Australia’s Linguistic Profile

Rebuilding Australia’s Linguistic Profile: Recent Developments in Research on Australian Aboriginal Languages

Alice Gaby.

The more than 250 languages spoken in Australia prior to the nineteenth century exhibit both striking similarities to one another and remarkable variation. The exponential increase in what linguists have learned about these languages since the 1960s has been sadly in inverse proportion to the number of people learning them as a mother tongue. This article will review some of the most exciting recent developments in Australianist linguistic research, while also acknowledging the context of language loss and disenfranchisement within which they are situated. The message it offers is ultimately optimistic, however. For the languages still spoken regularly, research into the previously neglected components of the multimodal communicative system that is language in use is adding new depth to the existing documentation. For the majority of Australia’s indigenous languages – where economic, social and political pressures have taken their toll – a different set of concerns has emerged. Linguists are now grappling with a range of theoretical and empirical questions regarding the mechanisms of language contact and attrition, even as they continue to contribute new insights into the traditional ‘core’ fields of phonetics and phonology, morphosyntax, semantics and historical linguistics. Moreover, an increasing consciousness of the respective roles of outsider researcher and speech community is changing not only the methodologies of linguists ‘in the field’, but also the research itself. All of these factors will shape the directions of future Australianist linguistic research, as well as the number and nature of languages that remain to be studied.

Media Databases

David Nash’s summary of media databases used for Australian languages.

University of Melbourne Ling E-prints

The University of Melbourne’s Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics ePrint repository has a number of works on Australian languages

Many Rivers Language Centre

From their web site:

Established in 2004, Many Rivers Aboriginal Language Centre (M.R.A.L.C.) provides strategic support for Aboriginal communities of the northern and central coasts of NSW who want to revitalise their languages. MRALC is a regional language centre that aims to support the following languages: Awabakal - Wonnarua, Bundjalung, Darkinyung, Dhanggati, Kattang (Birrbay & Warrmay), and Yaygirr - Yaegl.  Click here to view map.

Like other regional language centres, MRALC conducts research on several Aboriginal languages and supports communities in their efforts to learn and teach their languages. Regional Aboriginal Language Centres have until recently only existed in more remote areas of Australia, for example Katherine Regional Aboriginal Language Centre, and Wangka Maya in Port Headland. There have been language programs elsewhere including NSW but they have tended to work with one local language, or closely related dialects, for example the Yuwaalaraay Language Program based in Walgett supports Yuwaalaraay, Yuwaalayaay and Gamilaraay. MRALC has an Advisory Group made up of representatives from all languages, and a Specialist Group of Elders, linguists and teachers who assist as needed. MRALC employs a coordinator - linguist, language researchers - teachers and teacher - linguists.

 The Centre has an impressive publication plan (the first volume on the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie language is out).

LibraryThing

LibraryThing (an online book cataloguing site) can now search 28 library catalogues in Australia, including AIATSIS!

Mukurtu Archive

Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari digital archive [via Long Road]

The Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari Archive is a browser-based digital archive created by the Warumungu community in Tennant Creek, N.T. Australia in collaboration with researchers Kimberly Christen, Craig Dietrich, Chris Cooney, and Tim Dietrich.

The archive, housed at the Nyinkka Nyunyu Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre, contains photos, digital video clips, audio files, and digital reproductions of cultural artifacts and documents. The content in the archive is defined by access parameters based on a set of Warumungu cultural protocols for the viewing and distribution of cultural knowledge.

Language Planning and Place Names in Australia

Language Planning and Placenaming in Australia
Flavia Hodges
Current Issues in Language Planning 8,3 p383-404

http://www.multilingual-matters.net/cilp/008/cilp0080383.htm

[hat tip: Sally Dixon, Wangka Maya Language Centre]

Customary Land Tenure

ANU Epress edition here.

Linguistic Indulgence

Many papers in Language Description, History and Development : Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley Edited by Jeff Siegel, John Lynch and Diana Eades are on Australian languages.

2. A desiderative complement construction in Warrwa.
William B. McGregor
27-40
3. Noun incorporation in Rembarrnga discourse.
Graham R. McKay
41-52
4. A revised view of the verbal suffixes of Yugambeh-Bundjalung
M.C. Sharpe
53-68
16. Complex predication and the coverb construction
Mengistu Amberber, Brett Baker and Mark Harvey
209-219
19. Nganyaywana revisited: Lessons from Terry Crowley’s work on New England languages
Paul Black
255-265
20. Divergent regularity in word-initial truncation in the Arandic languages
Harold Koch
267-280
32. The Crowley corrective: An alternative voice for language endangerment
Michael Walsh
431-437
34. Funeral liturgy as a strategy for language revival
Rob Amery and Dennis O’Brien
457-467

(Hat-tip: David Nash)

Grant opportunity

Aboriginal community organisations can apply for one-off grants worth up to
$25,000 to protect and teach Aboriginal languages.

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Paul Lynch said for Aboriginal people,
language is a direct link to their identity, land and country, reflecting
their unique way of looking at the world.

Applications for close on Friday, May 25. For more information or to get an
application form visit www.alrrc.nsw.gov.au or call 9219 0700.

http://www.alrrc.nsw.gov.au/