Australia's Many Voices. Teil 2 Ethnic Englishes, Indigenous and Migrant Languages: Policy and Education [Reprint 2013 ed.] 9783110906028, 9783110181951

Citation preview

Australia's Many Voices

W G DE

Contributions to the Sociology of Language

90.2

Editor

Joshua A. Fishman

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

Australia's Many Voices Ethnic Englishes, Indigenous and Migrant Languages. Policy and Education

by

Gerhard Leitner

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter G m b H & Co. KG, Berlin.

@ Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Data

Leitner, Gerhard. Australia's many voices : ethnic Englishes, indigenous and migrant languages : policy and education / by Gerhard Leitner. p. cm. — (Contributions to the sociology of language ; 90.2) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 3-11-018195-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Multilingualism - Australia. 2. Linguistic minorities - Australia. 3. Language policy - Australia. 4. Language and languages — Study and teaching - Australia. I. Title. II. Series. P115.5.A8L45 2004 306.44'6'0994-dc22 2004055971

I S B N 3-11-018195-9 Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche

Bibliothek

Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at .

© Copyright 2004 by Walter de Gruyter G m b H & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in Germany.

To Maite, Martin and Philip, who have given me so much inspiration

Acknowledgements The idea of writing Australia's Many Voices owes its existence to a research prize awarded me in 1995 by the Australian Research Council which enabled me to deepen and broaden what I knew about Australia's language habitat and to pursue the research necesary at the Department of Linguistics, Monash University, the inviting institution. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Freie Universität Berlin, the University of Melbourne, Macquarie University and Edith-Cowan-University in Perth permitted me to update and broaden the perspectives and to present preliminary findings to wider, expert audiences. I owe thanks to the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Immigration, Multiculturalism and Indigenous Affairs for their help and open information policy. Regarding Aboriginal languages the following institutions and individuals deserve thanks: Ian Malcolm, Edith-Cowan-University, Perth, who has been a never-ending source of information and stimulator of ideas; Ysola Best, Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages, Canberra; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Council, Broome; Aboriginal Legal Service, Melbourne; Liliane, Aboriginal Community Elders Services, Melbourne; John Foers, Australian and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Vic.; Olive Mongrove, Department of Employment, Education, and Training, Aboriginal Affairs, Vic.; Koorie Research Centre at Monash University; Simon Forrest, Aboriginal School, formerly at Edith-Cowan-University, Perth; Gary Foley, former Head of the Koorie Students' Centre, The University of Melbourne; Sandra Smith, Koori section, Museum of Victoria; Ribna Green, Office of Aboriginal Affairs of WA; Gill Gallagher, Aboriginal Affairs of Victoria; L. Bamblett, Victorian Aboriginal Education Association; Rydna Green, Patricia Königsberg and Yvonne Haig, Department of Education Western Australia; the ABC Brisbane, and, finally, Walter Veit, Monash University. I also thank those Australians of Aboriginal descent I was able to talk to at the annual meeting of Victorian and NSW Aborigines in Echuca (March 7-8, 1996), Eve Fesl (Brisbane) and the Board of Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages, who permitted me to attend a meeting in Canberra in 2000. The Institute of Aboriginal Studies in Alice Springs, the Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra, the National

viii Acknowledgements Centre for English Language Teaching and Research at Macquarie University, Sydney, the Herald-Weekly Times (Melbourne) and the Fairfax Company (Sydney) have provided materials. Regarding non-Aboriginal languages other than English the following individuals and institutions merit thanks: J.J. Smolicz (The University of Adelaide), a friend indeed; Susan Zammit (Australian Council of Educational Research); Joan Masters, Shirley Martin and their staff at the Adult Migrant Education Service in Sydney and Melbourne, respectively; Hass Déliai (Australian Multicultural Foundation); John Nieuwenhuysen and his staff at the Bureau of Immigration, Multiculturalism and Population Research; the Board of Studies of Victoria; Toni Feddersen (Committee of Economic Development of Australia); former Executive Director of Hella, Dr. Walter Uhlenbruch, and the head of Human Resources of Hella (Melbourne); Ian Spink, Head of Human Resources, and Krys Graves, head of training at MM Cables, Melbourne; Mr. Engelhardt, Chartered Accountant, Melbourne; Mr. Hörner, co-founder of the Australian-German Welfare Association, Melbourne; the Curriculum Development Corporation, Melbourne; Phil Honeywood, then Minister for Tertiary Education and Minister assisting the Premier in Multicultural Affairs in Victoria; Anna Funder, then at the Office of the Premier and Cabinet of Victoria; Dina Guest and Anne Eckstein, (Department of Education of Victoria); Prof. Trang Thomas, then Chairperson of the Ethnic Affairs Commission of Victoria; Joe Cauchi, Head of Counselling at the Family Court, Melbourne; the board of the Australian-German Welfare Organization; Executive Director Joseph Lo Bianco, Richard Baldauf, and Pauline Bryant from the then National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia, Canberra; Allan Davies (The University of Melbourne and now Edinburgh); Frank Merlino, Principal, and Sascha Ceferin, Vice-Principal, of the Victorian School of Languages. Thanks go to the Journal of AsianPacific Communication for letting me use material also published there. A great debt goes to the many Australians who have so generously given their time and supplied information. I must single out Michael Clyne, Lesleyanne Hawthorne from the now defunct Bureau of Immigration, Multiculturalism and Population Research (BIMPR). George Smolicz and Ian Malcolm have done much to help me to access material. Thanks go to my student assistants in Berlin, especially to Juliane Thiessen, Inke Sieloff, and Astrid Segui von Enzberg, and those at Monash University. My friends Wolfgang Thiele, former professor of linguistics at the University of Leipzig, Michael Clyne and Brian Taylor have read earlier drafts.

Table of Contents Acknowledgements

vii

List of Illustrations

xi

Notational Conventions Introduction

xiii 1

Chapter 1

Australia's non-English language habitats

3

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

9

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4

2.5

The traditional language habitat The typology and structure of indigenous languages The social history of contact Linguistic responses to contact 2.4.1 Language maintenance and loss 2.4.2 Modification 2.4.3 Contact languages 2.4.4 Aboriginal English The modern language habitat

Chapter 3 3.1 3.2

3.3

Languages of Australians of non-Anglophone background 155

The social history of migrant language diversity Linguistic responses to contact 3.2.1 Language maintenance and loss 3.2.2 Modification of Languages Other Than English 3.2.3 English proficiency 3.2.4 Contact languages The migrant language repertoire

Chapter 4 4.1

Language politics and education

The path to a national language policy From laisser-faire diversity to a return to English From community-based to polarized policies 4.2 Acquisition and communication planning 4.2.1 The teaching of English 4.2.2 The teaching of indigenous languages 4.2.3 The teaching of migrant LOTEs 4.1.1 4.1.2

10 22 37 54 55 68 74 110 144

157 161 162 194 201 206 214 217 219 220 225 232 234 246 255

χ

Table of Contents

4.3

Success or failure of Australia's language policies?

Chapter 5

Transforming Australia's languages habitat

267 273

References

285

Name Index

319

Subject Index

326

List of Illustrations List of Tables Table 2-1. Avoidance and everyday style in Dyirbal Table 2-2. The language groups at Lake Tyers (1902-08) Table 2-3. Language maintenance in indigenous Australia Table 2-4. Loans due to contact with the Macassars Table 2-5. Formative inputs into Australian and Pacific pidgins Table 2-6. Kriol consonants Table 2-7. Kriol vowels Table 2-8. Kriol verb phrase Table 2-9. Variable features of Torres Strait creole Table 2-10. Determiner and reference variation in AborE Table 2-11. Tense and aspect in Aboriginal children Table 2-12. English words with distinct AborE meanings Table 2-13. Most frequent schémas in urban and rural areas Table 3-1. Sydney and Melbourne in 1976 and 2001 Table 3-2. Language shift by generation and places of birth Table 3-3. Language shift by period of residence Table 3-4. Language shift by marriage, 1976-2001 Table 3-5. Gender and language shift: male/female difference Table 3-6. The place of LOTEs in communities' value systems Table 3-7. Lexical borrowing in domains and registers Table 3-8. English Proficiency retention Table 4-1. Lo Bianco's (1987) and Dawkins' (1991) policies Table 4-2. Rankorders of LOTEs from 1991 to 2000

36 52 58 70 85 100 101 103 109 127 128 131 134 170 172 176 177 178 188 198 204 227 260

List of Diagrams Diagram 1-1. Stages of language development in a new habitat Diagram 1-2. The Englishes of Australia Diagram 2-1. Yolqu language and dialects Diagram 2-2. Amended description of contact outcomes Diagram 2-3. Australia's pidgins and the wider South Pacific Diagram 2-4. Queensland's inland pidgins and interactions outside Diagram 2-5. Origin theories about AborE Diagram 2-6. Consonant substitutions in history of AborE

5 6 20 76 92 93 113 139

xii

List of

Illustrations

Diagram 2-7. The Aboriginal language repertoire today Diagram 3-1. Languages above 70,000 speakers Diagram 3-2. Languages between 30,000 and 70,000 speakers Diagram 3-3. Asian languages between 1986 and 2001 Diagram 3-4. NSW: LOTEs with a total above 70,000 speakers Diagram 3-5. WA: LOTEs with total above 70,000 speakers Diagram 3-6. Victoria: LOTEs with total above 70,000 speakers Diagram 4-1. Selected languages for acquisition planning Diagram 4-2. Types of English for educational purposes Diagram 4-3. Educational language planning issues Diagram 5-1. Stages of language development in a new habitat Diagram 5-2. Shared periods of habitat changes

151 165 166 167 168 168 169 233 234 248 283 284

List of Maps Map 2-1. An area from Tindale's map of language boundaries Map 2-2. Forced resettlement of Aborigines on missions in Victoria Map 2-3. Strong and weak Aboriginal languages Map 2-4. Major pastoral properties in the Roper River region Map 3-1. LOTEs in Australia in 1922

18 50 59 98 160

Notational Conventions Abbreviations ABC AborE ABS AGPS ALLP AmE AMEP AMES AND ASAA ATSIC AusE BrE CSF DIMA DIMIA EFL ELT EngE ENL EP ESL ESP FATSIL HRA LGA LMS LOTE mAusE MES NALSAS NES(B) NLP NSW NT NZE PRC

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (called Commission to the 1950s) Aboriginal English Australian Bureau of Statistics Australian Government Publishing Service Australian Language and Literacy Policy (cf. Dawkins 1991) American English Adult Migrant Education Program Adult Migrant Education Service Australian National Dictionary Asian Studies Association of Australia Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Australian English (see also mAusE) British English Curriculum and Standards Frameworks Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Department of Immigration, Multiculturalism and Indigenous Affairs English as a foreign language English Language Teaching English English English as a native language English Proficiency (countries, classification) English as a second language English for special purposes Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages Historical Records of Australia Local Government Area London Missionary Society Language other than English mainstream Australian English (see also AusE) Main English-Speaking (country) National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools taskforce Non-English-Speaking (Background) National Policy on Languages (c. Lo Bianco 1987) News South Wales Northern Territory New Zealand English People's Republic of China

xiv

Notational Conventions

Qld. SA SBS SSABSA Tas. Vic. VSL WA

Queensland South Australia Special Broadcasting Service Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia Tasmania Victoria Victorian School of Languages Western Australia

Use of terminology Aboriginal, Aborigine, indigenous Australians: used fairly indistinctly; at times Torres Strait Islanders are separated out. Koori is used rarely and only with reference to Aborigines in the South East of Australia Settlers, free settlers, invaders, convicts are used variously and mainly with what they would be taken to mean literally. Invaders is used intentionally with an ideological bias with reference to diagram 1-1 or else to reflect what some indigenous Australians say about white Australians at the early period Migrants, immigrants are generic terms to refer to non-Aboriginal Australians who came at various periods of Australia. Descendents of migrants in the second, third or later generation are described in precise terms. Australian English (AusE) and mainstream Australian English (mAusE) are explained more fully in Leitner (2004b). On a contemporary level, AusE is an umbrella term for all varieties of English in Australia. On a historical level, AusE precedes mAusE, which emerged towards the middle of the 19th century an acquired some level of community status towards the end and gradually became the national language.

Sources of examples Sources are regularly given. Where they cannot be deciphered easily, they will come from my own corpus of languages in Australia.

Introduction Australians enjoy a meal out on the streets where Italian restaurants border the Thai, Malaysian, Greek, Vietnamese or the traditional Australian fish café. Restaurants and fast food courts in the basements of office towers, in arcades or shopping malls and food-serving pubs prosper in the cities and larger country towns. At lunchtime they are overcrowded, and at the end of an office day they are venues for socializing. "Thirty years ago", nearly everybody would tell you, "it was traditional English food that was popular". Today, Asian foods have ousted the archetypical English meal in popularity, and modern menus require multilingual competence, several foreign language dictionaries, or constant exposure. Here is an example: Linguini [Italian] with spinach, garlic and olive oil Szechuan beef dumplings, mango-cucumber [Chinese] salad, rocket, garlicginger dressing Curried vegetable laksa [Malay], buckwheat noodles, cucumber, tomato Tea-smoked Tasmanian salmon, fennel and cress salad, spice pistachios [Italian] Thai fish cakes with chrysamthenum greens, pear, coriander-peanut pesto [Italian] Spice-tubbed Tuna, skordalia [Greek], eggplant, daikon [Japanese], limeginger condiment

A massive change in a short time! A change in lifestyle, in the exposure to and the readiness to accept 'foreignisms'. Even the most recalcitrant Aussies are willing to articulate their pride in the multicultural, multilingual, multi-whatever flavour in their daily life. Migrants get what they might be missing otherwise and feel an integral part of society. They can ignore rightwing politicians who have been known to denounce citizenship ceremonies as 'dewogging ceremonies'. Today's Australia is one of the most multilingual countries in the world, with well over 200 'Languages Other Than English'. These languages are used in a variety of contexts by over two million Australians today. Migrants of non-English-speaking backgrounds take pride in 'their' languages, which for them may be indispensable tools in their daily lives or signal past, but not lost, identities. The 'older' migrant communities, which have experienced the near loss of their languages, are trying to restore them to a higher level of use as a symbol of their place in the mosaic of languages and the diverse, multicultural texture

2

Introduction

of the country. Indigenous languages are a special case. Many have been lost, others have suffered severe degrees of reduction, few are used as full languages. A few have been restored, reconstructed even. Officially, they are a constitutive part of Australia's heritage, giving depth to the Antipodes' short 'white' history and symbolizing Aboriginality, the deeply felt association of indigenous people with the 'land' and their past identities. The average Australian or outside observer will barely notice them. Bader (2002) is an excellent collection of articles that take a pluridisciplinary view of Australia in the past and present. What about English? There is the Aussie lingo, of course, but it is the much fuller mainstream Australian English that is the dominant variety and has become Australia's national language. mAusE does not exhaust the range of Englishes, of course. There is the English of indigenous people, the English of first generation migrants, that of the second generation, and the English as a lingua franca in the public arena, the workplace, in church and elsewhere. There are the pidgins and creóles, which have merged features of English with those of indigenous or migrant languages. Not surprisingly, language schools employ not only "native" Australian, New Zealand and British teachers but also those from Russia, Vietnam or the Lebanon. "We need to reflect the reality of English here", the schools say without feeling a need to justify that mainstream Australian English would not be enough by itself. Who would argue against this sense of realism? This book deals with those other voices of Australia that complement mAusE (Leitner 2004b). Seeing them as embedded in Australia's habitat of languages, it describes the changes they have undergone and, in the case of contact languages, the socio-historical reasons for their emergence. More than that, this book develops a systematic and integrative approach to their social history and their main features and identifies the sources of change. That approach is also based on the belief that a lot in Australia's history since 1788 is shared - with indigenous and immigrant Australians. A good deal of that shared history was very brutal and has been compared with Germany's holocaust. Reconciliation has been a major issue for many years now, unachieved as yet, but still on the agenda. Those controversial aspects are a matter for historians to evaluate and for Australians to resolve. For me, it is a matter of highlighting that part of the social history that all communities share - as agents, victims or observers - and that has had linguistic consequences. Based on this perspective, this book contains essential data on Australia's people and the history of contact. It argues that Australia's other voices, too, may be understood in terms of the history and transformation of its language habitats.

Chapter 1 Australia's non-English language habitats From its early Aboriginal history to the present time, Australia has been a host to many languages. Clyne and Kipp depict the role of Australia as a country of diversity.... A history of indigenous culture spanning 40,000 years has been overlaid in the last two centuries with cultures from Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East, and the bearers of these cultures have brought with them, in addition to their food, their festivals and many other traditions, a multiplicity of languages. (1999: 1)

One might add Africa, which has become an important new source of migrants.1 A closer look at the history of pluralism reveals a long period of harmony and stability that characterized Australia's indigenous past and a comparatively short, but decisive, period of punctuation, to use a term from Dixon (2002), or of instability and conflict, a period with opposing views on how to respond to diversity. Is that period re-settling into a new period of plurilingual stability? The implications of this question will have to be borne in mind as this study unfolds. Linguistic diversity is due, Clyne and Kipp suggest, to two language types, i.e. the indigenous and the migrant Languages-Other-Than-English. Little is known about how communication during pre-colonial times was ensured. Was it through the widespread use of multilingual skills or were there contact languages, lingue franche even? The existence of such contact languages after colonization has been well described, and it is best to add them as a third type to the list of language types that have developed in the course of Australia's history. Since I will not focus on the texture and social or stylistic stratification of the English of the mainstream society, it may be best to sum up some aspects of its history and of its features that are necessary to an understanding of those other languages. At the beginning of colonialism English was no more than a set of transplanted dialects that invaded the indigenous habitat. It slowly became a fully-fledged variety of English, an epi-centre of the English worldwide. 1

Jupp (1988) is a comprehensive study of immigration and the composition of the population (cf. also Leitner 2004b; Chapter Two).

