CLA updates

March 5, 2026

Here's the latest from the California Language Archive:

  • We accessioned digital copies of Narcisa Higuera Rosemyre's seven wax cylinder recordings of Tongva and Serrano (Uto-Aztecan; California) songs made by George Henry Taylor (see catalog items 24-3213 through 24-3219).
  • We accessioned a sneak peek (two items) of the new collection Materiales del Proyecto del Idioma Mixteco de San Juan Piñas (Oto-Manguean; Mexico), which will be added to in the coming months. This is a collaboration among maestras Claudia Juárez Chávez, Basilisa Pérez Morelos, and Cirila Pérez Morelos, and linguists Gabriela Caballero (PhD 2008), Claudia Duarte Borquez, Tylar Kameda, Maxine Van Doren, and Michelle Yuan.
  • We accessioned the Knud Lambrecht Papers (PhD 1986), consisting largely of draft and published articles and associated notes and correspondence, with an empirical focus on topics in English and French semantics and pragmatics. The CLA acquired the materials from an estate sale at Prof. Lambrecht's home in 2019.
  • Becky Everson accessioned the new collection Shekgalagadi of the Tjhauba Field Materials (Bantu; Botswana), consisting of more than 90 audiovisual recordings of elicitation sessions, picture identification tasks, procedural texts, and ethnographic and sociolinguistic interviews.
  • We accessioned three new series to the Kenneth W. Whistler Papers on Indigenous Languages (PhD 1980) dedicated to his projects on Proto-Yokuts (007, with Victor Golla), Nuu-chah-nulth (008; Wakashan, British Columbia), and Alsea (009; Penutian, Oregon). Dr. Whistler donated the materials to the CLA in 2025.