pablo Hernández Fonseca, who set up a computer for Zoom calls and external microphones and recorders.
- Justin Spence (PhD 2013) has added over 270 new file bundles to the collection Materials of the Hupa Language Documentation Project (see 600-820, from 2005-2008; and 1430-1483, from July to September 2021). The materials stem from a longtime collaboration with speaker Verdena Parker, and include sound recordings of elicitation sessions, (re-)transcription and translation of texts (many of them told by others and/or archived previously), discussions of cultural topics, and more. Other research collaborators from the first period include Amy Campbell (PhD 2012), Ramón Escamilla (PhD 2012), Nicholas Fleisher (PhD 2008), Melodie George-Moore, Victor Golla, Silis Jackson, Ophelia Mose, Lindsey Newbold, and Anne Pycha (PhD 2008).