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Washo Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh (or Washoe; endonym wá꞉šiw ʔítlu) is an endangered Native American language isolate spoken by the Washo people on the California–Nevada border in the drainages of the Truckee River and Carson River Rivers, especially around Lake Tahoe. While there were only 20 elderly native speakers of Washo as of 2011,Victor Golla (2011) California Indian Languages since 1994 there had been a small immersion school that has produced a number of moderately fluent younger speakers. The immersion school has since closed its doors and the language program now operates through the Cultural Resource Department for the Washoe Tribe. The language is still very much endangered; however, there has been a renaissance in the language revitalization movement as many of the students who attended the original immersion school have become teachers.
Ethnographic Washo speakers belonged to the Great Basin culture area and they were the only non-Numic languages group of that area.d'Azevedo 1986 The language has borrowed from the neighboring Uto-Aztecan, Maiduan and Miwokan languages and is connected to both the Great Basin and Northern California .
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> WA SHE SHU: "The Washoe People", Past and Present. The Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California
The language was first described in A Grammar of the Washo Language by William H. Jacobsen, Jr., in a University of California, Berkeley, PhD dissertation and this remains the sole complete description of the language. There is no significant dialect variation. (Jacobsen's lifelong work with Washo is described at the University of Nevada Oral History Program.)
Vowels marked with the acute accent ( ´ ) are pronounced with stress, such as in the Washo ćigábut (summer).
In Washo, vowels can have either long or short length qualities; the longer quality is noted by appending a colon to the vowel, as in the above example míši milí꞉giyi. Vowels with such a mark are usually pronounced for twice the normal length. This can be seen in the difference between the words móko (shoes) mó꞉ko (knee). However, vowels pronounced this way may not always be followed by a colon.
Jacobsen described in detail various vowel alternations that distinguished the Washo speech communities.
| +Washo consonants ! Orthography !! IPA !! Example | ||
| p | paćil 'pus'; la pɨš 'my body'; dawmaʔgá꞉ p 'wet place' | |
| t | taniw 'miwak'; da ta꞉gil 'his knife'; tꞌá꞉tꞌa t 'magpie' | |
| k | kaŋa 'cave'; ma ku 'decayed tooth'; bá꞉ću k 'ammunition' | |
| ʔ | da ʔaw 'lake'; dá꞉da ʔ | |
| pꞌ or pʼ | pꞌá꞉wa 'in the valley'; dá꞉ pꞌá꞉pɨš 'his lungs' | |
| tꞌ or tʼ | tꞌá꞉gim 'pinenut'; tꞌá꞉ tꞌat 'magpie' | |
| ć or cʼ | ćámduʔ 'chokecherry'; di ćá ćaʔ 'my chin' | |
| kꞌ or kʼ | kꞌá꞉ŋi 'it's roaring'; kꞌá꞉ kꞌaʔ 'heron' | |
| b | bá꞉ćuk 'ammunition'; dá꞉ bal 'sagebrush' | |
| d | da꞉bal 'sagebrush'; dá꞉ daʔ 'bed' | |
| z | gá꞉ zaga za 'a type of bird' | |
| g | gá꞉zagaza 'a type of bird'; tꞌá꞉ gim 'pinenut' | |
| s | súkuʔ 'dog'; ya꞉ saʔ 'again'; ʔayɨ s 'antelope' | |
| š | šáwaʔ 'white fir'; di šá šaʔ 'my mother's sister'; wá꞉la š 'bread' | |
| h | hélmeʔ 'three'; ʔa꞉ huyi 'they are standing' | |
| m | má꞉mayʔ 'conical burden basket, used for pine nuts'; bá꞉ muš 'muskrat'; tꞌá꞉gi m 'pinenut' | |
| n | nanholwa 'golden currant'; á꞉ ni 'ant' | |
| ŋ | ŋáw ŋa ŋ 'child' | |
| l | lakꞌaʔ 'one'; wá꞉ laš 'bread'; paći l 'pus' | |
| w | wá꞉laš 'bread'; pꞌa꞉ wa 'in the valley'; daʔa w 'lake' | |
| y | ya꞉saʔ 'again'; da yáʔ 'leaf' | |
| M | Mášdɨmmi 'he's hiding' | |
| Ŋ | dew Ŋétiʔ 'hillside sloping down' | |
| L | madukwáw Lu 'sunflower' | |
| W | Wáʔi 'he's the one who's doing it' | |
| Y | tꞌá꞉ Yaŋi 'he's hunting' |
In the area around Woodfords, California, the local Washo dialect substituted for , thus, sí꞉su 'bird' was pronounced thithu.Caitlin Keliiaa. 2012. "Washiw Wagayay Maŋal: Reweaving the Washoe Language," University of California, Los Angeles MA thesis.
Washo uses partial or total reduplication of verbs or nouns to indicate repetitive aspect or plural number. Washo uses both prefixation and suffixation on and .
| +Vowel Suffixes ! width="15%" | Example | ||
| -ayʔ | intermediate past | earlier than the current day, but not the distant past | di hulúy ay ('I fell over') |
| -gul | long ago, remembered past | within the lifetime of the speaker | gedí yeyemi ʔúš gulaygi ('They used to call him that') |
| -lul | distant past | before the lifetime of the speaker | ga móŋil ha lúliya ('They planted it here long ago') |
| -a | recent past | action just finished | lépꞌam aʔ ('I got there') |
| -i | present | actions currently in progress | míši milí꞉giy i ('I see you') |
| -aša | near future | soon | dimú sek hay ášaʔi ('I will choke him') |
| -tiʔ | intermediate future | within the day | ʔilćáćimiʔ e tiʔi ('It's getting green.' It will be green) |
| -gab | distant future | the following day or later | milí꞉gi gabigi ('I will see you.' 'See you later') |
| +Noun Prefixes ! width="15%" | Example | |
| l- | first-person possessive | láŋal ('my/our house') |
| m- | second-person possessive | máŋal ('your house') |
| tꞌ- | third-person possessive | tꞌáŋal ('his/her/its/their house') |
| d- | unidentified possessive | dáŋal ('somebody's house') |
| di- | first-person possessive | diháŋa ('my/our mouth') |
| ʔum- | second-person possessive | ʔumháŋa ('your mouth') |
| da- | third-person possessive (when first vowel of the object is a or o) | daháŋa ('his/her/its/their mouth') dakꞌómol ('his/her/its/their ball') |
| de- | third person possessive (when first vowel of the object is e, i, ɨ, or u') | deMélɨw ('his/her/its/their belt') dedí꞉geš ('his/her/its/their net') debɨkꞌɨ ('his/her/its/their grandmother's sister') degúšuʔ ('his/her/its/their pet') |
| unidentified possessive | háŋa ('somebody's mouth') |
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