CLA updates

September 1, 2025

Here are some summer updates from the California Language Archive:

  • For the fall 2025 semester the CLA welcomes Tyler Lee-Wynant (GSR), Nyssa Combs and Sophia Hsu (undergraduate student assistants), and Priyanka Samant and Michaela Richter (BA Haverford 2025; volunteers)!
  • In July, 23 boxes of archival materials related primarily to Pomoan languages (California), all from the estate of Sally McLendon (1933-2024; PhD 1966), reached the CLA from New York City (see photograph).
  • Thanks to the cataloging work of Madison Fanucchi (BA 2025), we accessioned the Mauricio J. Mixco Papers and Sound Recordings (PhD 1971), a large physical collection of 41 boxes (17 linear feet, plus some tapes) containing 418 items. The collection is organized into 12 series spanning research on several languages (primarily Kiliwa, Mandan, and Shoshoni, but also Paipai, Mojave, and others studied as part of field methods courses) over many years and including more than 100 notebooks, file slips, sound recordings, loose notes, draft manuscripts, correspondence, conference materials, miscellaneous literature, and copies of the notebooks of other researchers.
  • We accessioned the Gohar Barseghyan Collection of Armenian Films (Indo-European; Armenia), consisting of 43 MiniDV tape recordings of interviews, conversations, and cultural events among Bay Area Armenians. The acquisition of this collection was facilitated by Julianne Kapner; digital transfer and metadata creation were done by then-LRAP students Sophia Hsu and Jeremy Saputo.
  • We accessioned the Roland B. Dixon Papers on California Languages, reorganizing some materials from our miscellaneous holdings and combining them with Dixon's five original notebooks on Chimariko (isolate; California) from work primarily with Polly Dyer, Sally Noble, and Friday in 1906. Also included is a digitized reel of microfilm including a few thousand loose pages of J.P. Harrington's notes on the language held by the National Anthropological Archives.
  • We accessioned the Colección de materiales de la lengua matsigenka de Allen Johnson (BA 1963; Arawakan; Peru), which consists of three series of text transcriptions, loose notes and other manuscripts, and 38 digitized cassette tape recordings from 1972 forward.
  • Scott AnderBois (Brown) and Wilson Silva (Arizona) accessioned Materials of the A'ingae Language Documentation Project (isolate; Ecuador, Colombia), consisting of audiovisual recordings of more than 65 sociolinguistic interviews and 125 texts, with transcription and translation of the texts in associated ELAN files. The project includes collaborators Leidy Quenamá Umenda, Shen Aguinda Ortiz, Martín Criollo Mendúa, Hugo Lucitante, Jorge Mendúa Quenamá, Thalya Mendúa, and Raúl Quieta Lucitante.
  • We made several important sets of microfilmed notes available:
    • 900+ pages of M.A.R. Barker's (1929-2012; PhD 1959) notes on Klamath (Klamath-Modoc; Oregon), seven notebooks made with speakers Aggie (Skellock) Butler, Robert David, Nora Hawk, Lizzie Kirk, Billet Lobert, Marian (David) Martin, Pansy Ohles, and Irene Skellock (bulk 1955-1957).
    • 1,200+ pages of Wick Miller's (1932-1994; PhD 1962) notes on H'aakume Dzeeni (Keresan; New Mexico), 54 texts and 13 notebooks made between 1956 and 1959 with speakers George Garcia, Anne Hansen, Mary Histia, Andrew Lewis, Bell Lewis, Margaret Lim, Mary Valley, and Ruth Valley.
    • 1,100+ pages of Karl Teeter's (1929-2007; PhD 1962) notes on Wiyot (Algic; California), as part of the Karl Teeter Papers on Wiyot and Other Languages, from his collaboration (1956-1958) with Della Prince, Birdie James, Nettie Rossig, and Cy Thomas.
  • Other accessions:

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