In:History of Linguistics 2014: Selected papers from the 13th International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS XIII), Vila Real, Portugal, 25–29 August 2014
Edited by Carlos Assunção, Gonçalo Fernandes and Rolf Kemmler
[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 126] 2016
► pp. 177–190
Voices from the field
Edward Sapir’s study of Takelma
Published online: 17 August 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/sihols.126.14swi
https://doi.org/10.1075/sihols.126.14swi
Edward Sapir’s grammar of Takelma remains a model of linguistic description and insight into the deeper structure of a language. Together with his Takelma Texts it is our principal source of information on this extinct language, once spoken in southwestern Oregon. Sapir did his fieldwork on Takelma in the summer of 1906, and in less than seven weeks’ work with a single informant he was able to obtain an important number of ethnolinguistic texts and a wealth of grammatical and lexical materials. We are well informed about Sapir’s fieldwork on the Siletz Reservation in Oregon, through his correspondence with Franz Boas, in which various aspects of the Takelma language and culture are discussed. The correspondence also informs us about Sapir’s difficulties in coming to grips with the morphological complexities of the language.
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