4

Chapter 1

Australia's non-English language habitats

The path that these transplanted dialects have taken is described in detail in Leitner (2004b) where I have identified the agents that have contributed to shifts in its perception, expanded its functions and indeed have promoted specific sets of expressions that could 'stand for' or symbolically represent a standard or educated form of the language. But as an invading language, that English has drastically recast the inherited texture of the former habitats. Old patterns of multilingualism have been changed irrevocably and the functions and status of non-English languages been restricted. The rise of contact languages has been referred to earlier. Though most of them have disappeared again as English has been making ever stronger inroads, some have survived and are now very strong indigenous languages. Finally, all languages have undergone pervasive changes in status through an intensive and novel contact scenario. The old habitat was non-hierarchical, the current one is not. English is at the top, the yardstick for all other languages. All LOTEs are now subject to the pervasive linguistic, sociolinguistic and socio-psychological influences of mAusE. There are signs that mAusE is reaching out and trying to be seen favourably in the AsianPacific region. And attempts at re-defining English as an Asian language, the interest in re-positioning Australia in the region and the antipathy towards the USA might eventually strengthen its status in the region. This scenario must be borne in mind as I look at Australia's non-English languages. Diagram 1-1 on the next page charts the types of responses and outcomes to the contact situation that have characterized Australia since the invasion of English. I must elaborate somewhat on the situation at that time (cf. Leitner 2002b; 2004b). Indigenous languages are the native or first languages and constitute the baseline for an evaluation of all changes. One has to have a modicum of knowledge of this small, diverse language group, the social history of contact, its demographic base and traditional and present speech communities (Chapter Two). The survey of non-English migrant languages in Chapter Three will follow much the same course and address the same issues. There will be differences, though. There is no single language type that could be referred to as 'migrant language', and individual languages will only be relevant as I turn to the ways they have been being modified as a result of contact. The social history of contact with particular language communities will be brought up only on occasion for illustrative purposes. The study of the influence of English, of language maintenance and shift will reveal what is common to these communities in the Australian context. To bring out some of the patterns that differentiate migrant communities, I will highlight the older German, Italian, etc., communities and contrast them with the more recent Asian ones.

Chapter 1

Australia's non-English language habitats

INVASION O F AN EXISTING INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE HABITAT HABITAT AT by a LANGUAGE [aVformal system or as a social codep MOMENT OF INVASION 2

[NON-TRANSPLANTED LANGUAGE]

6

Ν

I N D I G E N O U S LANG.s MAUSE MIGRANT LANG.S INDGIG. CONTACT LANG.S MIGRANT ETHNIC VARIETIES^ INFL. FROM/TO OUTSIDE

Diagram 1-1. Stages of language development in a new habitat

5

6

Chapter 1 Australia's non-English language habitats

As to migrant LOTEs, I will focus on late 20th century since that period is of greater relevance to language politics. The 19th century is important symbolically, though, since it helped create a public community memory of the past and has guided decisions on the selection of a particular LOTE that had had a strong position in some region at that time. Pluralist policies have thus been made widely acceptable and taken a particular direction. Chapter Four below will turn to the interplay of all languages at the level of social, economic, foreign or educational policies. It will be based on the concept of Australian English (AusE), an umbrella term that refers to all varieties of English on the Antipodes. Diagram 1-2 below identifies those varieties that have emerged in the course of history among the three segments of Australia's population, viz. those of Anglophone, indigenous and non-Anglophone background. Taylor (2003) discusses the Englishes present in the Sydney of the middle of the 19th century. Chapter Four will be more than look at the political role of English; it will explore the political role of indigenous and migrant LOTEs, that of the developed indigenous contact languages. It will look at the implications in the public arena, in education, broadcasting and the social services. To arrive at a deeper, socio-political analysis, I will have to include the pervasive changes in Australia's self-perception, the shifts between pronounced monolingual and Anglophone views and those that emphasize multiculturalism or 'diversity'. 1

(VARIETIES OF) ENGLISH (TRANSPLANTED) OUTSIDE INFLUENCE

'·. \ early pidgins, \ ''-Norfolk (< Pitkern), ·. Cape.Barren English \ A AusE (via implantation)·. \ \ .

4a

^ 4b

Diagram

lingua franca English

? ethnic varieties of English (today)

1-2. The Englishes of Australia

AborE

Kriol T. Strait creole

Chapter 1

Australia's non-English language habitats

7

Chapter Five will re-integrate the social and language dimens-ions and raise challenging questions about whether it is possible to identify periods in the process of habitat transformation that can be related to the development of Australia as a nation. Is it possible or conceivable that the language side correlates with broad and often controversial socio-political changes that affect a nation's future? I will touch upon the question of a future balance of the language situation 'down under'. There are two background questions that readers should keep in the back of their minds (Leitner 2004b). The one is What happens when people of diverse language backgrounds are forced into contact and interaction?'; the other is "What is specific to Australia in such a situation'? They will tentatively be answered in some detail at the end of this investigation. In attempting to answer them, I will show that the developments that have affected all language types, indeed all languages, must be approached from an integrative - not, as is so common in research from an isolationist angle. I will also show that there are, and have always been, local and global (or external) factors that have shaped the direction that the changes have taken on the Antipodes. Neither a local and isolationist, nor a non-integrative and compartmentalized view is adequate to account for the transformation of Australia's language habitat. I will ask at the end of this investigation if there is evidence to show that Australia is settling down to a new stable and pluralist habitat. The book's readability will be enhanced with partly annotated indexes of proper names, key words and languages, and a comprehensive bibliography. Readers who desire more information are advised to turn to the research data base in Leitner/Taylor/Fritz (forthc. 2005) which contains a full list of publications from 1788-2003 and can be accessed from a range of perspectives. The level of linguistic or other background required to follow the argument will be kept manageable; if detailed information is called for, it will be included in an accessible style. Australia's Many Voices will benefit readers in a wide range of disciplines: Australian Studies, descriptive and applied ling-uistics are the central ones. But I have also had in mind students and ex-perts that have different backgrounds and would approach Australia from angles of their own. I might mention the philological disciplines of English, German, Italian and of Asian languages, who might wish to take a sociolinguistic or contrastive angle. I should mention contact linguistics, bilingualism, psycholinguistics and, importantly, those in the field of educational linguistics and language planning and politics. The book will interest social and political scientists who look at the ability of language to create social cohesion or conflict. Social psychologists will find inform-ation on the role of language(s) in forming

8

Chapter 1

Australia's non-English language habitats

and maintaining individual or group identities, on the acceptance of standardization and codification, and on the role of teaching methods in the educational sector. For these diverse disciplines this second volume entitled Australia's Many Voices with its lengthy subtitle aims to provide a comprehensive account of Australia's language scenario.

Chapter 2 Language habitats of Indigenous Australians 'Have you ever spoken to an Aborigine?', I asked three young German tourists during a tour through Kakadu Park, east of Darwin. 'No', they replied, 'the tourist guide is the first one. But we have seen them in the cities, most of them alcoholics, down-and-outs.' Would you be afraid to meet Aborigines?', I continued. 'No, well, a bit, really', the young women said. They had a negative impression of Aborigines, but the black guide was able to capture the tourists' curiosity and encourage questions, and he was serious in his answers. We got insider information that others who 'only' had a whitefella guide envied us for. When I was invited to attend a meeting of Kooris near Echuca, a country town on the Murray River in northern Victoria, in spring 1996,1 saw something different: There he was, the tall white Aborigine with a tartan outfit, obviously of part-Scottish descent. I hoped to speak to Aborigines about language issues. My request was discussed formally at a gathering, the 'men's business'. It was thought that the elders should take the decision on behalf of the community. My request was turned down, they would not speak to me as a group. Frustrated at the time, I realized I had got glimpses of the complexity of indigenous Australians, of the ways communal decisions are reached, of the difficulty of speaking as a group, of the diversity of descent, cultural and linguistic practices. I sensed the difficulties of intercultural communication. Today the situation would be less complicated. I have begun with these episodes because the cultural difference between the writer and the people whose languages I am writing about is so much greater than anywhere else in the book. I hope to adopt a perspective that is precise and unravels the nature of the difficulties so that readers will comprehend and those familiar with this marginalized community find it an adequate account of the specific aspects of the language scenario that comes out of the general picture in diagram 1-1.1 will address these topics: (1) The pre-colonial and the traditional indigenous language situation of today (2) The social history of contact after European settlement (3) The linguistic consequences of contact (4) The new language habitat

10

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

The pre-colonial language situation was marked by a large number of languages that constituted a language areal, an intricate network that linked language, the land and the people, and extensive multilingualism. Question (1) looks at the background in the pre-colonial period. Question (2) turns to those aspects of the social history of contact that account for what has been lost and what has been retained. The third question highlights linguistic aspects of contact and especially of contact languages such as Kriol, Torres Strait creole, and Aboriginal English. The final question closes the circle by focussing on the current situation, emphasizing that there is, after all, continuity, breaks and uncertainties.

2.1

The traditional language habitat

Most indigenous languages have disappeared; some 100 have survived, and only few seem to have a secure future. Since 1996 pPopulation censuses have included questions on 46 languages and have revealed a continuous, if slow, recovery in the use of some languages. But that does not point to a significant change in the future. Looking back, the largescale losses make it impossible to reconstruct the original habitat, and I can do no more than try to survey those properties of the languages and the habitat that will be of relevance to later sections. Arthur Phillip had noted that the Aborigines the invaders came in touch with around the Hawkesbury River, north-east of Sydney, had front teeth which were removed in most other tribes. He inferred from this and other observations that there is good reason to believe several different languages are spoken by the natives of this country, and this accounts well for only one or two of those words given in Captain Cook's vocabulary having ever been heard amongst the natives who visited the settlement, (fr. Troy 1993b: 10)

Dharuk or, as it is also called, Iona, the language in the Sydney region, extended westward from an area between Botany Bay and Broken Bay in the north and had two dialects.2 Other languages were spoken further north and south. In light of observations such as Phillip's, it is more than a 2

Cf. Capell (1969) and Walsh (1993a) for a somewhat different account that is discussed in Troy (1993: 17f). There are many accessible books on Aboriginal languages or language regions (e.g. http://www.dnathan.com/VL/ austLang.htm and links. Sutton (2003) came to my attention too late to be included.

2.1 The traditional language habitat

11

mystery that a belief could be entertained till today that there was only one Aboriginal language, says Dixon: There are a number of rampant misconceptions about the Aboriginal languages of Australia. That there was just one language over the whole continent (perhaps with a number of 'dialects')· That Aborigines have a small vocabulary. That they only have words with a very specific meaning, no general terms. That they have no grammar. All of these ideas are totally untrue. (1993: 72) Early observers did not comprehend or describe the situation adequately. And as it was destroyed so quickly, much knowledge has been lost. A particular facet of the complexity of the situation was that languages were connected by chains of relationships that made them more alike the closer they were located and more unlike the further apart they were. Boundaries were hard to find and were often defined by missionaries, as was common practice elsewhere (Mühlhäusler 1996a). One was not interested in the way languages had shaped the land. One did not ask if indigenous languages constituted a single type and if they were distinct from other known types. Did they derive from a single proto-language that was linked to languages outside Australia? These and other questions had to wait to be explored. There is an inseparable tie between the land and language, which is one of the most puzzling features. Languages are said to belong to the land, which itself is entrusted to a group of people who are given the language. Languages are owned, they can be reclaimed, as one of my interviewees remarked. Aborigines, in fact, have had to reclaim languages, as they had been taken away by the colonizers and stored in museums - which is quite an incomprehensible metaphor for the outsider. There has been a heated debate about what language ownership implies and what rights on language have to be respected. Lowe, for instance, argued that the community is the store from which the language originates, and it alone must provide the focus and purpose for its revitalization and use ... As communities and schools work towards the development of long-term programs, the issue of ownership and use of language materials becomes highly contentious among many Aboriginal communities. This debate cannot be seen in isolation or out of the context of the larger debate on the intellectual property and moral rights of Indigenous communities to their arts, culture and languages. (2002: 2) Ownership includes such rights as deciding whether outsiders can learn a language, a right that becomes comprehensible if one takes into account

12

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

that languages are repositories of a people's knowledge, of the land, the stories about the origins of sites, the way the land was given its language, and how the language and the land were handed down to the clans who own them. To illustrate that, I will narrate an episode. At a film preview, the producer, Richard Franklin, interrupted his presentation and said that an elder of the tribe in whose land the film was shot had to continue. One had to use the language of the land and say things he did not have a right to say. Such links, which do exist elsewhere in the world, seem particularly intense in Aboriginal Australia, as these quotations show: Most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would agree that language is an integral part of our identity, and that language is the expression of our unique relationship with the land and the cultural practices that have been handed down.... (Jennie Bell, fr. SSABSA 1996c: 25) When Indigenous Australians meet they usually establish each other's identity by asking, 'who is your mob?' (meaning 'who is your clan group?') .... Establishing someone's clan and family means that the questioner knows which area of land, or country, the person belongs to; that is where their spirituality lies, and what language group they belong to. Identification is through family, land, language, and spirituality, (emph. mine; Eve Fesl, fr. SSABSA 1996c: 25) Fesl (2002) is a useful discussion of the relationship of language and the land. It plays a key role in debates about the position of Aborigines in society. Senator Ridgeway, the deputy leader of the Democratic Party, for instance, had argued in an interview with The Fatsil Newsletter (2001) that the original language of a land holds the stories, the key to identity and belonging to the land. It's the stories themselves that play a large part in the way we pass on values and customs from one generation to the next... It's very much about how you make languages living within the lives of every indigenous person, both the elders and the young people. If we expect that our values and the ideals we identify with will survive in the future, then it comes down to all of us doing what we can to make sure the stories and the language are passed on. (2001: 3) The desire to preserve Aboriginal values constitutes a powerful motif to support campaigns for language revival or revitalization, says SSABSA: Indigenous peoples know how many languages are in their region, and where these languages belong, because they know the origins of their

2.1 The traditional language habitat

13

languages. For example, the Y O I Q U people of north-eastern Arnhem Land owe their languages to the Djan'kawi sisters, Yolgu ancestral beings who also gave form to the land. When the sisters travelled across the land from east to west, they drove their digging sticks into the land at different places. Every time they put their digging sticks into the land, water came out. The water represents Yolgu knowledge, languages, songs, and law. Each time the Djan'kawi sisters spoke, they changed their languages as they crossed from one territory to another. This is how the different languages came about. (1996c: 41) Lowe believes that "the desire to revive language is a political act" (2002: 7) in the context of the widespread disillusionment that followed the Mabo judgement in 1992. Aboriginal spirituality originates in Dreamtime and is crystallized in creation stories, most of which are inaccessible to outsiders who have no right to know. "In the Dreamtime," tells an Aranda story, "the Australian desert was silent and unpeopled. One day the Numbakulla brothers, who lived in the western sky, looked out and saw the Inapatua, an embryonic people who could not see, hear or move, crouched under some boulders. The Numbakulla brothers took their knives and fashioned the Inapatua into people. These were the ancestors of the Aranda tribe" (Camm and McQuilton 1987: 136). There are similar stories all over Australia, Harris explains: During the long history of the northern coastal and hinterland regions of what is now the Northern Territory, a large number of distinct languages emerged. This is the basis of a number of Aboriginal legends which seek to explain language diversity. According to one of these Aboriginal legends, the Earth Mother simultaneously created people and their languages and allocated each a specific place. (1986: 70) Spencer (1914), who is attributed with the first reference to such stories, recounts a Kakadu legend from east of Darwin. As the Imberombera spirit travelled throughout ancestral lands, he sent out various spirit children to inhabit different parts of the country and told them to speak different languages in the parts of the country they were to inhabit. The land called Jawoyn around Katherine Gorge, south of Darwin (cf. map 2-4 below), was so called "because it is the region in which that language was directly installed or 'planted' in the landscape by Nabilili 'Crocodile', a dreamtime creator figure who moved up the Katherine River, establishing sites and leaving names for them in the Jawoyn language" (Rumsey 1993: 200). Put differently, the association between the land and the language was estab-

14

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

lished independently of the people, who were placed there and who adopted the language of the land. Multilingualism was a given, a part of the condition de vivre, and not, as in Christian thinking, a curse with which God had punished human beings for their vanity: "Now the whole earth", says Genesis 11,1, "had one language and the same words when people migrated from the east into Babylonia, where they decided to build the city of Babylon to make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11,4). Genesis continues: The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, 'Look, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech.1 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city. Therefore, it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the languages of all the earth.... (Genesis 11, 5-9) 3

There, too, emerged a connection between land and language as tribes who spoke the same tongue settled together. But the theological and philosophical thought of Aborigines and Judaeo-Christians will have influenced the respective attitudes to multilingualism. Without wishing to trace European political thinking to Judaeo-Christianism or to imply that this was the sole or major drive, multilingualism tended to be seen as a negative factor in European nation-states. That was not so in Aboriginal Australia. But there is evidence that the adherence to the language of the land was not the only option. Dixon (1991) recounts the story of early visitors to the Cairns region where Gunggay was spoken. According to the story, people from the northern Yidinyji region came to see if they could settle there: One of the explorers was named Gulmbira. He travelled around the country... [Then] he ecountered the Gunggayji people, who spoke a strange language. They could not understand Yidiny. 'Alas,' Gumbira said, 'when I die these people won't be able to mourn for me in the Yidiny language'. The advance party returned and brought more Yidinyji people, to settle in this good country. 'One day,' they told the Gungganyji, 'you'll forget your own language and you'll speak nothing but Yidinyi.' (1991: 5f)

3

Genesis 10, 31-32 refers to the fact that the sons of Sem and their clans spoke different languages (fr. The Complete Parallel Bible 1993).

