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Other comments: Eastern Pomo, also
known as Clear Lake Pomo, is a nearly extinct Pomoan language spoken
around Clear Lake in Lake County, California by one of the Pomo peoples.
It is not mutually intelligible with the other Pomoan languages. Before
contact with Europeans, it was spoken along the northern and southern
shores of Clear Lake to the north of San Francisco, and in the coast
mountains west of Sacramento Valley. Eastern Pomo shared borders in the
north with the Patwin and the Yuki languages, in the south with the Lake
Wappo, the Wappo, the Southeastern Pomo, the Southern Pomo, the Central
Pomo, the Northern Pomo, and the Lake Miwok. They also shared a border
to the west with the Northern Pomo.
The southern and northern areas in which Eastern Pomo was spoken were
geographically separate, and apparently represented differing dialects,
split by certain lexical and phonological differences. Contemporary
Eastern Pomo speakers refer to the north shore dialect area as Upper
Lake, and the south shore dialect area as Big Valley.
Usage
A documentation project for the language, which had not been written
down, started in 2003 at the Big Valley Rancheria. As of 2006,
59-year-old Loretta Kelsey was the one remaining Elem Pomo speaker, or
"language keeper". A podcast interview is available which features
Kelsey speaking the language. Although Kelsey is teaching younger
speakers, it is not clear whether the language can be maintained based
on her knowledge. In 2008, Kelsey, the daughter of a former tribal
chief, was disenrolled from the tribe along with 24 family members,
despite having "lived on the rancheria for most of her 59 years."
Downloads of Elem Pomo documentation are available from the
electronic repository of the
California Indian Museum and Cultural Center.
Eastern
Pomo
has only recorded traditional numerals from 1 to 10 many years ago,
not sure if they were used a traditional decimal or vigesimal system
before, New data for numbers after ten is required. |