Posted on by Claire

 

Abstract

The word final phonology of Lardil was brought to the attention of linguists by Ken Hale in the 1960s and since then certain properties of the data have led it to occupy a privileged position, in a canon of data sets against which new theoretical proposals are frequently tested. Several seminal arguments for new and high-profile phonological theories are now based at least in part upon analyses of Hale’s data set. After reviewing what is of such interest in Lardil, a body of data is assembled which alters our understanding of the empirical facts and theoretical implications of Lardil phonology. Hale’s process of Laminalization is reanalyzed as Apicalization; constrained lexical exceptions are found with respect to Apocope, Apicalization and Truncation; and a process of Raising is identified. A discussion of the systematicity of these new data, and of their demonstrable antiquity leads to the conclusion that future formal analyses of the language must account not only for already well-known properties of the data, but for the existence of multiple, active patterns that apply selectively throughout the lexicon.

Threlkeld: Waiting for Biraban

Posted on by Claire

Waiting for Biraban: Lancelot Threlkeld and the ‘Chibcha Phenomenon’ in Australian Missionary Linguistics

Authors: Wafer, Jim1; Carey, Hilary2

Source: Language & History, Volume 54, Number 2, November 2011 , pp. 112-139(28)

Abstract:

This paper is a historical and linguistic introduction to some of the missionary translations made by the Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld (1788–1859) into the language (sometimes called ‘Awabakal’) of the Hunter River–Lake Macquarie region of Australia’s east coast. It focuses in particular on Threlkeld’s shorter texts, including his ‘Selections from the Scriptures’, which is the earliest published scripture translation into an Australian language. The paper places Threlkeld and his Indigenous collaborator Biraban in their local historical context, and also in the broader context of missionary linguistics. It considers some unique features of this genre, and focuses on cases where missionary compositions provide the only substantial records of an extinct language (the ‘Chibcha phenomenon’). Such cases raise the question of reliability, which we propose can be tested. We use as our example a grammatical feature, the subordinator =pa, to determine the extent to which Threlkeld’s construction of subordinate clauses was idiomatic. We conclude that, in spite of a small number of anomalies, which are probably errors, Threlkeld’s usage appears to have been remarkably consistent with what we know about the functioning of such clauses in Australian languages in general.

Borrowing in hunter-gatherer languages

Posted on by Claire

Bowern C, Epps P, Gray R, Hill J, Hunley K, et al. 2011 Does Lateral Transmission Obscure Inheritance in Hunter-Gatherer Languages? PLoS ONE6(9): e25195. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0025195

[Heavy focus on data from Australian languages. NB, this is open access.]

In recent years, linguists have begun to increasingly rely on quantitative phylogenetic approaches to examine language evolution. Some linguists have questioned the suitability of phylogenetic approaches on the grounds that linguistic evolution is largely reticulate due to extensive lateral transmission, or borrowing, among languages. The problem may be particularly pronounced in hunter-gatherer languages, where the conventional wisdom among many linguists is that lexical borrowing rates are so high that tree building approaches cannot provide meaningful insights into evolutionary processes. However, this claim has never been systematically evaluated, in large part because suitable data were unavailable. In addition, little is known about the subsistence, demographic, ecological, and social factors that might mediate variation in rates of borrowing among languages. Here, we evaluate these claims with a large sample of hunter-gatherer languages from three regions around the world. In this study, a list of 204 basic vocabulary items was collected for 122 hunter-gatherer and small-scale cultivator languages from three ecologically diverse case study areas: northern Australia, northwest Amazonia, and California and the Great Basin. Words were rigorously coded for etymological (inheritance) status, and loan rates were calculated. Loan rate variability was examined with respect to language area, subsistence mode, and population size, density, and mobility; these results were then compared to the sample of 41 primarily agriculturalist languages in [1]. Though loan levels varied both within and among regions, they were generally low in all regions (mean 5.06%, median 2.49%, and SD 7.56), despite substantial demographic, ecological, and social variation. Amazonian levels were uniformly very low, with no language exhibiting more than 4%. Rates were low but more variable in the other two study regions, in part because of several outlier languages where rates of borrowing were especially high. High mobility, prestige asymmetries, and language shift may contribute to the high rates in these outliers. No support was found for claims that hunter-gatherer languages borrow more than agriculturalist languages. These results debunk the myth of high borrowing in hunter-gatherer languages and suggest that the evolution of these languages is governed by the same type of rules as those operating in large-scale agriculturalist speech communities. The results also show that local factors are likely to be more critical than general processes in determining high (or low) loan rates.

Posted on by Claire

http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.a.vanrijn/bestanden/MA%20Thesis%20Marlou%20van%20Rijn.pdf

Includes data about some Australian languages.

Building a lexical database

Posted on by Claire

Includes examples from Ngarrindjeri

Int J Lexicography (2011)doi: 10.1093/ijl/ecr027

Building A Lexical Database with Multiple Outputs: Examples from Legacy Data and from Multimodal Fieldwork

Nick Thieberger, University of Melbourne

The creation of reusable lexical database files, based in fieldwork or arising from historical research, benefits from conformance to established standards which then greatly increases the enduring usability of the lexicon, and its later ability to link to external objects, including media. All linguistic analysis benefits from the close relationship between primary recordings and a textual corpus, but a dictionary can also benefit from links to media in the use of playable example sentences and citation forms of headwords. In this paper several examples will be used to illustrate that not all linguists want to deal with the tools required to take advantage of these methods, so, in some cases, they are better off seeking advice and assistance in advance of building the database or in its later conversion to output formats.