2.1

The traditional language habitat

15

They took Gungganyji people with them who shifted to Yidiny. Dixon says that "the Yidinyji could have moved in, become the dominant tribe, and their language would have been adopted by the Gungganyji. YidinyGunggay is quite different, in significant ways, from Dyirbal ... Today, Gunggay differs in only about twenty percent of its vocabulary from Yidiny; it is a dialect of Yidiny" (1991: 6). While linguistic similarities across non-adjacent areas may thus find a mythological explanation, the possibility of language shift cannot be ruled out altogether. Blake (1991: 43) refers to "simplified or pidgin forms of language", which may be an apposite description of situations that may not have been uncommon. How the languages came to Australia and how they spread are questions that have intrigued experts and laypeople alike. There are essentially two hypotheses, and both refer to migrations from outside. As long-distance voyages were not possible without appropriate sea-faring vessels, the first one maintains that migrations occurred when sea levels were low enough to permit medium distance voyages between Indonesia or Papua New Guinea and northern Australia. That was the case twice between 70,000 years B.C. and 40,000 years B.C. There may have been two waves of migration and hence two distinct languages that would have been imported. In the absence of decisive archeological evidence, theories about diffusion, too, cannot but be speculative. Birdsell, for instance, related the amount of rainfall and fertility to population growth, maintaining the growth would have been so fast as not to sustain the population. Tribes would then have expanded outward. Within 2,200 years the whole continent could have been settled from a northern starting point (Camm and McQuilton 1987: 136f). But the theory assumes that the climate had remained constant and presupposes technological innovations for people to survive in arid land - neither of which can be assumed without material evidence. Instead of fast, continuous outward pushes, periods of stability may have alternated with periods of expansion and contraction.4 Moreover, the starting point cannot have been inland. Tindale and Bowdler, therefore, argued that migration began in the fertile coastal areas with people moving up and down and around the continent before going inland. If European colonization is a parallel, one would assume inland migration could have occurred early in fertile areas. Curiosity on how far one might go has not been discussed as a factor in migration, but it is close to a third theory that holds that migration 4

Another centrifugal diffusion theory was developed by McCarthy (1939; 1953) (cf. Berndt and Berndt 1996: 16). Incidentally, the theory of pulsating movements may be related to Dixon's (1997) punctuated equilibrium theory.

16

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

was through the main woodlands, creating zigzag lines from west to east, then to the south-west (cf. Rumsey 1993; Berndt and Berndt 1996). If these theories are speculative, so are the inferences on the origin, development and distribution of languages. It is not known if Aborigines brought with them a single proto-language, related dialects or distinct languages. Distinct languages did, at any rate, develop as people were spreading and distinct groups emerged. The family-tree metaphor of language diversification, which is well-known from European contexts, is not appropriate and cannot explain the diffusion via migration and the assimilation as a result of local interaction. Instead of arguing for immigration from south-east Asia, another theory holds there were invasions from Papua New Guinea, which was linked to Australia till about 10,000 years ago. The languages imported from there may have supplanted earlier language scenarios. In the face of such uncertainty, there is one thing that is certain, i.e. that there was extensive divergence, convergence and shift. Barry maintains that it seems to me unlikely that Australia was settled by one group of people speaking one language. Until the end of the last Ice Age Australia must have been fairly accessible to people from the north. Australia was joined to New Guinea as recently as 10,000 years ago and up till then so much more land was exposed around Indonesia that voyages south would not have involved very long journeys by sea. (1991: 59).

It follows that the characteristic high levels of linguistic and cultural similarity may partly have been the result of long periods of contact between peoples of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, while diversity was due to diffusion and localization. There is a solid consensus that there existed around 250 languages, which were linked to social units at the time that Britain invaded the continent (Tindale 1974a). The nature of such units has been a matter of conjecture, though tribes have been seen as relevant, but not the only, ones. But the term is "often used loosely for any group of people living and moving about together", according to Berndt and Berndt (1996: 28). Tribes are said to share a number of characteristics, i.e. (a)

A territory over which it claims certain rights, such as religious practices, hunting or food-gathering, and where it has developed rules or norms of social behaviour, such as marriage patterns, kin relations or rights of speaking, as the creator stories indicate. Such territories were not always exclusive to a tribe.

(b)

A shared perception of a group identity that extends beyond the individual relationships, which may, but need not be, expressed in a

2.1 The traditional language habitat

17

common name. In some cases "there is no overall name, simply local names for many smaller units. Or an overall name may be attached to a number of groups which in fact do not acknowledge that they share a common language", say Berndt and Berndt (1996: 35).5 (c)

A common language or a dialect, which the group acknowledges as its own. Sometimes, though, "it would be more appropriate to speak of dialectal or linguistic units." (Berndt and Berndt 1996: 28).

Despite variation, the similarities in the texture of languages, in communicative norms, and stylistic and linguistic repertoires are greater than expected. And it was that that was all but destroyed in many parts of the continent. A particular loss is the link with the land, say Berndt and Berndt: Even when they [Aboriginal people, GL] leave their own territory, as a result of European contact or the attraction of fringe settlements, the majority of these people do not immediately lose touch with it. They look back to it as their spirit home, and try to return to it now and then for ritual purposes.... Many Aborigines today, even those who are still traditionallyoriented, do not return to the country of their birth; and quite often this is not because they cannot, but because they do not want to do so. It no longer has the same meaning for them. (1996: 37)

Several attempts have been made to reconstruct the original tribal and language areas. Tindale's (1974b) map is still the best, SSABSA maintains: [i]t shows that there are many languages, each linked to a particular territory. It must be interpreted literally - it shows languages where their territories are, not where speakers actually live. Any place on the map may have multilingual communities speaking many languages. (1996c: 46f)

The excerpt on the following page from http://www. samuseum. sa. gov.au/tindale/boundaries/se toprite.htm has unavoidable blurred details. SSABSA believes Tindale's map to be "a useful tool for showing the diversity of languages and their approximate territories" (1996c: 47). But some researchers feel that, instead of mapping discrete areas that tend to suggest discrete geographic boundaries, one should either have blurred boundaries or reconstruct patterns of movement across the land so as to bring out patterns of periodic contact and interaction. Horton (1999) is an excellent map with such blurred lines and is available on the internet. 5

Berndt and Berndt (1996) reject the term nation as it implies a political consciousness that did not exist. Tribal names may also have changed.

18

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

Map 2-1. An area from Tindale's map of language boundaries6 Milliken (1976) produced a map that shows trajectories across land that was shared by several tribes at different periods of time during the year: A very thorough statistical study which was based on data gathered there [northern Northern Territory, GL] in the 1950s (Milliken 1976) showed that most members of most tribes did indeed live within a single identifiable region of the Territory, but that none of these regions was clearly bounded 6

The map is also available in Rumsey (1993: 194).

2.1

The traditional language habitat

19

off from the others. Rather, there was an enormous amount of overlap among them, such that the membership of every 'tribe' was residentially dispersed among that of many others. The degree of dispersal has no doubt increased since European colonisation .... But it would be a mistake to read backwards from this to a situation in which we assume that tribes were sharply bounded residential groups, (fr. Rumsey 1993: 193) I said above that tribes spoke either a language or a dialect, and it is that terminological vagueness that needs to be clarified. What type of social unit would have been the carriers or owners of a language or dialect? Berndt and Berndt argue that tribes were indeed not carriers and had a symbolic function, which manifested itself, e.g., at ceremonial gatherings. They believe that it was local descent groups, clans, sections, and moieties that were the "the really effective social units, and usually the effective political and economic units" (1996: 40) and were associated with specific localities within the tribal territory. Local descent groups are the 'land-holding group' that exercises rights of access. A clan is a group that shares descent with some "putative ancestor or ancestress" (Berndt and Berndt 1996: 41). Most of these terms have been replaced by modern ones such as community, lot or mob. A community normally contains people of different tribes who have come to live together. Lot and mob point to smaller units who identify with a particular place, e.g. 'the Warburton lot'. Incidentally, the word mob was used early. The AND has a 1828 attestation from Hobart Town Courier. As languages were primarily tied to a piece of land, local descent groups would be the effective owners of languages. Rumsey explains that "the relevant relationship to language is not one of speakership, but one which is better glossed as language ownership" (1993: 199). People can be transplanted, languages cannot. Language ownership is tied to these units directly and, via symbolic ties, to a tribe. This connection is best illustrated if one looks at specific areas and SSABSA (1996c: 47) shows how the dialects of Yolr)u are related to one another, cf. diagram 2-1 below. There are maps like Tindale's of particular regions that chart out more exactly the approximate areas of a language. But one must be cautious with attempts to correlate, even hypothetically, traditional scenarios with the current situation. There may be reasonably close similarities in areas marked by prominent topographic features. But Harris follows Milliken when he cautions that "the construct of the dialectal tribe, coterminous with some mappable land-holding group, is inadequate to describe reality" (1986: 71). SSABSA speaks of satellite areas to capture such a situation. Satellite areas are only loosely connected to a tribe's central area.

20

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

Dhay'yi

Dhuwal

Dhuwala

e.g. Djarrwark (D) Dhalwanqu (Y)

e.g. Djambarrpuyqgu (D) Liyagalawumirr (D) Dätiwuy (D) Marranqu (D) Marrakulu (D) Djapu (D)

e.g. Guapuyqu (Y) Gumatji (Y) Maqgalili (D) Wubulkarra (D) Madarrpa (Y)

Dhaqu

Dijan egMurruqun (D) Mildjiqi (Y) Wulagi (Y)

Yolqu Matha

e-g. Golumala (D) Rirratjiqu (D) Gälpu (D) Wangurri (Y)

Nhaqu Djinig e.g. Djinba (D) Ganalbiqu (Y)

eg· Golpa Walamaqu (Y) Bararrqu (D) Yanhaqu(D) Gorryindi (D)

Djaqu eg· Warramiri (Y) Mandata (Y)

Diagram 2-1. Yolqu language and dialects

I have said earlier in this section that intensive local interaction patterns may have made dialects of different languages more similar to one another and loosened the connection with the real parent language. Given time, communication with speakers of neighbouring dialects of different languages may have become easier than with those of non-adjacent dialects of the same language. If one follows Berndt and Berndt, "it would, perhaps, have been possible to go right across Australia from one language unit to another, using each as a jumping-off point for the next. For one thing, there is often some kind of transition from one language to another, or some common basis against which differences can be understood...." (1996: 38). Massola's (1970) study of the role missions played in Victoria is a good illustration of that situation and the following passage from a report on the Yelta mission of the Church of England in 1859 is very instructive: As there are between Yelta and Swan Hill six different tribes, each speaking a different language, and only the two nearest Yelta being able to

2.1 The traditional language habitat

21

understand Marowra (the language of the Yelta blacks) I find it all but impossible to make them understand my meaning when I speak to them on religious subjects. (1997: 17) I find the same language (Marowra) is spoken by all the tribes (on the Darling, as far as Mt Murchison). I understand from the blacks that the Marowra language is spoken near Fort Bourke, 200 miles higher up the river, where it changes to the Kamilaroi. (1997: 17) As people were entrusted with a language, they identified with it, but they were brought up learning other languages actively, and had, at least, a passive competence in others. Such a type of multilingualism did not establish a social hierarchy, no-one 'had an edge over' others if they could speak more languages. Today Aborignal Australians are proud of being multilingual or sad if they are not. I quote Snooky Varcoe: I was born in Point Pearce in the heart of Nunga country [i.e. South Australia, GL]. My father was a Narrunga man, and my mother was a Ngarrindjeri woman who came from Raukkan, Point McLeay. I grew up on Point Pearce identifying with the Ngarrindjeri language, speaking Ngarrindjeri in the heart of another language country. I know quite a few Narrunga words, being grown up in that situation, but still relate to Ngarrindjeri people, (fr. SSABSA 1996c: 31) Ngalawur Munuqurr tells this story: My language is Djapu, it's my father's language. My mother's language is Gumatji. My mother's mother's language is Gälpu. My mother's grandmother's language is Dhal'waqu. Rirratjiqu were the women who delivered me. Birany Birany is my mother's land. The people who own the land there speak Gumatji. Gumatji men who belong to that land, their children speak Gumatji, and their mothers speak Djapu. So there is some Dajpu spoken there as well. If I am speaking to my mother, I speak in my own tongue. If I am speaking to another Djapu person, I speak Djapu. (fr. SSABSA 1996c: 32) That describes common patterns of language choice. Harkins points to a very similar pattern in Alice Springs; there the basic rule is to speak one's own language and to modify one's speech if the need arises: If speaking to an older person who understands one's own language but is from another language group, one should speak one's own language but include occasional words from the other person's language, if one knows

22

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

any, especially place-names, body parts, kin terms, food, particularly bush food, and anything belonging to or offered to the other person. (1994: 20f)

Language choice, code-switching and other strategies are common, purposeful and define relationships beyond ensuring comprehension. Changes in the sociolinguistic texture of communities will be referred to in sections 2.4 and 2.5. But the step we have to take next, is to survey the linguistic and social texture of the languages to see what post-colonial contact has meant to them. 2.2

The typology and structure of indigenous languages

Given what I have said about the origin and diffusion of languages, one will now want to know if they fall into groups or types.7 The hypotheses about settlement and diffusion suggested that there may have been two proto-Australian languages. If one allows for the possibility of incursions from New Guinea, there may have been a third one. But there is no basis for the inference that any one or two or three can be identified in the languages of today or at the time of colonization. Blake suggests that the assumption that Aboriginal languages are genetically related could be wrong to some extent. It is possible that a people whose language contained forms such as ngali ('we two') and other widespread forms such as mara ('hand') and pina ('ear') conquered peoples speaking other languages and imposed their language on the conquered people. (1991: 58)

He adds that "a genetic link between Australia and New Guinea would supersede but not necessarily reflect migrations of 40,000 years ago. It could reflect migrations of a much more recent period" (1991: 66). From a somewhat different perspective, Berndt and Berndt (1996) suggested that diffusion must undoubtedly have been a factor in Aboriginal culture from its very beginnings; but local development must be considered too. And this dual process - things, ideas, practices, being handed on from one group to another, but being changed, modified or elaborated in the course of acceptance - has permeated all aspects of Aboriginal life. (1996: 16f)

7

Accessible studies are Blake (1991), Walsh and Yallop (1993) and Crozet (20002001). Dixon (1980; 1993; 2002), Dixon and Blake (1991) are technical, Troy (1993) is on Dharuk, Harris (1986) and Siegel (2000) about contact languages, Schmidt (1993), Baldauf et al. (ar. 1995) and McKay (1996) on loss.

2.2 The typology and structure of indigenous languages

23

The origin of indigenous languages will never be fully known, but more is known about the way they pattern today. A widely-held theory maintains that there are two language types, i.e. the non-Pama-Nyungan languages in the far north and the Pama-Nyungan ones elsewhere. The view that they derive from a single genetic type was first expressed by George Grey in 1841, and subsequent research has provided some details. Schmidt (1919), for instance, argued that the northern languages were phonologically, lexically and grammatically different from those elsewhere and different from each other, and that they resembled the language chains of New Guinea. Hale (1964), Dixon (1980) and others showed that non-PamaNyungan languages had developed away from Pama-Nyungan ones only recently. Dixon, for instance, has made these points: The names Pama-Nyungan' and 'non-Pama-Nyungan' can be misleading; they could be taken to imply that PN [Pama-Nyungan, GL] languages have something which nonPN tongues lack. In point of fact, so-called nonPN languages have undergone extensive grammatical changes which have altered their typological profiles; PN have not undergone changes on this scale and are certainly typologically closer to ρ A [proto-Australian, GL]. 'Most innovatory' and 'least innovatory' might be better labels, but 'nonPN' and PN' are at present used so widely that we shall retain them. The important point to stress is that the division between PN and nPN is a typological (and areal) one. (1980: 226)

That dichotomy has been challenged recently by Dixon himself (2002: 44-54). He argues that the basis of the dichotomy, i.e. lexico-statistics and a few grammatical features such as the expression of number in pronouns, is untenable and concludes that "'Pama-Nyungan' cannot be supported as a genetic group. Nor is it a useful typological grouping in that it relates to just one typological parameter ... This almost, but not quite, correlates with the parameter of prefixing. It has little or no correlation with other typological parameters" (2002: 53). At the end of his comprehensive study he arrives at what might be called a cluster view of genetic and/or areal subgroups (2002; ch. 14). These are set up on the basis of divergence and/or convergence as a result of either extensive contact or the absence of it. The Yolqgu languages in Cape York, for instance, form a separate type (2002: 54). In other words, there are features common to all languages and rather fewer differences between subgroupings (Dixon 2002). Despite the common origin of all languages, it is not surprising that there emerged a very large number of different ones over the very long period of time. Hale (1964) was the first to attempt to make a count and

24

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

arrived at the consensual figure of some 250 languages and some 250 dialects. That is a large number for very small communities. The numerical estimate is still widely accepted, though Dixon warns that there were probably about 700 distinct political units (...) in Australia before the white invasion. Altogether there were roughly 250 distinct languages, using the linguistic criteria that two forms of speech which are mutually intelligible should be considered dialects of one language. That is, typically a group of contiguous tribes would speak dialects of a common language. (1993: 72)

