Language books: Noongar.

Kiangardarup has a post on Noongar language books.

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

Wiradjuri Language Development Project

Site with information about Wiradjuri language and culture, including links for the purchase of language materials.

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)

Reciprocal constructions

Reciprocal Constructions
Edited by Vladimir P. Nedjalkov

Of particular interest to Australianists:

Part II. Reflexive-reciprocal polysemy of reciprocal markers
C. Pronominal reciprocal marker only
21. Reciprocal constructions in Djaru
Tasaku Tsunoda

Part IV. Reflexive-reciprocal-sociative polysemy of reciprocal markers. Verbal reciprocal marker only
32. Reciprocal constructions in Warrungu
Tasaku Tsunoda

(Hat-tip: David Nash)

Recent work by Heidi Kneebone

• Heidi Kneebone and Peter Muhlhausler: 19th Missionary notions and practices of literacy. Soon to be available through Routledge.
• Heidi-Marie Kneebone, University of Adelaide Honours thesis. The language of the chosen view. (link goes to University of Adelaide DSpace archive, and includes table of contents).

Wulguru

Salvage study of the language historically spoken around Townsville, by Mark Donohue.

Linguistlist book announcement is here, and includes the following blurbː

Wulguru was a Pama-Nyungan language typical of the sort found on the northeast coast of Australia; it ceased to be spoken before it was properly documented. Wulguru was spoken in the area around present day Townsville, and also on the islands extending out to Palm Island.

The sketch that is presented here has been assembled from the available data, based mainly on a journal kept by Charles Price, a resident of Townsville in the late 19th century; the current work is as complete a record as we are likely to have.

Wulguru had a vowel-length distinction; as a result of initial consonant loss, vowels could begin words; further, there were monosyllabic words. Wulguru marked syntactic relations by means of case marking; the ergative showed allomorphy based on syllable count as well as final consonant identity. There were at least three different verbal conjugations, possibly as many as five or six. Verbal agreement was optional, though this might represent second position clitics. The only textual material consists of a few short phrases, as well as the transcription of some songs, and the main text that we have for Wulguru, a translation of The Lord’s Prayer. It becomes apparent (after back-translation) that it was not Price himself who assembled the prayer translation, but probably a Wulguru speaker who makes a secret cry against the white invasion of the area.

The link includes a link to the publisher, but their “new books” link doesn’t seem to work at present.

Ethnography of Kinship

Speaking Kunjen : An ethnography of Oykangand kinship and communication, by Bruce Sommer

Linguistlist book announcementː

This book examines the interface between language and kinship in the Australian Aboriginal language Kunjen which is spoken in the Cape York region of northern Queensland. The author shows that kinship relations play a major role in determining the kinds of linguistic interactions that are appropriate for different groups of individuals. The social meaning of utterances depends more than anything else on kinship and one’s kin relations with those one communicates with. The rules of interpretation used by Kunjen speakers to mediate kinship and language are as complex and as pervasive as the grammatical rules of the language itself, and help to reveal aspects of linguistic structure that might not otherwise be obvious. Conversely, kinship structures can be illuminated, if not revealed, by the study of language use.

(Note that book URL of http://www.pacling.com/catalogue/582.html doesn’t work at present).

Annie Langlois: Wordplay in Teenage Pitjantjatjara

Australian Journal of Linguistics: 26/2.

Here is the abstract of the paper:

‘Secret languages’ of children and teenagers are found in many cultures and societies. In the Pitjantjatjara community of Areyonga in Central Australia, teenage girls have developed a language that allows them secrecy in their private conversation. They called this ‘special’ language the ‘short-way language’. Though the data is limited,1¹This paper is based on data collected between September 1994 and December 1995. this article provides an initial description of the language. An account of the Areyonga community is also provided to support the description.

Carmel O’Shannessy, Language contact and children’s bilingual acquisition

Carmel O’Shannessy, Language contact and children’s bilingual acquisition: Learning a mixed language and Warlpiri in northern Australia. University of Sydney. Supervisors: Melissa Bowerman and Penelope Brown (MPI Nijmegen), and Jane Simpson (University of Sydney).

This dissertation documents the emergence of a new language, Light Warlpiri, in the multilingual community of Lajamanu in northern Australia. It then examines the acquisition of Light Warlpiri language, and of the heritage language, Lajamanu Warlpiri, by children. Light Warlpiri has arisen from contact between Lajamanu Warlpiri (a Pama-Nyungan language), Kriol (an English-based creole), and varieties of English. It is a Mixed Language, meaning that none of its source languages can be considered to be the sole parent language. Most verbs and the verbal morphology are from Aboriginal English or Kriol, while most nouns and the nominal morphology are from Warlpiri.

The language input to children is complex. Adults older than about thirty speak Lajamanu Warlpiri and code-switch into Aboriginal English or Kriol. Younger adults, the parents of the current cohort of children, speak Light Warlpiri and code-switch into Lajamanu Warlpiri and into Aboriginal English or Kriol. Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, the two main input languages to children, both indicate A arguments with ergative case-marking (and they share one allomorph of the marker), but Lajamanu Warlpiri includes the marker much more consistently than Light Warlpiri. Word order is variable in both languages. Children learn both languages from birth, but they target Light Warlpiri as the language of their everyday interactions, and they speak it almost exclusively until four to six years of age. Adults and children show similar patterns of ergative marking and word order in Light Warlpiri. But differences between age groups are found in ergative marking in Lajamanu Warlpiri - for the oldest group of adults, ergative marking is obligatory, but for younger adults and children, it is not.

Determining when children differentiate between two input languages has been a major goal in the study of bilingual acquisition. The two languages in this study share lexical and grammatical properties, making distinctions between them quite subtle. Both adults and children distribute ergative marking differently in the two languages, but show similar word order patterns in both. However the children show a stronger correlation between ergative marking and word order patterns than do the adults, suggesting that they are spearheading processes of language change. In their comprehension of sentences in both Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, adults use a case-marking strategy to identify the A argument (i.e. N+erg = A argument, No = O argument). The children are not adult-like in using this strategy at age 5, when they also used a word order strategy, but they gradually move towards being adult-like with increased age.

For copies, contact: Carmel O’Shannessy, Language Resource Officer, DEET NT, PO Box 1420, Alice Springs NT 0870, ph no: 08 89 517 006, carmeloshannessy-at-gmail.com.