Fieldwork and Language Documentation

CLA updates

October 29, 2026

Here's the latest from the California Language Archive:

CLA manager Zachary O'Hagan flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico last weekend, driving back with 60 boxes of materials, largely field recordings for phonetic research, from the estate of Adjunct Professor Emeritus Ian Maddieson (1942-2025). Prof. Maddieson made recordings of dozens of languages -- from regions as far apart from each other as Argentina, British Columbia, Dagestan, New Caledonia, and various parts of West Africa, to name only some -- and organized recordings of hundreds of others sent to him by colleagues. Thanks go to Prof. Caroline Smith (UNM) for facilitating access to the collection in collaboration with Prof. Joshua Birchall (UNM), and to Antara Bhattacharya, Chase Boles, Tomás Fuchs-Lynch, Tyler Lee-Wynant, Fabián Malaver, and Tanner Scott for helping unload the car!

CLA updates

August 23, 2026

Here's the latest from the California Language Archive:

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for collections- and community-related updates! We co-hosted the Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous California Languages June 1-6. CLA staff, volunteers, and depositors accessioned eight new analog and born-digital archival collections. The materials represent six language families on three continents, and range from the earliest known sound recordings of some languages to ethnographic field notes to Berkeley linguistics graduate courses and beyond. Colección de materiales de la lengua yanesha' de Mariana Poblete (Arawakan, Peru) Materiales del proyecto de documentación "tātā xi na" de la lengua dà’àn dávì (Otomanguean, Mexico), Tzintia Montaño Ramírez Maurice Zigmond Collection of Uto-Aztecan Language Materials (Uto-Aztecan, California) Abraham Halpern Papers on Indigenous Languages, recataloging a previous collection to add original notebooks, other loose notes, manuscripts, and file slips related to Kwtsaan (Yuman; Arizona, California) Colección de textos arákbut de An Van linden (isolate, Peru) Berkeley Field Methods: Kuki-Thaadow (Tibeto-Burman, India), from the 2004-2005 graduate field methods course Berkeley Field Methods: Tangkhul Naga (Tibeto-Burman, India), from the 2002-2003 graduate field methods course Trevor Allin Collection of Resígaro Language Materials (Arawakan, Peru) CLA volunteers and depositors added materials to three extant collections: Materials of the Nukuoro Documentation Initiative (Polynesian, Micronesia), items 2019-24.336 to 2019-24.399, Magaret Apserheim and Abigail Roberts Samuel Alfred Barrett Papers, items Barrett.024 to Barrett.075, including 19 original notebooks from the early 20th century related to Eastern Pomo (Pomoan, California) Kalaallisut Language Materials (Inuit, Greenland), items 2022-13.107 to 2022-13.247, Line Mikkelsen We've begun digitizing our extensive holdings of lexical file slips, first with some of Kenneth Hill's documentation of Serrano (Uto-Aztecan, California).

Language Revitalization Working Group

The Language Revitalization Working Group offers a space for folks involved with (or interested in) language revitalization to gather, share, present, discuss, and improve their language revitalization efforts. LRWG is open to all - grad and undergrad students, faculty, staff, and community members; you don't need to be affiliated with UC Berkeley to attend.

In Fall 2026, we will meet monthly on Wednesdays from 3:10-4 p.m. (PT) in a hybrid format: if you're on campus you can join us in person in Dwinelle 1303, and if you're not, you can join via Zoom. Additional/...

Fieldwork Forum (FForum)

When? Spring 2026: Every other Wednesday, 3:10PM-4:00PM (alternating with LRWG)

Where? Hybrid Format (in-person in Dwinelle 1303 and via Zoom; email organizers for passcode)

What? We are a working group dedicated to the critical examination of methodologies in language documentation, description, and revitalization, as well as to...

Group in American Indian Languages (GAIL)

The Group in American Indian Languages (GAIL) meets periodically in order to bring together individuals interested in Indigenous languages of the Americas for dinner and a presentation. News about events can be found below, and a list of other past talks can be found here.

If you would like to receive periodic emails updating you about our activities, join the Friends of the Survey email list by writing to scoil-ling@berkeley.edu.

Upcoming events: ...

Berkeley linguists at Language Documentation and Archiving in Berlin

September 10, 2026

Bernat Bardagil (postdoc 2018-2020), Becky Jarvis (PhD 2025), Kelsey Neely (PhD 2019), and Zachary O'Hagan (pictured left to right) are attending Language Documentation and Archiving in Berlin this week. The conference is hosted by the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) and the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) at Humboldt University.

photo of Bernat Bardagil, Becky Jarvis, Kelsey Neely, and Zachary O'Hagan

Linguistics events this week (Sept 4-11, 2026)

September 3, 2026

In and around the Department of Linguistics in the next week:

Sociolinguistics Lab at Berkeley - Friday Sept 4 - Dwinelle 5125 and Zoom - 2-3pm
Round table: Research over summer, introductions Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday Sept 4 - Dwinelle 1303 and Zoom - 3:10-4:30pm
Round robin FForum - Wednesday Sept 9 - Dwinelle 1303 and Zoom - 3-4pm Round robin catch-up of summer fieldwork and research. All are welcome! Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday Sep 11 - Dwinelle 1303 and Zoom - 3:10-4:30pm
Amy Rose Deal and Kang Franco Liu (UC Berkeley): Donkeys, bishops, and the distinction between weak and strong definites

Graduate Field Methods Course History

This page summarizes the history of graduate instruction in linguistic field methods at Berkeley, with information about academic year, language(s), consultant(s), and instructor(s), when known. Links in the Language column are to archival collections in the California Language Archive (CLA). The information has been reconstructed from archival course catalogs, which occasionally do not reflect the ultimate instructor of record, and in consultation with Linguistics faculty, graduate students, alumni, and records in the CLA. We will...

Christine Beier

Research Linguist

Nasality in Atchan: Synchrony, diachrony and typology

Katherine Russell
2026

The focus of this dissertation is nasality and nasalization in Atchan, a Potou language of the Kwa branch of Niger-Congo spoken in and around Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Unlike most of the world’s languages, Atchan lacks a phonemic contrast for nasality in consonants. Nasality nonetheless plays an important role in Atchan, at multiple levels of grammar. Drawing on data collected over years of documentation work with Atchan speakers, I propose that sur- face nasality in the language is attributable to three phenomena: lexically specified nasality at the level of the syllable, articulatorily...