What, then, are the features common to many languages? I will go from phonology to pragmatics, highlighting features that (i) show the diversity and the relatedness of languages as members of a type, (ii) were transferred into contact languages, or (iii) were lost as a result of contact and replaced by those that are due to the impact of contact (cf. section 2.4.2). All languages have a simple vowel system. According to Blake, "usually there are only three vowels and they are written with the letters i, a and u" (1991: 7). Some languages have five vowels, such as Wik-Mungkan in the Torres Strait. Many languages distinguish long and short vowels, though - like in English - they may not have corresponding pairs of vowels distinguished only by length. Consonant systems are complex (cf. SSABSA 1996c: 104); all languages have stops, affricates, nasals, and laterals in places of articulation similar to English. Most languages have palatalized or affricate consonants such as /ty/ (or /dj/), /ny/ and /ly/; some have dental stops. What is true of the alveolar nasal /n/ is true of laterals, and there are palatalized /ly, ri, lh/. Semi-vowels (/w, j/) are as in English. A property that is markedly different from English is retroflex plosives, such as /rt/ (or /rd/), /rn/ and /ri/. A distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants is made in only a few languages, and consonant clusters do not occur anywhere. In most languages syllables consist of a simple alternation of consonansts and vowels. Word stress is normally on the first syllable, and those syllables that do not carry stress have full vowels; unstressed vowels are, in other words, not reduced as they are in English. Some features are characteristic of individual languages. Gupapuyngu (a dialect of Yolqgu), for instance, has four different stops between the dental and palatal region; it also has bilabial, velar and glottal stops. A few languages have fricatives, i.e. /f, v/, /s, z/, //, 3/. The grammar of all languages, too, is very similar if compared with European languages, and it may be helpful to begin with a few illustrations that will help understand their structures. Dixon says this on their grammar:

2.2 The typology and structure of indigenous languages

25

Australian languages are in fact more similar in their grammatical organisation to the classical languages - Greek, Latin and Sanskrit than to modern languages such as English or French. They have complex systems of conjugation of verbs and of declension of nouns. Most Australian languages have a system of six or seven case inflections, indicating whether a noun is a subject, object, or a possessor (genitive form) or in a function that would have to be marked by prepositions in English - dative case ('for' or 'to'), ablative ('from' or "as a result of) and so on. (1993: 78f)

Calvert (1894), who was one of the better informed early observers of the culture and languages in Western Australia, gave a telling example of how different these languages were from English. Example (1) is transliterated into an Aboriginal language in (2) and translated fully in (3): (1) When we first landed here we wanted to be friendly with you natives. Why were you so angry, why did you spear the white people? We did not want to kill you or hurt you in any way. Why would you not be friends and let us learn your language? ... (2) We at first here came reside we angry not [and so on]; you why us hate? Why you us with no cause speared? We you in anger though not beat [and so on]. You why heart bad? We then your language soon understand correctly... (3) Nganneel ingar-ungar nhalla bart nginnaga, nganneel gurrangbroo ba-broo; etc. The differences can be captured in terms of two word order principles. English, like many other languages, has what is called a constituent-based order, while Latin, Russian or German have an inflection-based one. In constituent-order languages, word order is relatively fixed, in inflectionbased languages it is quite free. In English, for instance, the subject typically precedes the verb, the object follows it. Marked patterns, as in "Here comes the train" (where the subject follows the verb) presuppose special contexts. German word order is freer, as the examples in (4) show: (4)

(a) Der Mann hört die Frau 'The man hears the woman' (typical) (b) Die Frau hört der Mann 'The man hears the woman' (marked) Related to this is a second property. English, German and other languages mark subjects and objects in the same way, irrespective of whether or not the verb or, one might say, the event is transitive or intransitive. As a result, word order and the marking of case in nouns, etc., really amount to a

26

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

double marking of the position of the constituent and its function. In Australian languages, in contrast, this is not so. The subject of an intransitive and the object of a transitive sentence carry the absolutive or ablative case, the subject of the transitive sentence has the ergative case. Dixon refers to this as the ergative system and has examples from Dyirbal (1993: 81): (5)

(6)

(a) Yara baninyu man-ABSOLUTIVE comes subject predicate 'The man comes' baninyu (b) Yibi comes woman-ABSOL. predicate subject 'The woman comes' yara-nggu (a) Yibi man-ERGATIVE woman-ABSOL. object subject 'The man hears the woman' (b) Yara yibi-nggu man-ABSOL. woman-ERGAT. object subject 'The woman hears the man'

ngamban hears predicate ngamban hears predicate

The subject in (5) and the objects in (6) - yara and yibi, respectively are in the absolutive, while the subjects in (5) - yara and yibi - are in the ergative and are marked as agentive (note the suffix -nggu). The word order is free; in (6) there is an OSV order. Not all languages are ergative. Mixed systems occur when grammatical functions are expressed in pronouns. The accusative system is illustrated in the following examples from Guugu Yimidhirr (cf. Yallop 1993: 20f): (7)

(a) ngayu buli I-pronoun-AB SOL. fell down Ί fell down' buli (b) gudaa 'The dog fell down' dog-ABSOL fell down (a)ngayu gudaa nhaadhi (8) I-pronoun-AB SOL. the dog Ί saw the dog' saw nganhi (b)gudaangun nhaadhi 'The dog saw me' the dog-ERGAT. I-ACCUS. Saw The subjects of intransitive and transitive sentences are marked with the absolutive. The target of the action in a transitive sentence, i.e. the object, is in the accusative, while the subject and agent is marked by the ergative.

2.2 The typology and structure of indigenous languages

27

Adverbial relations such as location, direction, belonging or association, are expressed with nominal suffixes as in Watjarri in Western Australia: (9)

Yamatji nhina-manha person sit-present time 'The person is sitting on the rock'

marta -ngka rock-locative ('on')

Guugu Yimidhirr marks location with -bi as in bayanbi 'in the house' and direction 'away from' with ablative -nganh (e.g. bayannganh 'from the house'). SSABSA's (1996c: 166) list of suffixes for 'on' shows typological affiliations, but also the differentiations. Examples on the left are from nonPama-Nyungan languages, the others from Pama-Nyungan ones: ngka ngga nga ga ngka nga

Watjarri, WA ra Ngarinjin, WA Banyjima, WA uj Nunggubuyu, NT Nyangumarti, WA nu Kalaw Lagaw Ya, T. Strait Wemba Wemba, Vic. Pitjantjatjara, SA/NT; Warlpiri, NT Kuku-Yalanji, Qld.

The expression of possession is interesting since its is so different from the English genitive case or periphrastic ¿»/-constructions. Possession is expressed by merely juxtaposing the possessed and the possessor. Thus, 'my dog' is aringka atjinha 'dog my', 'the boy's dog' as aringka awiyikinha 'dog boy('s)' (in the possessive case). A sentence like 'my dog is hungry' is, as one would expect, aringka atjinha ngayakwa 'dog my hungry'. A different pattern is used in what is called inalienable possession - e.g. in my hand, the car's boot. The following examples from Yallop (1993: 22f) show this: (10)

(11)

aringkila awiya dog-ERG boy 'the dog bit the boy's hand' aringkila ayinha dog-ERG me 'the dog bit my hand'

iltja hand

utnhika bit

iltja hand

utnhika bit

In these cases, Yallop says, possession is not marked formally at all but indicated by the juxtaposition of grammatical constituents. You would not, in Alyawarra, 'hold the boy's hand', you would 'hold (the) boy (the) hand'. Yallop argues that Alyawarra really treats inalienable possession, as in 'one's hand', differently from alienable possession as in 'one's car', which is more logically and truer to the real relationships. If someone hits my hand, he says, he hits me; hitting one's car does not imply hitting the possessor. I

28

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

should add, however, that the order of constituents is fixed in these cases, and that Yallop is unclear on what case marking the possessed item has. In equative or relational sentences a verb corresponding to English be is absent, as example (12) from Guugu Yimidhirr shows (Yallop 1993: 21): (12)

(a)yiyi this (b)yugu tree

bayan house munhi black

'this is a house' 'the tree is black'

An interrogative word in 'Yes-No' questions marks the number and gender of the subject. These examples are adapted from Yallop (1993: 24): (13)

(14)

(15)

yanku go-FUTURE 'they will go' yanku go-FUTURE 'will they go? yani go_PAST 'they went'

pa+lu STATEMENT-MARKER+pl. nga+lu QUESTION-MARKER+pl. pa+lu STATEMENT-MARKER+pl.

In w/t-questions, question words are the same as indefinite, affirmative pronouns like who, someone. The pronoun ngana, for instance, means something like 'someone or other, I don't know who' (cf. Yallop 1993: 24): (16)

(17)

ngana pa who(m) ST ATEM, (no number) 'whom did the girl hit?' wanyjurla pa+lu where STATEM.+pl. 'where did they go?'

pinya hit

manga+ngu girl+ERG.

yani went

Given the meaning of ngana, the use of the statement marker pa rather than the question marker nga makes sense and, following semantic theory, one might paraphrase pa as Ί say', followed by the proposition 'someone hit the girl, I don't know who'. Example (16) is, thus, not really a question in the sense that the transliteration into English suggests. It reads something like Ί say: someone (I don't know who) hit the girl', which is more akin to an assertion that a specific kind of knowledge is lacking. Hearers are then 'invited' to fill the knowledge gap, so to speak, if they so wish. Information questions are, in other words, less of an imposition or face-threatening speech act than questions in European languages are. That characteristic is

2.2 The typology and structure of indigenous languages 29 a major source of intercultural miscommunication, especially as it found its way into contact languages and AborE (see sections 2.4.4.3-4). Aboriginal languages have a number of inflectional suffixes attached to verbs that may translate into whole sentences in English or require, metaphorically speaking, a sentence to translate them. The examples below from Murrinh-Patha, a non-Pama-Nyungan language south-west of Darwin and east of Wyndham (Walsh 1993: 3), illustrate various possibilities: (18)

(19)

(20)

(21)

ma-nhi-purl-nu I-you (sg.)-wash-will Ί will wash you' ma-nhi-ma-purl-nu-ngani I-you (sg.)-hand-wash-will-I do habitually Ί will keep on washing your hand' ma-nanku-ma-purl-nu-gani I-you (dual) two (siblings)-hand-wash-will-I do habitually Ί will keep on washing your hand' ma-nanku-ma-purl-nu-ngintha-ngani I-you (dual) two-hand-wash-will-two not being sisters, at least one being female-I do habitually Ί will keep on washing the hands of you two who are not sisters and one or both are female'

A few remarks on pronouns may be useful. Nhi expresses the second person singular 'you' in (18) and (19), nanku in (20) signals the second person plural of siblings (i.e. brothers and/or sisters), and nanku in combination with ngintha in (21) means, according to Walsh, "you two who are not brothes or sisters and one or both are female" (1993: 3). Not all languages are as complex as Murrinh-Patha, but many do make distinctions that are very different from any of the Indo-Aryan languages. Here is a table of Warlpiri personal pronouns (fr. Yallop 1993: 27): (22)

ngaju nyuntu ngali ngajarra nyumpala ngalipa nganimpa

I you you & I we two (excl. you) you two you & I & other(s) we (3+, excl. you)

1st p. sg. 2nd p. sg. 1st p. dual inclusive 1st p. dual exclusive 2nd p. dual 1st p. dual inclusive 1st p. dual exclusive

Second person pronouns can indicate gender and kinship, as in MurrinhPatha. Third person pronouns, Yallop remarks, distinguish number but not gender. Most languages have a singular, dual and plural, or even a trial.

30

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

Pronouns are a good transition point to noun phrases. One observation has already been made, viz. that Aboriginal languages have no articles and that definiteness is normally unexpressed. Most languages derive number from context or indicate it in other ways. Some languages have the suffix -lu, which can, for instance, be attached to an interrogative pronoun marker, as in (14) above. Singular pronouns may distinguish masculine, feminine and neuter gender, and gender may also be marked in noun classes. Bundjalung, for instance, marks nouns as masculine, feminine, arboreal (for trees) and neuter (for anything else). Adjective-noun agreement may signal gender, as in the following examples from Sharpe (1993: 77): (23)

baygal gamaygali 'big man' man big (masc.) (24) dubay gamaynyahgan 'big woman' woman big (fem.) (25) balun gamagay 'big river' river big (neut.) Just like grammar, the lexis of Aboriginal languages, too, was considerd primitive for its alleged lack of general concepts, its small size and inability to make differentiations that were felt to be natural in European languages. Such shortcomings, it was argued, were an obstacle to abstract thinking and proved that Aborigines belonged to an inferior race. On an objective note, Elkin (1969) quoted Lumholz, a scientist, who lived amongst Aborigines for two years, as saying "that their vocabulary was small", but added that he [Lumholz, GL] noticed that, in spite of its poverty, it was rich in words describing phenomena which attract the attention of the savage. He found that each variety of bird, fish, animal, et cetera, had its name, and strange to say, that there were words not only for the animals and plants which the natives themselves used, 'but also for such as they had no use, nor any interest whatsoever.' To his astonishment, he even discovered that his sable helpers were close observers of the starry heavens, and even had names for the planets, distinguishing them by their size. But he was convinced that they were utterly unable to generalize and that they did not have any words for abstract notions. (1969: 3f)

Blake (1991) believed that the average number of words was about 10,000, which is about the number of words an educated European person uses actively. A particularly striking feature is the small number of verbs. Experts, for instance, say that some languages have as few as 30, others somewhat above 100. Limitations in expressability can be circumvented by serial verbs such as verbal-nominal or other complexes, which will be

2.2 The typology and structure of indigenous languages 31 mentioned in section 2.4.4.3 in connection with contact languages. Here I will turn to the lexicon and the conceptual distinctions that Elkin mentioned. Words are structured around cognitive networks which relate to the social lives of communities and universal concepts, Dixon argues: While many of the semantic distinctions made in Australian languages are similar to those in European tongues, there are a number of ingenious contrasts that relate directly to physical and social aspects of life in an Australian community. Tribes living among the well-watered mountains of the dividing range can have grammatical specification for whether some object referred to is uphill, upriver, downhill or downriver, and how far up or down it is. There is often a series of verbs for 'spearing', depending on whether the spear is held on to or let go, whether an object can be seen or not... (1980: 2) Troy (1993b) and Thieberger and McGregor (1994) and others have set up conceptual groups like 'body parts and products', 'human classification', 'kin terms', 'language, mythology, ceremony', 'human artefacts', 'elements' to show the cognitive richness of these languages. The following examples are from Troy's (1993b) and Blake's (1991: 25f) work on Dharuk: (26)

Artefacts

club

duwinul, ganadaling, garrawang... club, long stick from the middle Wudi thicker than at one end club, with a round head, a sharp Ngalangala point in the centre, etc. spear, armed with pieces of shell

walangalyung; ganadyul with stones) spear for throwing, with a barb yilamay fixed on with gum spear, throwing stick wumara, wigun (27) wind wind wind wind wind wind

Elements - east - north-west - north - southwest - south

gura burruwi dulugal buruwan gunyama badjayalang

ganigul,

(armed

32

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

bayinmarri wind - west yarla hole pirti (ground); narti (ground/obj.) hole in ground or object hole in a spear where the hook of mutara woomera is inserted pulpa a rabbit hole Yulpilpa a shallow hole in which ants live Nyarrkalpa burrow for small animals

Contrary to the allegation that these languages were poor in the number and subtlety of conceptual distinctions, it could be shown that they do have superordinates or general terms.8 Kinship is a case in point. All languages reflect kin relations in lexis and/or grammar, but few make as subtle differentiations as the Aboriginal ones. Typically, there are two subsystems according to patrilineal or matrilineal descent. They are expressed by distinct words for grandparents from one's father's and from one's mother's line. In contrast, European languages distinguish grandparents only by generation, though one can form circumlocutions like 'mother's mother' or 'grand-mother from my mother's side'. SS AB SA (1996c: 62) illustrates kin terms from Kalkatunga, a language used around Mount Isa in north-western Queensland (I have added translations into English the third column): (28) Kinship terms

8

mudyu bubi dyadyi ngadyi ngadyiwandyit yulpata

mother's mother father's mother mother's father father's father person plus father's father

kuningkala

two people related through male descent line

two people related through a male descent line

grandmother (mother's side) grandmother (father's side) grandfather (mother's side) grandfather (father's side) someone and his grandfather (father's side) a brother and a sister (or siblings on father's side); a father, son and uncle (father's side) mother and daughter; man and uncle (mother's side)

There was one area that made the early observers certain that these languages were inferior: none of the languages they encountere had number words above 'three' or 'four'. Pitjantjatjara, a Central Australian language, e.g., has only kutju 'one', kutjarra 'two', mankurpa 'few' and tjuta 'many' (SSABSA 1996c: 123).

