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Highlights
- Nowhere was the linguistic diversity of the New World more extreme than in California, where an extraordinary variety of village-dwelling peoples spoke seventy-eight mutually unintelligible languages.
- About the Author: Victor Golla, a leading expert on the native languages of California, is Professor of Anthropology at Humboldt State University.
- 400 Pages
- Language + Art + Disciplines, Language Arts
Description
About the Book
"Victor Golla has been the leading scholar of California Indian languages for most of his professional life, and this book shows why. His ability to synthesize centuries of fieldwork and writings while bringing forward new ideas and fresh ways of looking at California's famous linguistic diversity will make this the primary text for anyone interested in California languages."--Leanne Hinton, Professor Emerita of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley and author of "How to Keep Your Language Alive""This book is a wonderful contribution that only Golla could have written. It is a perfect confluence of author and subject matter."--Ives Goddard, Senior Linguist, Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution
"Golla is a gifted polymath and California Indian Languages is certainly his landmark achievement, required reading for any linguist, archaeologist, ethnographer, or historian interested in aboriginal California."--Robert L. Bettinger, Professor of Anthropology, University of California Davis and author of "Hunter-Gatherer Foraging"
"The preeminent figure in his field, Victor Golla has written a masterpiece filled with treasures for every audience: Indian communities working toward cultural and linguistic revival; general readers interested in the many cultures of Native California; and scholars in the fields of language, archaeology, and prehistory. The information here is so detailed that it supersedes all previous reference works."--Andrew Garrett, Professor of Linguistics, University of California Berkeley and Director, Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
"This is a truly magnificent work, at once authoritative, comprehensive, accessible to a wide readership, and fascinating. Masterfully integrating linguistic, archaeological, historical, and cultural information, the author describes not just the languages, but also the major figures in the story: speakers, explorers, missionaries, and scholars. It is beautifully written, a great pleasure to read, and difficult to put down."--Marianne Mithun, author of "The Languages of Native North America
Book Synopsis
Nowhere was the linguistic diversity of the New World more extreme than in California, where an extraordinary variety of village-dwelling peoples spoke seventy-eight mutually unintelligible languages. This comprehensive illustrated handbook, a major synthesis of more than 150 years of documentation and study, reviews what we now know about California's indigenous languages. Victor Golla outlines the basic structural features of more than two dozen language types and cites all the major sources, both published and unpublished, for the documentation of these languages--from the earliest vocabularies collected by explorers and missionaries, to the data amassed during the twentieth-century by Alfred Kroeber and his colleagues, to the extraordinary work of John P. Harrington and C. Hart Merriam. Golla also devotes chapters to the role of language in reconstructing prehistory, and to the intertwining of language and culture in pre-contact California societies, making this work, the first of its kind, an essential reference on California's remarkable Indian languages.From the Back Cover
"Victor Golla has been the leading scholar of California Indian languages for most of his professional life, and this book shows why. His ability to synthesize centuries of fieldwork and writings while bringing forward new ideas and fresh ways of looking at California's famous linguistic diversity will make this the primary text for anyone interested in California languages."--Leanne Hinton, Professor Emerita of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley and author of How to Keep Your Language Alive "This book is a wonderful contribution that only Golla could have written. It is a perfect confluence of author and subject matter."--Ives Goddard, Senior Linguist, Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution "This is a truly magnificent work, at once authoritative, comprehensive, accessible to a wide readership, and fascinating. Masterfully integrating linguistic, archaeological, historical, and cultural information, the author describes not just the languages, but also the major figures in the story: speakers, explorers, missionaries, and scholars. It is beautifully written, a great pleasure to read, and difficult to put down."--Marianne Mithun, author of The Languages of Native North America "Golla is a gifted polymath and California Indian Languages is certainly his landmark achievement, required reading for any linguist, archaeologist, ethnographer, or historian interested in aboriginal California."--Robert L. Bettinger, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, and author of Hunter-Gatherer Foraging "The preeminent figure in his field, Victor Golla has written a masterpiece filled with treasures for every audience: Indian communities working toward cultural and linguistic revival; general readers interested in the many cultures of Native California; and scholars in the fields of language, archaeology, and prehistory. The information here is so detailed that it supersedes all previous reference works."--Andrew Garrett, Professor of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Survey of California and Other Indian LanguagesReview Quotes
"A lush and handy primer."-- "Books & Culture: A Christian Review"
"A once-in-a-hundred year work which is not only scholarly, well-footnoted, well-referenced, and bibliographically complete. It is also readable and enjoyable. . . . A landmark in the study of native Californian languages. . . . This is a book to be used, not just admired."-- "California Archaeology"
"Bringing together the linguistic records of explorers and missionaries, as well as the research of anthropologists Alfred Kroeber, John P. Harrington, and C. Hart Merriam, this is an essential reference for linguistics collections."-- "Library Journal"
"This is probably the most valuable book ever published on California Indian languages and cultures, and it should be on the shelf of any serious California scholar."-- "Anthropological Linguistics"
"This monograph on the indigenous languages of California 'has been long in coming, ' as Golla himself points out in the preface, but the wait has been worth it. . . . This book is more than just an authoritative statement of the accumulated wisdom concerning the languages of a particular region. It is also a pleasure to read and to behold. Golla's writing style is lucid and engaging; a plethora of tables, maps, and photographs adorn the pages, and the University of California Press has done an outstanding job on the visual presentation of information. Golla's enthusiasm for California's indigenous languages and cultures, and his interest in the scholars and scholarly traditions by which they are known outside of indigenous communities themselves, shine through on every page."-- "International Journal of American Linguistics"
About the Author
Victor Golla, a leading expert on the native languages of California, is Professor of Anthropology at Humboldt State University. He is the editor of The Sapir-Kroeber Correspondence: Letters Between Edward Sapir and Alfred Kroeber, 1905-1925 and of several volumes of The Collected Works of Edward Sapir.Dimensions (Overall): 11.0 Inches (H) x 8.7 Inches (W) x 1.2 Inches (D)
Weight: 2.8 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Number of Pages: 400
Genre: Language + Art + Disciplines
Sub-Genre: Language Arts
Publisher: University of California Press
Theme: General
Format: Hardcover
Author: Victor Golla
Language: English
Street Date: September 20, 2011
TCIN: 1003466012
UPC: 9780520266674
Item Number (DPCI): 247-08-4406
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
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Shipping details
Estimated ship dimensions: 1.2 inches length x 8.7 inches width x 11 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 2.8 pounds
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