Endangered Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal Languages: Essays on language documentation, archiving and revitalization (review)

2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 589-596
Author(s):  
Daniel Kaufman
Keyword(s):  
Language Documentation ◽  
Australian Aboriginal ◽  
Aboriginal Languages

Missionary linguistics in the Kimberley, Western Australia

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 121-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
William B. McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Western Australia ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Aboriginal Languages ◽  
Primary Contribution ◽  
Compound Verb

Summary This paper explores the contribution of missionary linguists to the documentation, description, and maintenance of Aboriginal languages of the Kimberley region of Western Australia from the establishment of the first enduring mission in 1890 to 1960. It is argued that the primary contribution was to language documentation. However, the descriptive contribution was not negligible, and many missionary linguists struggled intelligently with the descriptive challenges confronting them (ergative case-marking, noun-class systems, compound verb constructions, etc.). Rather than being rigidly bound by the Latinate model, they modified it in various ways (usually not explicitly discussed), including by using traditional terminology in novel ways.

Grammaticalization and typology in Australian Aboriginal languages

2018 ◽  
pp. 263-281
Author(s):  
Ilana Mushin
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Australian Aboriginal ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
Aboriginal Languages ◽  
Australian Languages

While grammatical change has been a key area of interest for Australian historical linguistics, only a few studies have sought to explain the development of grammar in terms of processes of grammaticalization. This chapter explores the key reasons for the relative absence of grammaticalization studies in the Australianist tradition. It then shows how the development of a particular areal feature—second-position clitic constructions—may be explained in term of both grammaticalization and constructionalization. The chapter also discusses the development of dual-pronoun systems in Australian languages, and shows that it can be reasonably assumed that erstwhile bound pronouns have developed into free pronouns, in contrast to previous research claiming the emergence of bound pronouns from free pronouns.

Lexical semantics in language shift

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-135
Author(s):  
Maïa Ponsonnet
Keyword(s):  
Language Shift ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Exact Nature ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Australian Aboriginal ◽  
Semantic Domain ◽  
Emotion Lexicon ◽  
Creole Languages ◽  
Aboriginal Languages

Abstract This article analyzes some of the lexical semantic features of Barunga Kriol, an Australian creole language (Northern Territory, Australia), in comparison with Dalabon, one of the Australian Aboriginal languages replaced by Barunga Kriol. Focusing on the semantic domain of emotions, this study offers insights into how creole languages select and organize semantic meanings, and to what extent this results in lexical loss or retention. I spell out the exact nature of the lexical resemblances between the two languages, and highlight major differences as well. The conclusions of the study are two-fold. Firstly, I show that the Barunga Kriol emotion lexicon shares a great many properties with the Dalabon emotion lexicon. As a result, speakers in Barunga Kriol and Dalabon respectively are often able to package meaning in very similar ways: the two languages offer comparable means of describing events in the world. From that point of view, language shift can be considered to have a lesser impact. Secondly, I show that the lexical resemblances between Barunga Kriol and Dalabon are not limited to simple cases where the lexemes in each language share the same forms and/or meanings. Instead, lexical resemblances relate to a number of other properties in semantics and combinatorics, and I devise a preliminary typology of these lexical resemblances. Beyond the comparison between Barunga Kriol and Dalabon, this typology may tentatively serve as a grid to evaluate lexical resemblances between languages more generally.

Consonant lenition as a sociophonetic variable in Murrinh Patha (Australia)

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Basil Mansfield
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Older Men ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Language Group ◽  
Australian Aboriginal ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Catholic Mission ◽  
Aboriginal Languages

AbstractIn recent years, the typological and geographic range of languages subjected to sociophonetic study has been expanding, though until now Australian Aboriginal languages have been absent from this subdiscipline. This first sociophonetic study of an Australian language, Murrinh Patha, shows a type of consonant lenition that is notably distinct from the better known examples in Standard Average European languages, effecting /p/ and /k/ primarily in the onset of stressed, usually word-initial syllables. Young men lenite more frequently than older men do, and paternal heritage from the neighboring Marri language group also predicts more frequent lenition. The latter influence may be the result of intense language contact brought about by recent settlement of diverse language groups at the Catholic Mission of Port Keats.

scholarly journals The Importance of Insects in Australian Aboriginal Society: A Dictionary Survey

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aung Si ◽  
Myfany Turpin
Keyword(s):  
Construction Material ◽  
Keystone Species ◽  
Insect Larvae ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Australian Aboriginal ◽  
Aboriginal Society ◽  
Traditional Songs ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Aboriginal Languages

Insects and their products have long been used in Indigenous Australian societies as food, medicine and construction material, and given prominent roles in myths, traditional songs and ceremonies. However, much of the available information on the uses of insects in Australia remains anecdotal. In this essay, we review published dictionaries of Aboriginal languages spoken in many parts of Australia, to provide an overview of the Indigenous names and knowledge of insects and their products. We find that that native honeybees and insect larvae (particularly of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera) are the most highly prized insects, and should be recognized as cultural keystone species. Many insects mentioned in dictionaries lack scientific identifications, however, and we urge documentary linguists to address this important issue.

Australian Aboriginal Languages

2021 ◽  
pp. 67-102
Author(s):  
Tasaku Tsunoda
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Account ◽  
Careful Attention ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Aboriginal Australians ◽  
Australian Aboriginal ◽  
History Of ◽  
Language Revitalisation ◽  
Aboriginal Languages ◽  
Australian Languages

The present chapter describes the decline and revitalisation of Australian Aboriginal languages—also called Australian languages. As preliminaries, it looks at the following: (i) a brief history of Aboriginal Australians, (ii) degrees of language viability, (iii) current situation of Australian languages, (iv) value of linguistic heritage, and (v) methods of language revitalisation. It then describes five selected language revitalisation activities, concerning Warrongo, Kaurna, Bandjalang, Thalanyji and Wiradjuri languages. In particular, it provides a detailed account of the Warrongo language revitalisation activity (in which the author has been participating). It finally examines a problem that is frequently encountered in language revitalisation activities: confusion over writing systems. The entire chapter pays careful attention to the changing political climate that surrounds Australian languages and activities for them.

Naive linguistic explanation

1992 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. W. Dixon
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Word Class ◽  
Field Methods ◽  
Class Field ◽  
Australian Aboriginal ◽  
Aboriginal Languages

ABSTRACTFive examples are presented of how native speakers may try to explain a grammatical point to a linguist, and, in the absence of a suitable metalanguage, adopt some “lateral” way of demonstrating the point. They may, for instance, give another paradigmatic form of a word under scrutiny to show its word class; they may switch to another dialect to clarify some ambiguity; they may add some extra sentence constituents to each noun in a lexical elicit, to reveal its gender class. (Field methods, grammatical explanation, use of informants/consultants, Australian Aboriginal languages, Amazonian languages)

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