2.2 The typology and structure of indigenous languages

33

Age may lead to further distinctions. Many languages have words for 'elder brother' and 'elder sister' or 'younger brother' and 'younger sister', while they leave gender unexpressed on its own. There is thus no word for, say, 'sister'. The word mamalkur in Gurrutu is even more complex. It refers to '(i) the 'mother's mother's mother's brother's daughters' or, in other words, to the daughters of one's great-grand-uncle; (ii) 'your mother's mother's brother's wives' or, in other words, to the wives of the grand-uncle on the mother's side; (iii) 'your mother's brother's mothers-in-law'. Simplifying somewhat, mamalkur refers to female descent lines up to two generations back and includes wives and mother's-in-law. Metaphorically speaking, one might say, that the word goes back by one branch, includes the main branch and all of its sub-branches as well as female relatives 'attached' to them by marriage. In addition to this complex semantic grouping the persons to whom the word applies stand in an avoidance relationship. Avoidance means that these kin had to communicate in a particular and conventionally restricted manner (see below). Coming back to the relationship of language and culture, I must repeat what was said above, i.e. that kin relations are primarily conceptualized in terms of matri- or patrilineal descent lines and can group kin in ways unknown in European languages. It is interesting in this context to turn to the concept of 'we'. It can be expressed in complex ways and SSABSA (1996c: 145f) takes Nyangumarta as a case in point. Nyangumarta distinguishes the following cases: ngali ngalayi nganyyjurru nganana'

'(just) you & I' '(j ust ) he/she & I' 'we-all & you' 'we-all & not you'

dual dual plural plural

inclusive exclusive inclusive exclusive

In other words, the exclusive and inclusive 'we' combines with number and distinguishes two (dual) from more than two (plural). While that shows the cognitive and grammtical complexity of the language, it is sad that one does not know whether these distinctions were just found useful generally or whether they were necessary and obligatory when one referred to kin or groups of people defined in terms of rights to knowledge, etc. As I indicated above, nouns fall into a number of conceptual classes which are remotely comparable to gender in European languages. MurrinhPatha, a non-Pamy-Nyungan language (Walsh 1993b: 108ff), for instance, has ten classes, some of which are illustrated below: 1. kardu-class for Aboriginal people, human spirits, etc. kardu thipmam

black person [that is, Aboriginal, GL]

34

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

kardu warnangkal clever man, "witch doctor" 2. Jfcu-class for non-Aboriginal people and all other animates and their products ku pule old man, husband, boss (non-Aboriginal) ku warnangkal clever man, doctor [non-Aboriginal; GL] 3. mi-class for flowers, fruits or plants, other edible foods mi thathanadhay flower of certain trees mi ngukin faeces [included in this class, GL] 4. thamul-c\nss for spears thamul nguni short light spear thamul menek ironwood spear 5. i/iM-class for offensive weapons; thunder, lightning; playing cards thu kuragadha boomerang thu paku large club 6. murrinh-class for speech, language and associated concepts such as news, songs, school murrinh mamay baby talk, children's talk murrinh school school A noun may belong to several classes, depending on its core or intended meaning. Boomerang, for instance, is in the nanthi ('residue') class if it is an object; it is in the thu-class if it is seen as a weapon. Warnangkal is in the kardu-cl&ss when it refers to an Aborigine, in thefcw-classother-wise. The list above contains examples that are recent or have meanings that derive from contact. The ¿«-class, for instance, has ku thipmam for 'nonAboriginal black person, ku pule meaning 'boss', ku warnangkal 'nonAboriginal doctor' and thunku methith 'matches'. Some meanings reflect the effect of semantic transfer from English (cf. section 2.4.2.2). The word dreaming has given rise to many misunderstandings (Leitner 2004b; section 3.3.1). There are, Elkin says, numerous words for dreams at night; he mentions aktjira, djugur, bugari and lalan. But, he adds, "to ask a person his dreaming, is in effect to seek admission into his secret cult-life. His dreaming is his cult-totem (kangaroo, emu, or other) and usually includes a complex of myth, rite and sacred sites; it is his share in and link with the heroic epoch of the past, and his door into the sacred life-giving world which is present as well as past" (1969: 15). It is rightly called dreaming "for it is really a condition or state which partakes in the nature of the dream in that it is not trammelled by the limitations of space and time."

2.2 The typology and structure of indigenous languages

35

There are word-forming processes that extend the vocabulary to cope with ne?w concepts, whether traditional or due to contact. A characteristic one is reduplication, as in these examples (SSABSA 1996c: 111): (29) tyelik-tyelik 'yesterday' (Wemba Wemba, Vic.) tadli-tadli 'frying pan' < tadli 'saliva, froth' (Kauma, SA) marnda-marnda 'stony ground' < marnda 'rock' (Yindjibarndi, WA) Though the lexicons may be small, they share the same resources as other languages do to extend and adapt them to new needs. An interesting grammatical and pragmatic feature is that speakers have to express their gender in the clause. In Yanyuwa, in the far north-east of the Northern Territory, this is done in two ways. In (30) below gender is marked with either the suffix alhi or iwa, which both mean 'it'. The former is used by women, the latter by men. There are a number of such gender markers in (30) and (31) (SSABSA 1996c: 64f; relevant items are underlined): (30)

(31)

(a) Nganth-alhi jayangka where-it (fern.) rock ' Where is the rock?' (women's version) (b) Nganth-iwa jayngka where-it (male) rock 'Where is the rock? (men's version) (a) Ngal-alhi ΜΛα-nba-la ngal-iwa fa'ya-wani-la nya-malbu when-it it-fall-FUT then-he he-return-FUT-old man When it rains then the old man will return' (women's version) (b) Ngal-iwa fo'wa-nba-la ngal-iwa fa'a-wani-la malbu when-it it-fall-FUT then-he he-return-FUT-old man When it rains then the old man will return' (men's version)

Apart from this type of marking of the gender of the speaker, there are codes for special situations, such as 'initiation styles', 'joking talk', 'baby talk' or 'motherese'. The 'avoidance language' is used with mothers-in-law or brothers-in-law. It is described in this way by Dixon: Their material culture may have been skimpy by comparison with ours, but their systems of social organisations and well-articulated conventions for social responsibility and obligation are far more developed. For instance, Aborigines have an intricate classificatory kinship system that operated with rules of equivalence and substitution and in terms of which everyone in a community bore a classificatory kinship relationship to every other person. Their kinship status determined how people should behave towards one another, whether they could laugh and joke in casual informality, or

36

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

maintain a mild decorum, or, at the opposite extreme, whether they should avoid direct contact. (1993: 73f) Total avoidance occurs in few communities, whose languages have terms for those with whom one may not speak. Most communities permit, at least, certain kinds of gestural behaviour. Guugu Yimidhirr, for instance, distinguishes the dhabul, non-dhabuls and unrestricted kins. Dhabuls are the 'sacred' or 'forbidden' relatives, such as mothers-in-law and brothers-inlaw, that can either not be spoken to or only in the respectful 'avoidance language'. The unrestricted kin or gami, such as one's future wife, one's grand-father, one can be completely relaxed with and enter into joking relationships. Such talk includes vulgarisms that are normally tabooed. There is a third category, the non -dhabuls, which include relatives with whom one either speaks politely or in the everyday style (SSABSA 1996c: 68). Children today no longer learn those complex patterns, they learn a merged or neuter language and such varieties are being lost (SSABSA 1996c: 66). A typical avoidance scale in relation to gender thus ranges from total avoidance (intermediaries are used) via joking to an ordinary style. There is, of course, some similarity with European ways of speaking, note the use of euphemisms, etc. But stylistic choices are rarely defined in terms of avoidance, though appropriacy in language does refer to categories like opposite or same sex. Two other styles are worth mentioning, i.e. topic avoidance and special 'speaking softly' (e.g. Dixon 2002; ch. 3.4). Table 2-1 below has been adapted from Dixon (1993: 74) and illustrates different styles. Note, they are mainly characterized by lexical choices. The table especially exemplifies the lexical choices that have to be made in kinship styles in Dyirbal. There are two sets of words, one of which is for avoidance style or jalnguy, the other for the everyday style or guwal: Table 2-1. Avoidance and everyday style in Dyirbal English fire water foot house boomerang

Guwal: everyday style

Jalnguy: avoidance style

buni bana jina mija wangal

yibay jujumi winarra nanggu warrginy

These examples highlight the expression of respect in the presence of potential or real members of a certain descent line. Initiation styles replace lexemes by their opposites. Thus, if someone who has been initiated says to

2.3

The social history of contact

37

another in Tjiliwiri Ί am standing in the sky', he would be taken to mean Ί am sitting on the ground'. "There are conventionalized opposites", says Dixon, "such as 'sit'/'stand', 'ground'/'sky', 'water'/'fire' and 'kangaroo'/'euro'" (1993: 76f).9 Everyday styles are more fully developed and have a larger number of specific words, while avoidance styles use generic words. In terms of pragmatics, one might say that what is called the norm of quantity, i.e. 'say as much as you can say!' has a more limited definition in avoidance styles and a wider one in everyday situations.10 Taboo, to take another case, is not a variety proper but a feature that occurs inside other styles. The tabooing of proper names of deceased persons, for instance, has led to interdialectal or language borrowing when the name was the same as a common word. In such a case the common word, too, is tabooed and communities have had to find a new way of expressing what was referred to or meant by that word. Borrowing proved the best way to overcome the dilemma, and the diffusion of words has led to an increase in the lexical similarity between unrelated languages (SSABSA 1996c: 124). 23

The social history of contact

Having described some of the properties of traditional languages, I can now proceed to the post-contact situation. I will sketch out the main lines of the history of contact, which will prepare the ground for an understanding of the linguistic outcomes to be discussed in section 2.4. As the social history of contact is part of the overall history of Australia, one could ask if the periods to be set up presently can be related to the periods that were found necessary to describe the history of mAusE (Leitner 2004b; section 3.6). I will turn to that question in Chapter Five, but will adapt for the present purposes the periods proposed by Gale (1964) in her study of the history of the missions in South Australia: (i) The period of assimilation ( 1836-1857) (ii) 'Mission' for a dying race (1857-1911) (iii) Segregation (1911-1937) (iv) (Renewed) Assimilation (1937 to, presumably, the late 1960s) Since Gale deals with South Australia only, her starting point is 1836, the foundation year of the colony. Though backdating the beginning of that 9 10

That style reminds one of Rastafari or Afro-American speech styles. That may be overridden by higher-order norms. Other norms and practices, such information elicitation, stories telling will be mentioned in section 2.4.4.

38

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

period to 1788 when Australia became a penal colony might introduce a bias since the primary goal of the invaders was to achieve the surrender of the indigenous population and subordination and not assimilation yet, that step seems, I would suggest, permissible. Period (i), then, included the expansion of the New South Wales colony beyond the Cumberland Plains (1788-early 1820s) and the pastoral expansion inland (1820s-1850) as far as South Australia and in Western Australia. It overlapped with assisted free immigration programs between 1830-1850 (cf. Leitner 2004b; Chapter Two) but stops short of the Gold Rushes in Victoria. The Gold Rushes and the immigration of migrants from all over Europe and China belong to Period (ii). During that period Aborigines began to be seriously threatened and considered a 'dying race' that was in need of assistance until it would have disappeared. Segregated development was the hallmark of the third Period, which gave recognition to the fact that Aboriginal people did not disappear. It was also a time when the removal of mainly half-caste children from their parents became a vigorous measure to 'save' at least that part of that community. For Gale renewed assimilation, i.e. Period (iv), refers to the time when Aboriginal Australians were forced to assimilate, just like migrants were expected to. There is some vagueness about the termination of that period and, anyway, her proposal ignores (for reasons to do with the goals of her study) the period of integration and of selfdetermination. In other words, one would have to suggest (v) Integration and self-control (from the late 1960s) as one more period to account for the developments after Aboriginal Australians gained citizenship, could form lobby groups of their own and had the political and financial backup to look - in modest ways - after their own issues. Colonization and, increasingly, the expansion of the pastoral industry made it necessary, in the eyes of the colonizers, to occupy Aboriginal land and to resettle Aboriginal Australians on stations or missions, employ them there or in townships or to get rid of them in other ways. Total physical dependency was a concomitant, unavoidable factor, which increased the pressure for Aboriginal Australians to assimilate. The pastoral expansion was carried forward by settlers but commercial companies were probably more significant. Their often brutal actions were, at least, tolerated, by government and were the cause of a rapid decline of the population (Leitner 2004b; Chapter Two). As Aborigines were seen as a dying race anyway (Gale 1964), a 'humanitarian' response that would stop or, at least, slow down the decline was both necessary and possible. And that response was

2.3 The social history of contact 39 found in segregated habitations. Some level of segregation had, of course, been the practice in missions and schools set up from early in the 19th century. The missions and schools founded in northern and inland Queensland to stop the decline were not different in kind from these early ones and represented the kind of humanism that permitted that 'race' to disappear quietly. While segregation marked the period up to Federation, a sufficient level of interaction was maintained to ensure that Aborigines could continue to be employed in the kind of work they had been used for before. And the 'bush idiom' that came to be used in the realistic Australian literature of the late 19th century included the use of Aboriginal and pidgin expressions and was a signal of that kind of interaction (Leitner 2004b; section 3.1). Words like gin 'Aboriginal woman, 'used' for intercourse', 'gin jockey' and others were not racist. But there were some like to yabber that have enriched mAusE for ever. Contempt for things Aboriginal and pride in living in, and being familiar with, that context were almost inseparable. During that period, the demography of white Australia, too, underwent significant change, such as the shift to growth by natural increase and to urbanization. Ignoring Aboriginal Australians as a relevant factor, White Australia was going its own ways now.And, yet, as the race was not dying, as expected, attempts were being made from the 1930s to 'secure' a better, assimilated life-style for Aboriginal children of mixed descent. The removal of 'half-caste' children from their families, which had begun at around the turn to the 20th century, their upbringing in foster families is well documented and, too, accelerated the shift to English. The Stolen Generation is featured in Phillip Noyce's film Rabbit-Proof Fence (2003). Having retraced the main lines of the history of contact, I can add some detail on precolonial Australia. The assumption that indigenous people were totally isolated until colonization is false. There have been various types of contact, the most well-known of which is that with the Macassan fishermen who collected trepang (cf. Harris 1986). They sailed from Macassar (around southern Celebes) to Arnhem Land, on to the Kimberley and further down the south-western coastline. That contact extended over a period of nearly 200 years but was, after all, a part of European colonialism. It has had some noticeable linguistic consequences that will be gone into in section 2.4.2.1. European explorers had come from the early 17th century but have left little evidence on the nature and extent of contact they might have engaged in. In 1606 the Dutch William Jansz, for instance, looked for gold west of Weipa, Cape York. Later explorers charted the continent and the islands in its vicinity fairly precisely (Kenny 1995; Camm and McQuilton 1987). Of particular interest are accounts by William

40

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

Dampier, the first English explorer, who came in 1688 and 1699. He is credited with the first ethnographic description of Aborigines, which was "an excellent first approximation", according to Kenny (1995: 111). He collected words such as gurry, whose meaning is unknown. It looks similar to whurry 'go away, 'begone', which was mentioned by Tench in 1788 (Kenny 1995: 110). Dampier had an important advantage over earlier explorers in that he could use the guidelines drawn up by the Royal Society of London, which was founded in 1665. The Royal Society had set up a cognitive grid, one might suggest, that alerted explorers as to what to look out for. To quote Robert Boyle, its first Secretary: ... there must be a careful account given to the Inhabitants themselves, both Natives and Strangers, that have long settled there: And in particular, their Stature, Shape, Colour, Features, Strength, Agility, Beauty (or want of it), Complexions, Hair, Dyet, Inclinations, and Customs that seem not due to Education.

Captain Cook made further progress, says Frost in the preface to Kenny: Between Dampier's observation that the Australian Aborigines were "the miserablest People in the World .... setting aside their Humane Shape, they differ but little from Brutes", and Cook's that from what I have said of the Natives of New Holland they may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon Earth, but in reality they are more happier than we Europeans; being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous but the necessary Conveniences so much sought after in Europe, they are happy in not knowing the use of them... ... there lies the watershed of Enlightenment thought: and with Cook we have what is in his sensitivities recognisably a modern outlook, (fr. Kenny 1995: 9)

According to Kenny, "between the Dutch voyages in the first half of the seventeenth century and those of Captain James Cook there occurred very significant changes in European consciousness. The modern scientific outlook emerged, and Europeans began to assess non-European cultures more in their own terms, and less in terms of how they compared with the European matrix" (1995: 70). The advice given by the President of the Society, Lord Morton, to Thomas Cook and Sir Joseph Bank, naturalist and scientific advisor, is worth quoting in full as it will have influenced Arthur Phillip's behaviour and attitudes towards indigenous people:

2.3 The social history of contact

41

To exercise the utmost patience and forbearance with the Natives of the several Lands where the Ship may touch... They are human creatures, the work of the same omnipotent Author, equally under his care with the most polished Europeans; perhaps being less offensive, more entitled to his favor. They are the natural, and in the strictest sense of the word, the legal possessors of the several Regions they inhabit. No European Nation has the right to occupy any part of their country, or settle among them without their voluntary consent. Conquest over such people can give no just title; because they could never be the Aggressors.... But the Natives ... should be treated with distinguished humanity, and made sensible that the Crew still considers them as Lords of the Country... Lastly, to form a Vocabulary of the names given by the Natives, to the several things and places which come under the Inspection of the Gentlemen, (fr. Kenny 1995: 70-74) On the exploration of Botany Bay, the voyage north to the Endeavour River and to Tasmania, Kenny writes that "in 43 days from Botany Bay to Cooktown the people of the Endeavour seem to have had no contact with Aborigines". He adds that Banks was '"quite void of fear as our neighbours have turned out such rank cowards'" (Kenny 1995: 119). Only during the seven weeks they stayed on the Endeavour did they make any observation and attempts to engage in contact. Cook and Banks formed very different images than Dampier had done. And the thinking on languages had changed, too. Banks wrote that he can say very little about their language: Our acquaintance with them was of so short a duration that none of us attempted to use a single word of it to them, consequently the list of words I have given could be got no other manner than by signs enquiring of them what in their Language signified such a thing, a method obnoxious to many mistakes: for instance a man holds in his hand a stone and asks the name of [it]: the Indian may return him for answer either the real name of the stone, one of the properties of it as hardness, roughness, smoothness &c, one of its uses or the name peculiar to some particular species of stone, which name the enquirer immediately sets down as that of the stone. (Kenny 1995: 132) Aware of the likelihood of misinterpretation, they put a word into their main list only when they all agreed (Kenny 1995: 132). The word kangaroo had been taken down when they saw Aborigines hunt that animal, but its

42

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

meaning has remained in doubt. Here are some of Cook's words that did not enter mAusE (fr. Kenny 1995: 132): wageegee walba tapool

the head a stone bone in nose

meanang fire takai set down cherr expr. of admiration

Contact in Van Diemen's Land turned out to be less amicable, but the physical appearance of Tasmaniane was commented on as they differed from what they had seen on the mainland. William Anderson, surgeon and naturalist, wrote: ... yet still, upon the whole I am persuaded that distance of place, entire separation, diversity of climate, and length of time, all concurring to operate, will account for greater differences, both as to their persons and as to their customs, than really exist between our Van Diemen's Land natives, and those described by Dampier, and in Captain Cook's first Voyage... For though the agreement of the languages of people living distant from each other may be assumed as a strong argument for their having sprung from one common source, disagreement of language is by no means a proof to the contrary. However, we must have a far more intimate acquaintance with the languages spoken here and in the more northern parts of New Holland, before we can be warranted to pronounce that they are totally different. Nay, we have good grounds for the opposite opinion; for we found that the animal called kangaroo at Endeavour River was known under the same name here.... (fr. Kenny 1995: 142)

Anderson, in other words, believed that these languages may have the same origin as Maori and South Pacific languages. Though wrong on that, "the way in which he arrived at it", says Kenny (1995: 143), "shows the growing understanding of how philology might reveal pre-history." The argumentation was cast within the historical-comparative philological paradigm." At the same time that Cook explored Australia, there had been unofficial visitors, i.e. whalers and sealers from France, America or Russia who interacted with Aborigines and introduced European languages and customs. It was only by the πΰά-19Λ century that the British had full control, and the history of contact from then on is part of that of the British 11

There are some excellent studies to draw on: Berndt and Berndt (1996), Wurm, Mühlhäusler, and Tryon (1996), Harris (1986; 1994), Troy (1990; 1993b), Simpson (1996), Yallop and Walsh (1993), Malcolm and Koscielscky (1997).

