Fieldwork and Language Documentation

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

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...

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...

Aspects of Tone in Cua

Zach Wellstood
2026

This dissertation constitutes the first description and analysis of the tone system of Cua, a highly endangered and underdocumented Kalahari Khoe language of the Tshwa subgroup spoken in southeastern Botswana. This dissertation includes (i) an updated phonological sketch of Cua, including evidence of segmental contrasts and phonotactic constraints, (ii) an empirical overview of Cua’s tonal inventory, tonal phenomena, and tonal morphophonology, (iii) the results of a phonetic study on lexical tone in Cua conducted with 6 Cua speakers, and (iv) a phonological analysis of Cua tone which...

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 Spring 2026, we will meet every other Wednesday at 3(:10)pm (PST) 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...

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.