Owens Valley Paiute
A wiki for Owens Valley Paiute (OVP), the language of the Nüümü, the Paiute people of Payahuunadü, the Owens Valley of eastern California.
This website is a guide to the language and to the people and place it comes from: how the language works, the words it uses, who the Nüümü are, and the valley we call home. It's written for the OVP community first, and for anyone else who wants to learn. Browse by topic or follow your curiosity. There's no required order.
Throughout, Paiute words link to the Kubishi Dictionary. Hover any linked word for a quick meaning, or click it to see the full dictionary entry.
This wiki is a starting point, meant to grow with community knowledge, corrections, and additions. If you have feedback, corrections, or contributions, please reach out to the Jared Coleman (jared.coleman@lmu.edu), the main author of this wiki.
How this wiki is organized
- Language: How the language works: sounds, spelling, word structure, and sentence building.
- Vocabulary: Vocabulary by theme and a glossary of all OVP words used throughout this wiki.
- About: The people, the valley, where the language comes from, and the work of keeping it alive today.
- Terminology: A guide to some of the linguistic and cultural terms used in this wiki.
- Resources: The archives, grammars, ethnographies, and community programs behind this wiki.
Start Here
New here? Two good places to begin: if you want to know who we are and where the language comes from, start with About. If you're ready to start learning the language itself, head to Language.