2.3 The social history of contact

43

colonies. There is no space to do more than narrate necessary details to understand the changes that occurred to the language situation thereafter. Contact differed from region to region, period to period, and between the individuals and groups that participated in it. At the beginning Aborigines tended to keep out of sight, Phillip reported (cf. also Troy 1993b: 38): The 30th of May two men employed collecting thatch at some distance were found dead; one of them had four spears in him, one of which had passed through his body; the other was found at some distance dead.... This was a very unfortunate circumstance... and I am still persuaded the natives were not the aggressors... I went out with a small party the next day... but after traversing the country for more than twenty miles we got to the north shore of Botany Bay without meeting any of the natives.... as we made our fires and slept on the beach I did not doubt but some of them would join us, but not one appeared; and the next morning, tho' fifty canoes were drawn up on the beach, we could not find a single person. (HRA, vol. 1, ρ 49)

On the way back they were suddenly surrounded by over 200 natives. But "the moment the friendship I offered was accepted on their side they joined us, most of them laying down their spears and stone hatchets with the greatest confidence" (HRA, vol. 1, ρ 49). Phillip added that "they were friendly, but, as I have ever found them, since they find we intend to remain, they appeared best pleased when we were leaving them" (28th September 1788, HRA, vol. 1, ρ 76). But they "continue to attack any of the convicts when they meet them in the woods" (HRA, vol. 1, ρ 76). Avoidance was not confined to the south-east. Calvert (1894) recounts the experiences of the officers of H.M.S. Challenger in Western Australia: ... in June 1829, a party of officers and men, under Lieutenant Preston, R.N., landed from H.M.S. Challenger at Browne Mount ... for the purpose of exploring the Canning River and intervening country, they were surprised at the absence of natives on this occasion. 'But,' says the writer of the account of the exploration, 'there can be little doubt we passed close to some of them, as we saw many of their wigwams and many traces of themselves. It is more probable they did not like our appearance., (fr. webpage; 2002: 2)12

The means of communication were so rudimentary that it was not possible to bring over the intent that the colonizers had come to stay and 12

Note the Americanism wigwam, which proves the close familiarity with the American colonies. There are other AmE loans such as Indians 'Aboriginal Australians' that are discussed in Leitner (2004b).

44

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

had dispossessed the native population. As relationships showed signs of strain, the need for a common language was paramount, Phillip writes: The natives still refuse to come amongst us.... I now doubt whether it will be possible to get any of those people to remain with us, in order to get their language, without using force; they see no advantage that can arise from us that may make amends for the loss of that part of the harbour in which we occasionally employ the boats in fishing. (HRA, vol. 1, 96) In the end, he saw no other way but to turn to kidnapping: Not succeeding in my endeavours to persuade some of the natives to come and live with us, I ordered one to be taken by force, which was what I would gladly have avoided, as I knew it must alarm them; but not a native had come near the settlement for many months, and it was absolutely necessary that we should attain their language, or teach them ours... (HRA, vol. 1, ρ 145) Attempts at learning their languages were disappointing, Troy observed: The colonists began to make use of the Aboriginal languages they learned from Arabano [one of the kidnapped Aborigines, GL]. An early example is found in Hunter's account of the expedition to Broken Bay on 6 June 1789. After pitching their tents for the night at 'Pitt-Water', they found an Aboriginal woman hiding... '.... we understood none of her expressions, but felt much concern at the distress she seemed to suffer. We endeavoured all in our power to make her easy, and with the assistance of a few expressions which we had collected from Ara-ba-noo while he was alive, we soothed her distress a little' (Hunter 1986, 96; fr. Troy 1993a: 38) Phillip felt it was better to teach them English. And Bennelong, who was another of the kidnappees, turned out to have a superb skill and to learn English quickly, Tench wrote: His powers of mind were certainly far above mediocrity. He acquired knowledge, both of our manners and language, faster than his predecessor had done. He willingly communicated information; sang, danced, and capered: told us all the customs of his country, and all the details of his family and economy, (fr. Troy 1993a: 40) With the expansion of the colony to the thirteen shires and across the Blue Mountains, the mountain range west of Sydney, contact became more

2.3 The social history of contact

45

stable. Free settlement and the pastoral expansion subsequented initiated significant changes. As the news of the intruders had now spread to the hinterlands and as Aborigines often knew some pidgin English, explorers could take Aboriginal trackers with them inland. The pidgin signaled progress if compared with the rudimentary level of sign communication at the time of arrival. It soon spread beyond its area of origin. Having surveyed some of the less formal ways of spreading English, I can turn to education. Mattingley and Hampton wrote that schools were "to control the lives of all our people for the next fifty years" (1992: 45). While that statement was made with regard to South Australia and, thus, covered the period to the late 1880s, it does have validity across the continent possibly with some differences in emphasis. The first school for Aboriginal children, the Native School in Parramatta, was established in 1814. Others were founded wherever missionaries set up missions. Working within a climate hostile to Aborigines, reports like this from the South Australian Government Gazette in 1844 were read with benevolent surprise: A school for the instruction of the aborigines has been in operation for many years at Adelaide, under the superintendence of Mr. Klose, one of the German Missionaries, which has presented encouraging proof of the mental capacity of the children. Until very recently, Mr. Klosé thought it most conducive to the objects he had in view to instruct them in the native language; a language he had acquired at great sacrifice of time and labor. The efforts of systematic instruction, however, could only be extended to a limited number by Mr. Klosé, in consequence of the differences of dialects amongst the various tribes, and of superstitions and prejudices, which prevented the possibility of amalgamating the children of two tribes in the same school, (fir. Mattingley and Hampton 1988: 96) The report named other schools such as a Sunday school and a day school at Walkerville. It referred to the fact that some individuals learnt Aboriginal languages and used them successfully as vehicles of education. But English and an English education took over quickly, and the success of using English was only hindered by the frequent absence of children from school. One can read frequent complaints about this kind of absenteeism such as this one: "I regret exceedingly that the Murray native children continue to abscond from the school in Adelaide" (fr. Mattingley and Hampton 1988: 99). The educational institutions soon led to the physical and 'mental' control of Aborigines and their dependency on government supplies, which were often distributed through missions and settlers. With the destruction of the

46

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

old social system, new units were now being created under the influence of the churches and the state, who felt it was necessary to provide education and to transmit useful knowledge, a knowledge that made the colonized useful workers for British interests and reminds one of the colonial aims all over the Empire. Rose (1996) is a collection of press articles from around 1836 that were written by Aborigines. The show how successfully that educational aim was being transmitted at missions and stations. The following excerpt is from the first edition of The Aboriginal or Flinders Island Chronicle, which was published under "the Sanction of the Commandant" in South Australia between 1836 and 1837: The object of this journal is to promote Christianity, civilization and Learning amongst the Aboriginal Inhabitants at Hinders Island.... The Profit arising from the Sale of the journal to be equally divided among the writers which it is hoped may induce Emulation in writing excite a desire for useful knowledge and promote Learning generally, (text as printed; fr. Rose 1996: 3) One wonders if such texts were written by free will or whether they were the result of successful assimilation or of some kind of anticipatory obedience. Along the same lines the Chronicle wrote this: In commencing our Journal agreeable to the prospectus we cannot look back on the Events Connected with our history this we leave with the Divine blessing to the heart and head that has been instrumental in uniting us together and providing us with Instruction guiding us into the habits of civilised life and the enjoyment of security from the oppression of bad men. We date our history of Events from the Month of October 1835 when our beloved father made his appearance among us dispelling the darkness and cheering us with a dawn of hope freedom and happiness.... (text as printed; 10 September 1836; fr. Rose 1996: 4) The Native people of Van Diemen's Land is gone out hunting and ... reading out in the bush and praying to God every night I suppose; and they behave themselves under the Directions of the Commandant... The Natives people his learning about God and learning to read and learning about Jesus Christ ... And I can you my friends that their is a great God over you and me .... (text as printed; 28 September 1837; fr. Rose 1996: 5) Such passages reflect the same ideas and use terms that one knows from British India: useful knowledge or learning, the benefits of Christianity, the beneficial role of British civilization, etc. Seen in the light of the wider debates in Britain, they are a testimony to the power of these ideas in

2.3 The social history of contact

47

shaping contact and controlling the lives of the colonized in all British possessions, (cf. Brutt-Griffler 2002) The British had little respect for Aborigines and their material and spiritual cultures. They were seen as too primitive, as barely human enough to pose a threat, as Dampier had noted. Commenting on that period, Gary Foley, an Aboriginal activist, I interviewed in 1996, went as far as to call missions and government stations 'concentration camps': What's the old African saying? When the white man came we had the land and he had the bible, now he's got the land and we've got the bible, you know. And if you look at the number of these concentration camps... around Australia, you find that almost three hundred of those, nationally, were run by churches, by the denominations of Christian churches. The worst ones were the Roman Catholic, those crazy guys from Spain ... Then you had your lot [the German missions, GL] up in Queensland, the Lutherans... And the churches were the most enthusiastic in the destruction of Aboriginal culture and language and custom, (interview with Gary Foley in 1996)

Others may disagree with such extreme views. Some Aborigines saw in missions and schools havens that saved them from complete extinction. John Harris, a white academic and Christian, entitled his book One Blood ... A Story of Hope (1994). He recognizes the destructive force of Christianization but adds that there is another side that unites Aborigines and their oppressors. The following passage, from Schneider's (1882) history of the Moravian mission, narrates the experience of Pastor Hagenauer: The picture changes fast, night falls and the wildest corroborée with its abominable excesses begins. The missionary cannot stop himself, he rushes to the scene from where the devilish noise is coming from, commands peace and calls out he has to tell them something. The dancers stop, but the women keep screaming, the beat becomes louder, and the wild dance starts anew. Deeply shaken, Hagenauer retreats, rests on a tree trunk and prays for those who are blind, (my transi.; Schneider 1882: 108)

Hagenauer likens corroborées, at least, to "religious dances" (1882: 46). Generally, missionaries reacted with extreme preconceptions and had little understanding of their spiritual and social significance. Expressions like "creatures ugly by nature", "the shrill colours and wild gesticulations" (fr. Schneider 1882: 47) cannot disguise their intellectual roots. The views of many missionaries were marked with ambiguities (Veit 2002). Shortly after the Lake Boga mission was opened in 1850 in Victoria, some 80 Aborigines came, willing to pray. Schneider reported this:

48

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

To speak of intellectual characteristics and abilities of the Papus is not easy... As in the past, there are many Whites today who not only think of the Papus as the most rotten human race but think of them as beasts, something between man and ape. Though disgusting and reprehensible, this view has some truth to it. (my transi.; 1882: 30) That view was particularly prevalent amongst the Moravians, Fesl says: "The Moravian missionaries summed up their attitudes to Koories when they wrote, "For long this mission had examined the world in search of the most degraded people and had discovered them in Victoria...'" (1993: 90). Smithies, a Wesleyan missionary in Western Australia, wrote in 1844: As to the moral of these Aborigines they are such as nature and circumstances have created among them; like all the family of Adam they are fallen, depraved, wretched in their habits, they are lazy, and under circumstances of need they are dishonest and given to fornication, (fir. Fesl 1993: 90) Noting the alleged paucity of their vocabularies in the sphere of religion, he added that "any attempt at translation of a hymn or scripture, or Lord's prayer shows at once the paucity thereof' (1993: 91). But despite the view quoted above, Schneider lists a number of positive habits such as the complex marriage rules, firm religious beliefs, and the sense of property. There were other positive accounts, too. In a description of the second Moravian mission in Ramahuyck, Victoria, for instance, one reads this: The Blacks, many of whom had helped with the construction work, showed a great ... attachment. Church services and school were well attended, the sewing lessons for the girls and women continued by Hagenauer's wife.... Furthermore, the whole black mob was made to get used to a life of order and work. On January 17th 1864 Hagenauer is able to report that 150 had already heard the gospel, (my transi.; fr. Schneider 1882: 131f) Such reports did more than justify the efforts and moneys spent; they signalled the success in civilizing and Christianizing Aborigines. Some of them might be helpful in settling others so that Aborigines would no longer be an obstacle to the cultivation of the land. The Moravians report that some had indeed been Christianized and took responsibility in preaching and, importantly, settling others. Moravian schools turned out to be successful and were admitted to the Board of Common Schools in Queensland in 1870. On the Weipa school in Cape York, Queensland, the Presbyterian missionary, Frank H. Paton reported this:

2.3 The social history of contact

49

The verse had come to an end and Mr. Hey [the missionary, GL] says a wonderful, simple prayer for the children who join in with the "Our Father". There follows a bible discussion about the tongue, followed by the catechism. The answers come quick-witted and clear. One could think one was listening to an exceptionally well trained class of white children. The only unfamiliar sound is the very obvious pronunciation of the "s", but the accent is overall good and every single word clearly audible, (my transi.;

1913: 12) Patón saw no difference between the achievement of children of pure and mixed race. Their command of English must have been quite good. Children were placed in a dormitory, the Schlafhaus or 'sleeping house', which permitted considerable control over their behaviour, include-ing the language they would use. Indigenous languages were discouraged, often with considerable force. There are reports of covering children's tongues with soap when they had been heard to use a language.13 Contact languages were tolerated for a while; but by the 1870s they too were discouraged. Aborigines were frequently removed from their native lands as missions closed with the decline of the Aboriginal population, the lack of children due to the drop in fertility, the establishment of townships in the vicinity where Aborigines could get employment and alcohol. Missions also closed for lack of staff, funding, or, in a few cases, because of the hostility of local Aborigines. The social patterns of life were thus destabilized. Contact avoidance with the colonizers was impossible, and they were forced to engage in contact with tribes they had had no or very little contact with before. Figure 15 in Fesl (1993: 117), which is reproduced with minor adaptations as map 2-2 on the next page, shows the extent of the physical movement that was enforced on Aborigines in Victoria. A central location on the map is the government reserve of Coranderrk, near Healesville, outside Melbourne, which existed from 1863 to the 1940s. Within a few years the reserve started farming, managed a dairy and had its own sawmill. It attracted some 40 Aborigines in the early period, but soon became a relocation point for Aborigines from other stations. In the 1880s much of its land was sold and the station was no longer viable. In 1922-3 the remaining residents were forced to move to Lake Tyers, which now became a central place for Aborigines to move to from missions that had been closing, such as Ramahuyck (Moravian), Lake Condah, Coranderrk and Framlingham. 13

While that sounds brutal, one must not forget that the British did much the same in Scotland and Ireland to stop the use of Gaelic at school and even at home.

50

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

Sydney /Lower / Murra) Ouyen.

Ichuca CanbeiTa Ebenezer· , UPPER MURRAY LANGUAGES «, WESTERN KULIN AND BUNANDIDJ

Upper Murray

i l Goulbum - y tevValley /

Bendigo.

Monaro Range

WaMa!

Lal / Yum /LANGUAGES .

South Coast'

Adelaide

GANAI

Mt Franklin' Lake .Condah

JCoranderrk^jsV i —t— LakeVtó^

Framlingham

Melbourne

Map 2-2. Forced resettlement of Aborigines on missions in Victoria (Capital letters mark the language families of the region, towns are written in small letters, years refer to the forced resettlement.)14 In the late 1930s Lake Tyers became a concern for the inhuman conditions that its inhabitants were subjected to (Horton 1994). A less wellknown tradition of contact had to do with the explorers and, later, missionaries and settlers from France, Italy and Spain (e.g. Marchant 1998; Bourke 1979). The most well-known Catholic missions in Western Australia, New Norcia and the Archbishopry of Perth, have been neglected from a linguistic angle. New Norcia, for instance, had a substantial farming business, a school and became an influential cultural centre (Strong 1995). If one recalls that languages were tied to the land, it is clear that circumstances like these must have made matters worse for the preservation of indigenous traditions. As contact with neighbouring languages was hard, areal relations and the chain of language transmission were weakening. Language maintenance was nearly impossible and contact languages an inescapable outcome. The Anglican mission at Lake Tyers is a good example to illustrate the linguistic situation. It was set up in 1861 and experienced problems with Aborigines from the beginning. The missionaries described 14

I am grateful to Eve Fesl for the permission to use this map here.

