Re-awakening languages

The embargo on freely downloadable chapters has now ended. As a result all sections can be downloaded from:
Of course, printed and bound copies make great Xmas gifts, and can still be ordered online at:

Gayarragi, winangali

From the project web site:

Gayarragi, Winangali is an interactive multimedia resource for Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay, languages of northern New South Wales, Australia (see pop-up maps). Gayarragi, Winangali was produced as a CD-ROM but is also available by download (about 200MB, Win XP/Vista).

Gayarragi, Winangali is a resource for language learners at all levels, and for anyone interested in the Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay languages. It contains extensive language resources, including audio:

  • a searchable Gamilaraay Yuwaalaraay Dictionary with over 2,600 entries, all including audio
  • 957 spoken sentences from traditional speakers, all transcribed, and hyperlinked to the dictionary
  • 30 songs and 14 stories, all transcribed, and hyperlinked to the dictionary
  • games, including crosswords and memory/matching games
  • other language resources as pdf and text files

Habitat of Australia’s Indigenous Languages

Publisher’s site is here, and publisher’s blurb is reproduced below:

The languages of Aboriginal Australians have attracted a considerable amount of interest among scholars from such diverse fields as linguistics, political studies, archaeology or social history. As a result, there is a large number of studies on a variety of issues to do with Aboriginal Australian languages and the social contexts in which they are used. There is, however, no integrative reader that is easily accessible to the non-specialist in any of the areas concerned. The collection edited by Leitner and Malcolm fills this gap.

Looking at Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and their changing habitats from pre-colonial times to the present, the book covers languages from a structural and functional linguistic perspective, moves on to the issue of cultural maintenance and then turns to language policy, planning and the educational and legal dimensions. Among the many themes discussed are: the social and linguistic history of language contact after 1788 (including the Macassans); the demographic base of indigenous languages; traditional indigenous languages; results of language contact such as the modification of traditional languages and the rise of contact languages (pidgins, creoles, esp. Kriol, Torres Strait Creole, and Aboriginal English); the impact of the Aboriginal languages on mainstream Australian English; maintenance, shift, revival and documentation of indigenous and contact languages; language planning; language in education; language in the media; language in the law courts.

The contributors are leading experts in their fields. The book can serve as a reader for university courses but also as a state-of-the-art work and resource for specialists like applied linguists or educational planners.

Ozbib update

OZBib

A linguistic bibliography of Aboriginal Australia

and the Torres Strait Islands

SUPPLEMENT 1999-2006

Compiled by Geraldine Triffitt

Published by Mulini Press, Canberra

OZBIB was compiled by Lois Carrington and Geraldine Triffitt and published by Pacific Linguistics in 1999. Its aim was to provide a full bibliographical listing of all published materials and theses on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and linguistics. This Supplement covers the period from July 1999 to September 2006 plus addenda from OZBIB. There are both language and subject indexes to the bibliography.

OZBIB is broad in scope. It lists both theoretical and applied linguistics works. It covers the description and analysis of languages, dictionaries, grammars, works on bilingual education, language policy, language use in courts of law, the experiences of language speakers and the linguistic output of language centres. Included in the Indigenous languages are creoles and Aboriginal English.

Available from

Naviti Documentation, PO Box 537, MAWSON, ACT 2607
No Credit Card facilities available

$30 + postage and handling.

Postage rates: Australia $5.50: Overseas air mail $10-$17 depending on destination

Geraldine Triffitt is a librarian with linguistic qualifications from the Australian National University. She worked as Bibliographer (Linguistics) and Collection Manager (Linguistics) at AIAS and AIATSIS Library from 1986 to 1997.