2.3 The social history of contad

51

them as 'wild' and 'lazy'. But Lake Tyers did become a relocation point and increased the language mix dramatically. Fesl (1993: 119) lists the groups of people and their languages that lived there between 1902 and 1908 (see table 2-2 on the next page). Most of the languages on table 2-2 on the next page had no relation to Gippsland, west of Melbourne, where Lake Tyers was located. They were forced together there and show how profoundly the traditional habitat was uprooted. The consequence of forcing these people together was, at first, an artificially increased number of languages with little or no time for children to learn their parents languages. There was no time for parents to even try to pass them on to the next generation. Language loss, a small amount of shift to other indigenous languages, and the rise of contact languages were almost unavoidable outcomes described in sections 2.4.1 and 2.4.3-4. Accounts like these describe the dominant circumstances of the lives of Aboriginal people during this phase (Massola 1970; Veit 2002; Fesl 1993). Benevolently, the work done by the missions was described as a 'mission for a dying race' (1857-1911) by Gale (1964). Despite that generalization, efforts had been made by individual miss-ionaries - often with the support of their home mission society - to learn one of the languages so that it could be used for religious and educational purposes. Some missionaries became experts and wrote detailed linguistic descriptions, which could become the foundation stone for attempts to reverse the loss of languages or, at least, to document what had been there. The circular Missionsstunden of the Moravians (issue 38, around 1900), for instance, reported on the beginning of Ebenezer and that Spieseke and Träger, the first missionaries, were advised by Governor Joseph La Trobe, a member of the British branch of the Moravians, to remain in Mount Franklin, west of Melbourne, "where they would have ample opportunities of meeting Aborigines and of acquainting themselves with their language, customs, etc." (my translation, ρ 3). The Moravians had a tradition of using local languages for the purposes of preaching and teaching, and the observation in the Missionsstunden (38, ρ 4) that the pupils' command of English, which was the medium of teaching, was insufficient, should have promoted the learning of indigenous languages. The Missionsstunden wrote this on the work of Spieseke and Träger: Gradually the two brothers have collected and learned a treasure of approximately 350 words. The indigenous people began to be more trusting and showed what they had learned from the contact with the Whites, (my

transi.; Missionstunden 38: 4)

52

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

Table 2-2. The language groups at Lake Tyers (1902-08)

1902

1908

Region of Origin Framlingham Monaro Range Delegate Wallaga Lake

Language (or Dialect) Kirrea Njarigu Njarigu Njarigu

Language (Sub-) Group Kulinic (Drual) Yuin-Kuric (Yuin) Yuin-Kuric (Yuin) Yuin-Kuric (Yuin)

Ebenezer Coranderrk Lake Wellington Brabraluq Bratauoluq Mallee Taungurong Echuca Mt Franklin Aacheron (Taggerty) Upper Murray Lower Murray

Wergaia/Djadala/Wudjubalg Woiwuru/Wurundjeri Ganai, plus above Brabraluq Bratauoluq Ngarkat Taungurong Jota Jota

Kulinic (Kulin) Kulinic (Kulin) Kurnic, Kulinic (Drual) Kurnic Kurnic Kulinic (Kulin) Kulinic (Kulin) Jotajotic

possibly Bandjerang

Kulinic (Kulin) Jotajotic

Wilhelm Koch was a teacher at Bethesda at Lake Killalpaninna and began the translation of the testaments into the Dieri language in 1888. As he died that year, Otto Sieber and J.C. Reuther completed his work with the help of Carl Strehlow, who had arrived in 1892. Siebert also worked on Wangkangurru, Arabana, Wangkamana, Yawarawarka und Arrernte and collected the vocabularies of kinship. Reuther spent 18 years at Bethesda and compiled a voluminous dictionary of Dieri, which is housed at the "Reuther Collection" of the State Museum of Adelaide. Schürmann and Träger were similarly oriented missionariesand studied Kaurna. They produced a Kaurna dictionary and a small grammar in 1840 that was used as a basis for the recent revival of the language (cf. section 2.4.1). Carl Strehlow and his son Theodor were particularly outstanding missionary-linguists at the Lutheran mission in Hermansburg and became experts in Arrernte, Luritja and Central Australian languages generally. The father had worked at the Cooper's Creek mission, South Australia, from 1892-94 and became the head of Finke River Mission in Hermansburg, where he died in 1922. He left a large collection of books on cultural matters and a dictionary of Arrernte. Theodor Strehlow, too, gained the trust of Aboriginal people and recorded sacred rituals, etc., on the request of some Arrernte elders. The artefacts he collected are housed at the Strehlow Research Centre in Alice

2.3 The social history of contact

53

Springs. He became a critic of Australia's treatment of Aborigines and the first professor of linguistics at the University of Adelaide. Some British missionaries should be mentioned. The most prominent one, L.E. Threlkeld, started a mission on Hunter's River with the London Missionary Society in 1825. Though the mission was given up in 1831, he stayed on and "learnt the language of aborigines to such a level that he could write a grammar of the language and translate parts of the Holy Bible and a number of songs into that language" (Schneider 1882: 64). The language in question was Awaba. Threlkeld produced a number of descriptions of it and related languages. A Mr. Shaw from the Church of England Mission Society learnt Marowra, the language of the Yelta tribes in north-west Victoria. The mission report of 1858, for instance, said that six languages were spoken between Yelta and Swan Hill, but only two were understood by the local Marowra tribes. The language was small even then and was closely related to Kamilaroi (Massola 1970: 17). Shaw was sent to another mission and his knowledge remained dormant. Further progress in the active use of indigenous languages was hampered by such factors as the short life-span of missions and the reposting of missionaries. Often Aborigines had minimal access to English, but were thought to shift to it in the long run. Maintaining an indigenous language and establishing a tradition of bi- or multilingualism was both difficult and hard to justify. The Moravians noted that it would be best to use English or pidgin English. On Ebenezer, Schneider wrote this: As to the language of teaching, it is English. The missionaries have learned the language of indigenous people to such an extent that they can communicate with them freely and easily, hold church services in it and teach in it - especially with beginners. However schoolbooks are not written in these languages, and to write them in them is not even commendable because the Papu definitely has to learn English. As he is surrounded by the English and as English is the language of the colony, a knowledge of this language is an essential condition for interaction and contact when they work as shepards, buy and sell of goods in the city. Moreover, the indigenous people in Ebenezer already knew some English when they came into contact with the mission, those in Gippsland even knew quite a lot. In view of that situation, it was obvious that English had to be the language of school, while their own tongue would be used in interactions amongst the Blacks, (my transi.; 1882: 142f)

The mid-20th century, finally, saw a marked improvement in the relationships; the population decline was halted in the 1930s and the population

54

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

began to recover. It has now reached a level of over 400,000 in the 2001Census. More will be said on the modern situation in Chapter Four.

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

I noted in several places that early settlers were confronted with a situation they did not understand, nor tried too comprehend. Mühlhäusler (1996a) provides an apt description of the language ecology they encountered and destroyed in a very short period of time: On their arrival in Australia, the European settlers were confronted not with a diversity, but a complex communication network. Aborigines could communicate across cultural boundaries and wide geographic areas, because of widespread multilingualism, language chains, institutionalized sign languages... Complex languages could be transmitted from generation to generation because of elaborate language teaching (...). This pattern had developed over a period of more than 40,000 years, mostly in isolation... Isolated ecologies, even those as large as Australia, can be very vulnerable to sudden contacts with the outside. The last 200 years of language history in Australia is one where continually changing circumstances have forced Aborigines to make rapid adjustments to unknown situations, sometimes successfully, sometimes with disastrous consequences. (1996b: 11)

The novelty of the situation was, in other words, a factor that has helped in the destruction of the habitat. As I turn to details on the Aboriginal language habitat, I cannot do justice to all circumstances in which responses to contact were made. By structuring the survey around dominant themes, an attempt can be made to bring some order into that highly complex situation: (1) The recasting of the traditional bi- or multilingualism due to 'intruding' languages (2) The decline and loss of languages and the shift to English or other indigenous languages (3) The modification of indigenous languages due to various types of influence (4) The emergence of contact languages, i.e. pidgins, creóles, koinés and ethnic varieties of English (5) The re-creation of an indigenous language situation inside a multicultural Australia and the ways of exploiting its resources for communicative ends

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact 55 Section 2.4.1 will address questions (1) and (2) in three cycles. I will start with the demographic background of today's language situation, turn to micro-studies on how languages were lost or are being re-invigorated and add some remarks on the socio-psychological strength of languages. The effects of Australia's language and literacy policies from the 1980s will be delayed to Chapter Four, but some of the effects are just so visible that they will have to be mentioned. Taking up that thread, section 2.4.2 will show how languages are modified during processes of attrition and loss. It will discuss the respective roles of English, indigenous and contact languages. Contact languages will, for reasons to be explained later, be split into two sections. Section 2.4.3 will be about lingue franche, pidgins and creóles, section 2.4.4 about AborE, the strongest ethnic variety of English, which is exerting some influence on mAusE (Leitner 2004b; section 3.3.1). I will show that it acts as a carrier of Aboriginal norms of communication. The last question is on the re-construction of a new language habitat, its place inside, on the fringes or overlapping with that of the mainstream society. That will provide a bridge to language policy in Chapter Four. 2.4.1

Language maintenance and loss

At a bus stop in Darwin I was standing next to an Aboriginal couple. Naively, I wanted to begin a conversation with an Aboriginal family and asked: "Do you speak an Aboriginal language?" An unfriendly look by the husband! He turned back to his wife. I gave up. 'Yes', would have been the answer, I had heard him use one. Two hundred years have not destroyed the traditional Aboriginal language situation completely, but Mühlhäusler was right when he said that 'isolated ecologies' are vulnerable to sudden contact from outside and that all languages, whether indigenous or other immigrant, have had to position themselves vis-à-vis English on the Antipodes (1996b: 11, 14). Anglicization and Australianization were central trends from the middle of the 19th century and Aborigines have had to find a place 'in their own land', now defined by the mainstream of Australia. This section will be concerned with questions of adaptation and the preservation of multilingualism, i.e. the outcomes in line 4c in diagram 1-1. But it is pertinent to begin with a few notes on terminology. The terms maintenance, loss, and revival refer to both the social position of a language in a community or, to put it better, a language habitat, and to what individuals do with regard to a language. The terms highlight the level of (in-) stability of a language. Maintenance, for instance, refers to languages

56

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

in danger of being weakened, loss to a very advanced stage of decline or to complete extinction; revival to a renewed increase in use. Revival can be defined as including "all organised efforts to strengthen the position of a relatively weak, endangered or apparently dead language", according to Bentahila and Davies (1993: 357). Maintenance may be a part of intended outcomes of policies and planning but I will mainly look at it from the angle of the actions of individuals and communities. The outcomes of conscious efforts to maintain languages must be seen as related to the sociopolitical context after the 1960s, when indigenous Australians had become citizens (Chapter Four; Lo Bianco and Rhydwen 2001). A recent report on language (or linguistic) vitality is McConvell and Thieberger (2001; section 4.4). I will elaborate on that theme in Chapter Three, but should emphasize that "the amount of time exposed to a language as being (...) a key to whether language transmission between generations can occur" (2001: 24). These experts believe that a 'critical mass' of communication is necessary.15 Even if it is hard to measure objectively, going below that mass will result in certain loss. No studies have been done that would prove its impact on maintenance and it looks like a concept that is similar to the 'downward spiral of language loss' that will be mentioned later. Most research, however, did not, and could not, go much beyond the measurement of the number of people who self-reported that they used a language. The Australian Bureau of Statistics started to collect language data in 1976. Indigenous languages were then lumped into a single category; it was only the 1996 Census that documented about 46 languages with a larger number of speakers. Even those more detailled data, Rigney thinks, are not precise and not comprehensive enough to show the real crisis at hand: [a]nother issue that needs urgent attention is in regard to the statistics held by governments. Neither the 1986 nor the 1991 census data collection, data on the numbers of speakers of specific Australian languages to accurately reflect the crisis at hand (sic\). What was recorded only was how many people spoke an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander language... Moreover, such communities whose languages are under the threat of extinction could not be recognised statistically in government records under the current census system. At the same time, speakers of other small languages like Nauruan or Tetum were counted. In the 1996 census, some 48 specific Australian languages were counted (in South Australia only Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Kukatha, Adnyamanthanha and Arabana). No languages were counted in New South Wales, Victoria or Tasmania. (2002)

15

Fishman (2001) is an excellent collection of papers related to language vitality.

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

57

There are some specific studies on the period prior to 1996. But there still is a big gap on the language situation for the pre-colonial period and the time well into the 20th century. Worse than that, the data available are difficult to compare as there are considerable problems with the distinction between dialect and language, orthography and language names (cf. McConvell and Thieberger 2001: 41). Schmidt's (1990) report, for instance, covered the whole continent and only paints a broad picture. The report commissioned by the Australian Language and Literacy Council in 1993 (McKay 1996) into the success and deficiencies of Australia's language policy was to provide a picture on selected communities. The ABS data of 1996 and of 2001 (ABS 1999; 2002a) only cover the 'large' languages. Table 2-3 on page 58 integrates the available data but must be taken with care. A comparison of numbers with those on the demography of indigenous people shows that the percentage of respondents who said they spoke a language "at home" has remained more or less stable. In the 1991 Census (not in table 2-3 above) the percentage was 15.9 per cent, in 1996 it was 11.5 per cent and in 2001 it was 12.4 per cent. McConvell and Thieberger (2001) are the most recent in-depth study and includes factors that had been little studied before. For instance, it distinguishes between speakers that say they 'use a language at home' from those that merely say they 'can speak' it. That category is significantly larger than the real home users' group in the south-east, the coastal towns in Western and South Australia and Queensland. The gap is narrower in the Northern Territory and Central Australia (2001: 39). Gender, they maintain, has not turned out to be a predictor of maintenance or loss, but the ranking according to age groups is a good indicator. Though McConvell and Thieberger have pursued a different method from Schmidt (1990), they do agree more or less, on the number of so-called strong languages. Schmidt had set up three categories of languages, i.e. 'strong', 'weak and dying', and 'extinct' languages, to describe the state-of-the-art of language maintenance and loss. A 'strong' or healthy language, she says, (i)

is one which is transmitted to children and actively spoken by all generations in a wide range of social contexts

(ii)

is not subject to language change triggered by English or other dominant language so that children have access to, and command of, the whole language and do not need to fall back on English to fill in gaps of knowledge

(iii) has at least 200 speakers and contributes to self- and group identity

(1993: 2)

58

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

Table 2-3. Language maintenance in indigenous Australia Language Warlpiri Arrernte dialects: - Western/Eastern - Anmatyirra - Alyawarra Kunwinjku Tiwi Murrinh-Patha Western Desert - Pitjantjatjara - Pintupi-Luritja Nyangumarta Western Desert - Yulparija - Gugaja - Ngaanyatjara Murrinh-Patha Maung Dhuwal-Dhuwala: -Gupapuyungu - Djambarrpuyngu Wik-Mungkan Kalaw Lagaw Ya Yindjibarndi Walmajarri Anindilyakwa Meriam Guugu Yimidhirr Alyawarra Kriol Torres Strait cr. Other indigenous lang.s

Black 1983 Schmidt 1990 Census 1996 Census 2001 2,937 3,000 2,660 2,800 2,444 3,000 3,000 3,796 2,000 864 1,225 800 1,452 1,373 900 1,406 961 1,500 1,400 1,818 749 700-1,000 1,435 1,155 900 3,000+ 4,000-5,000 2,110 2,963 1,200-1,300 800+ 377 591 245 263

1,000 200 1,700+ 450 450+ 800 3,000+ 600+ 1,300 1,000+ 700 600 500+ 15,000+ 15,000

52

93 571 984 1,435 231 3,647

6 51 312 1,387

835 923 333 863 1,224 325 734 1,452 5 27 5,334

668 816 237 596 1,311 184 580 1,373 2,990 1,240 10,697

The regional distribution of the 20 strong, 90 weakening and 160 extinct languages is shown in map 2-3 on page 59. I have adapted it slightly from Schmidt (1990: 7; map 3) and show some widely known locations. 16 16

The report has some inconsistencies, e.g. ρ 1 says that the "other 70 surviving languages face severe threat of extinction", while the diagram, used above refers to some 90 languages. Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (1996) is an example of a study of a 'strong' language in the region.

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

59

Melville Island D e w i n g . I f c h î s i Land

i íape York

Kimb^iey ^

i

ô

Q Caims

Broome P~

0

Ö Port Headland Alice Spii Hermannsjpurg Brisbane Gold C oasi Port Augusta Perth Fremantle

• Kalgdoiiie Adelaide

Canberr¡

Bunbuiy Melbourne • = strong languages o = weak and dying languages • - urbanisation

C-η Tasmanias^[

Map 2-3. Strong and weak Aboriginal languages

Strong languages were found in the remote desert, in the coastal regions of northern Australia, the Port Headland region in Western Australia and the Central Desert. No strong or weakening language was located in the southern half of the continent or in the coastal regions of south-east and south-west Australia. Traditional languages had, she said, all been lost there. But even if the cluster of strong languages in the north may look impressive, one must recall that there existed some 40 languages before and that most of them have gone. Even areas, then, that were settled late and were sheltered from direct contact till the late 19th century, such as the

60

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

Kimberley, have suffered severe losses. One cannot fail to note how serious the situation has become for the indigenous heritage. McConvell and Thieberger (2001), too, conclude that there is no evidence that some languages, at least, are becoming strong again. By 2050, the say, all of them may have been lost. The growth in the absolute number of speakers that has been observed above is below the growth of the indigenous population. And parameters such as the rural and urban dimension, age, gender, marriage patterns and differences between specific communities do not show much hope either. So, even if the ABS data for 2001 (cf. ABS 2001; 2002a) do point to a few strong languages, such as Warlpiri and Pitjantjatjara in Central Australia, and say that some 25 languages have well over 1,000 speakers, others close to 1,000, there is little hope for a significant change in the situation. That state-of-affairs had become a political issue in the 1980s, when language policy was on the political agenda. A House of Representatives (1992) report suggested a list of remedial actions to be included in a national language policy (cf. Chapter Four). But the findings of the early reports that it was based on had been criticized by Aboriginal experts who argued that such reports wrongly suggested that there were no languages in the urbanized south-east. There were no 'dead' languages, not even there and the picture they painted was too negative and discouraging. McConvell and Thieberger's (2001) report, thus comes at an appropriate time to provide a greater depth for the dispute. Yet, their conclusions, too, are disappointing and do not show to any marked improvement. I will now turn to the second cycle of this presentation and look at factors that support or are an obstacle to language maintenance. To begin with, I should point out that there are two types of loss, viz. the loss of a language 'by rupture' and 'by attrition'. Loss by rupture, for instance, occurred in the Sydney region very early on when thousands of people died during a smallpox epidemic. Whole tribes were massacred in Tasmania in the early part of the 19th century. And the expansion of the pastoral industry in Queensland in the late 19th century, too, was accompanied by massacres that led to language loss by rupture. Natural mortality, the relocation of Aborigines and the drop in fertility rates, in contrast, weakened languages to the point of extinction and led to loss by attrition (cf. section 2.3). That scenario was more typical of the late 19th and the 20th century, when policies shifted from segregation to assimilation. Losses were not total and there remained some speakers throughout Australia. That type of loss was typically accompanied by heavy modifications of the language (cf. section 2.4.2). As that process of loss proceeds gradually through a series of stages that include a weakening of compet-

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

61

enee, a reduction in the use of the language to ever more narrow contexts, mainly in the home domain, the extended, at first, then the core family, there are options. Above all, there remained the option that speakers could choose another indigenous mode of expressions. They could, for instance, (a) shift to another indigenous language as a lingua franca (b) develop an indigenous language as a common koiné (c) develop an English-based contact languages such as a pidgin, a creole or AborE as a complementary mode of expression (d) shift to an English-based contact language Only solution (a) amounted to the maintenance of a traditional language, all others imply contact languages, the theme of section 2.4.3. Yet, both (a) and (b) were closer to traditional life-styles than (c) and (d), which were more dramatic and alien. But outcomes were never secure, as I said in the explanation of diagram 1-1, and there could be shifts from, say, an indigenous koiné to a contact variety of English. Communities might co-opt, say (a) and (d), for different types of situations. For instance, the recent attempts at reviving languages that I will turn to below have created a new kind of bilingualism amongst groups who leam an indigenous language that was need not necessarily their ancestral one; they learn it later in adolescence or even later in adulthood. To turn from outcomes to the steps involved in loss by attrition, Schmidt lists 14 factors that together trigger a "'downward spiral of reduced language use', which breaks the "chain of language transmission to the next generation" (1990: 21). But Mühlhäusler rightly warned that the picture that is painted sol often is still too narrow and focuses too much on the loss of an individual language. What is lost or changed, he thinks, are not individual languages but the entire ecology, the cultural and demographic seedbed of all the languages that had been in use in traditional societies. What is being 'gained' is a modern, Westem-style or, as some would say, American pattern of life. While the particular study from which this view is quoted is the South Pacific, it applies, I would suggest, equally well to Aboriginal Australia. Gary Foley describes the consequences of this pervasive process in in the adoption of values alien to Kooriness: This Américanisation of Australia's youth is viewed with increasing concern by many non-Koori Australian parents. How is it that these same good people see the evil of cultural imperialism clearly when it affects their own white, middle-class Aussie kids, but claim not to comprehend how the same

62

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

principle applies to our situation as Kooris? As Kooris, we need to be ever vigilant to the subtle undermining of our cultural values - values such as the individual. These and other Koori ideas, such as the proposition that living things might be more important than material wealth, have always been considered subversive by non-Koori Australian society. (The Age, section Opinion-Analysis, 21 July 1993) The free-enterprise system, he adds, and the emphasis on individual gain can lead to a radical restructuring of the cultural basis on which languages rest and affect can the texture of indigenous languages, making them ever more like English. Experiences of loss have had socio-psychological consequences which I will illustrate with some testimonies from various sources. Jacky Fisher and Allan Douglas, for instance, expressed their feeling of shame when they heard old people using their language: When I was young I heard them [the old people, GL] talking. I said something to old Watson, old Jacky Watson, I said 'What you singing Old Fella?'. He swore at me. He said, 'I'm swearing at you'. I was frightened to talk to him, yeh frightened the hell out of me. I said 'I'm sorry Old Fella', (fr. Aird 1996: 13) When they sat around the table and started to speak their language, it brought tears to my eyes - what I had missed out on. Missed out on my culture, missed out on my language and things that they did. But as I grew up in Cherbourg, I became a part of it. (fr. Aird 1996: 13) Hazel Mace recounts her childhood in Cherbourg and explains the fact that she never learnt a language: They lived on the mission, as I said there were sixteen different tribes there at the time and they were told they weren't to speak in your language, or teach it to your children. That's why I never learnt any languages, only what I picked up hearing others talk there, I could tell you what some things meant like muntha for bread, yurri or minya for meat, gumoo that was water... (fr. Aird 1996: 19) Such accounts often contain a few words that are remembered: See, you say to say to a child, muntha, they wouldn't know what it is. Children today you got to put a little bit of English in there, so they understand, pass the muntha. Some of them don't even know what muntha or yurri is. That muntha is bread and yurri is meat, gumoo is water, boogan is dog, budburra is porcupine. You ask them to get the boree for you, they

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

63

wouldn't know what you want, boree is a light. They know what a yaraman is though, a horse, little things like that. (fr. Aird 1996: 26) Jacky Fisher, the narrator, adds nullum biddi 'fighting stick', budgeroo 'paper money' and bularoo a 'round coin'. Such views have, one should recall, been expressed in the context of a changed socio-political climate, which made it possible for Aborigines to express their experiences and which has made maintenance or the reversal of shift a positive perspective. On a short tour of the Swan River Valley in Perth I ended up in an Aboriginal art shop. The apparently white young woman explained everything in great detail and offered to get more information from the "boss', her mother. Her use of 'we' startled me and, when I asked her, she told me that she had only recently learnt of her Aboriginal descent. It had been tabooed and her mother respected her mother's wishes. The fear of losing a child during the 1930s to 1950s - the Stolen Generation period - was too vivid, too real for the truth to be told, even then. The time had come and the young woman was now learning Nyoongar - the 'native tongue'. The use of a native language may even be an attraction for the young generation. Languages may have prestige, as this quote from Gary Foley indicates: I speak a little bit of the Goombajeri language but I don't speak it properly, which is in itself a crime because my grandmother was one of the last of the fluent speakers of Goombajeri language. I pestered her for years, from about nineteen seventy-two until she died ... to pass on this language. And she wouldn't, like a lot of the old people at that time wouldn't do it because she was one of the one's who'd been got at... One of the reasons why I'm so hostile to the Christian church is because my grandmother's one of those who refused to pass on the language because she'd been beaten when she was a child, and told that if she spoke our language or practiced our custom then our language was the language of the devil and it was a sin to talk it and she would go to hell. And she was convinced.... (interview with Gary Foley, January 1996) People are eager now to identify as speakers that can still 'use language'. And old people have retained some of the language, Donaldson reports: The number of people in NSW today who can speak their language 'right through' - that is, who could find a way of saying anything they want to say using the language (with some English vocabulary) - could probably be counted on the fingers of one hand with some left over. But all Aboriginal communities use a handful of words from ancestral languages in their often distinctive English. (1994: 24)

64

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

The languages she is referring to were thought to be extinct, such as Muruwari in northern New South Wales on the border to Queensland, Ngyinampaa, Paakantji, Wangkumara, and Wiradjuri in the Riverina south of Canberra (SSABSA 1996c: 167). Thus, it becomes understandable that Troy and Walsh argued that there are "no dead languages in NSW. In many communities there are elders who speak their language and in all communities people have some knowledge of their language/s and use some vocabulary on a daily basis" (fir. FATSIL Newsletter 18, 2001: 6). Varcoe (1994) tells similar stories about Kaurna, Ngarrindjerri and Narrunga in South Australia (cf. Simpson 1996). Such findings, especially from the south-east of Australia, have led to conflicts between indigenous communities, which are expressed in this way by one of my interviewees: It's very hard to describe what we've lost.... I mean the Northern Territory blackfellas, the Aboriginal communities up there, I mean, they still got their language. They can speak their language, you know it's common knowledge, it's fluent. That's their first language, English is their second ... And I got quite angry and upset with that because I stood up and said well I don't think that's right. I think you're wrong, I said, you've got the most precious thing you could ever have and that's your own language. So you've got everything. We've got nothing. (Gallagher) She added that "some people believe we might be able to paste back our language that we might be able to speak fluently but I don't think so." Sharpe's (1993: 78f) account of the interest of people on the Gold Coast in learning Bundjalung is pertinent. She identifies three groups, viz. a large number of people of Bundjalung ancestry who want to learn about their past, white people from the region who want to know the region's past, and academics and students with a linguistic interest. Thanks to Fesl's efforts, Bundjalung can now be studied in Gippsland, west of Melbourne, which never was a Bundjalung area. Harris and Sandefiir (1985: 260) tell a story from Noonkanbah, between Broome and Fitzroy Crossing, where young people develop a speaking competence in a traditional language only after school leaving age. Languages are considered inappropriate with young children; older adolescents, in contrast, can and do learn them. Where languages have become very weak or are 'dead', efforts are being made to at least document them or even to revive them to such a level that they can be used for limited functions (Hartman and Henderson 1994). The political side will be covered in section 4.2.2. But it is not just structural support that is required: It is the creation of a learning context at school similar to traditional learning (Schmidt 1990; SSABSA 1996c) and the

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

65

carving out of communicative pockets in wider domains where bilingualism may prosper. Old languages need new uses, to paraphrase the title of a paper by Black (1993). Here is an example from a talk by Rigney (2002) that shows the use of an indigenous language in a novel, academic context. His abstract is in Kaurna: (32)

Ngankinna meyunna! Ν a marni purrutye ? Ngai narri Irabinna Kudnuitya Rigney. Ngai Bukkiyanaunangko worni. Ngai yaitya meyu, Narungga/Kaurna/Ngarrindjeri birkounungko. Martuitya Kaurna meyunna Ngai wanggandi. 'Ladies and gentlemen! How are you all? 'My name is Irabinna Kudnuitya Rigney.' Ί was born at Bukkiyana (Pt Pearce mission)' Ί am an Indigenous man of the Narungga, Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri language groups.' Ί am speaking on behalf of the Kaurna people.'17

Kaurna is, in fact, a very special case. As the text shows, it has been elaborated so that it can function in mainstream academic purposes. In Chapter Four I will return to such themes in the context of corpus planning. McKay's (1996) report on the status of languages in four communities is of interest at this point. He looked at the situation in Borroloola and the Barkly Tablelands in the Northern Territory, the Gumbayggir People near Kempsey in New South Wales, the Jaru in East Kimberley in Western Australia, and Sabai Island in the Torres Strait. A lot has been, and is being, lost, he says, but there are positive signs, too, especially when communities accept the fact that languages need to be modified, that younger speakers will use the languages in ways different from old people, and that English, a pidgin or Kriol are components of a new texture of a multilingual habitat that may be there to stay. Baldauf and Eggington looked at the behaviour of children as elements in language maintenance or loss: Children as they get older appear to be retaining many of the simplified aspects of 'baby talk' and not adjusting their language to adult expectations. Indeed Lee reports (1983: 584) that although young people's comprehension of TT (Traditional Tiwi) [a Torres Strait language; GL] is greater than their production, few young people, particularly children, can understand much of the TT

17

I am grateful to Rob Amery (University of South Australia) for translating this.

66

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

spoken by older people among themselves or the stories told (or written) in TT. One twenty year old girl commented that she could not understand her father when he spoke in 'hard' Tiwi. Concerned about this type of situation, Devlin (1986) conducted an in-depth analysis of language maintenance/shift at Galiwin'ku settlement, Elcho Island, Northern Territory... His findings suggest that the more marginal a speech community, the more likely it is that some kind of significant polarization will occur along age-related lines; younger speakers may use a stigmatized version of their own language or they might abandon the language altogether, whereas older speakers favor retention. (1989: 24f) If one recalls the range of styles available to traditional communities, one will see that attrition has affected the entire repertoire and habitat, as Mühlhäusler had argued. Children lack 'model speakers' they can emulate. With different life perspectives they will use language differently from the older generation. Some children may end up giving up altogether, others may persist. On that background, Lo Bianco and Rhydwen's survey of maintenance and revival efforts ends on a pessimistic note: Despite occasional instances of revival efforts that attain short-term, unexpected and spiritually uplifting gains for communities of speakers of traditional languages the pattern of attrition and extinction appears inexorable. Indeed it has probably accelerated.... We have also argued that the state, motivated by economistic logic of social, and even benevolently intended discourses of 'equality' continues to find ways to invade the social spaces and 'social meanings' whose conservation is critical to the retention and intergenerational transmission of indigenous languages. (2001: 419) 'Natural' acquisition and use are extremely restricted in the communities at the centre of McKay's (1996) report. Some communities had done well in terms of maintenance and revival, but, Lo Bianco and Rhydwen too warn that they are still endangered. Little to no progress seems to have been made to 2001. On the Kauma program in the Adelaide region, they say this: In 1986, Kaurna Plains School (a Nunga school) started a Kaurna language programme and in 1994 a senior secondary programme started and Kaurna has since been recognised as an accredited secondary school subject (...). Kaurna is certainly worthy of inclusion as a revival initiative and immensely commendable in its scope and ambition. However, it is still an 'acquired' language and its intergenerational transmission status and chance must rank as problematical. (2001: 411)

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

67

It is worth turning to Schmidt's (1985) investigation of Dyirbal, as it highlights subtle intragenerational differences in the use of the language. Dyirbal was once spoken by some 8,000 people in north-east Queensland and had eight dialects. Schmidt found merely small pockets of speakers around the Jambun community on the upper Murray and identified two distinct groups. One spoke 'traditional' Dyirbal, the other, in the age-range of 15 to 39 spoke 'young' Dyirbal. "As a dying language", she argued, Dyirbal is limited to fixed networks of interaction within the community. While the TD [traditional Dyirbal; GL] speakers speak Dyirbal freely among themselves, YD speakers do not use YD to all other young speakers. Rather, there are set lines of Dyirbal communication for these YD speakers. (1985: 128)

There were, in fact, two networks amongst the young Dyirbal speakers. One was isolated from the wider community and used Dyirbal only among themselves, the other used it also with traditional speakers. Communicative isolation was particularly acute with the 15-20-year-age group, who used Dyirbal to mark group membership. The two sub-groups differed in their willingness to use patterns influenced by English. Traditional Dyirbal, for instance, requires locative adverbials to be marked with the locative case. The two groups differed marginally in this instance and both tended to use case marking. The isolated group had an average of 11 per cent of prepositions derived from English, the other about 8 per cent. In contrast, ergative case marking was used by a mere three per cent in the former group and 89 per cent in the latter. The past tense marker bin, which comes from pidgin, was used 48 per cent in the isolated group and nine per cent in the other. The group that used Dyirbal within the wider community was, one might infer, more traditional in its use and accepted the role of model speakers, while the other adapted Dyirbal to English. The intragenerational stratification of older patterns as against such modifications is a typical indicator of the persistence of traditional languages against all odds (cf. section 2.4.2). But the puristic, corrective attitude of old speakers who reject anything that is not 'pure' Dyirbal is a major reason for the division into these groups and a reason for the non-transmission of the language to children altogether. Example (32) above illustrated the attempt to expand the functions of Kaurna. And indeed a lot more has been achieved, the ABC (2001) reports. A language, which was 'lost' in the late 19th century, was revived after years of research by committed descendants of the language and linguists like Amery (ar. 2002). They reconstructed parts of the language on the basis of the dictionary and grammar that Teichelmann and Schürmann (1840) had

68

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

compiled (section 2.3). Comparative studies with neighbouring languages, interviews with old speakers to collect what they remembered, etc. helped to fill the gaps in the works of Teichelmann and Schürmann. The language was brought back to life again and was re-implanted into the community. In 2001 a music festival in Adelaide showed that Kaurna was functional again. It was broadcast by the ABC (2001)and I quote from the script: MIKE SEXTON: When thousands of people gathered in Adelaide recently for a 3-day world music festival, they were welcomed in a tongue that's both one of Australia's oldest languages and one of its newest. The language is Kaurna. It's being spoken as a result of a joint effort by black and white Australians to revive what had been considered by many to be a dead language .... The only record of the language is this tiny dictionary discovered by a librarian in the 1960s. It was written in 1840 by Kaurna elders in conjunction with two German missionaries - Clamor Schurmann and Christian Teichelmann - who ran a school for Aboriginal children. LESTER-IRABINNA RIGNEY: Our language wasn't considered a coherent language. It was considered a series of grunts and utterances. But what we do know is Teichelmann and Schurmann came from a background of missionaries from Dresden who valued languages other than English.

Work was not stopping there: "Kaurna elder Lewis O'Brien is part of a group, including Rob Amery, that's creating a new Kaurna vocabulary" (ABC 2001). New words are created using the word-building resources of the language for modern concepts. But while such efforts seem to support the success of language revival efforts, demographic profiles, analyses of usage patterns and of the domains in which languages are used are missing. Long-term predictions are thus difficult to make and, where they have been made, must be taken with caution. Marginality may continue to be a cause of loss, according to Baldauf and Eggington (1989: 25). But how does one measure marginality? Is the relevant scope the nation, the State, wider locations or the mob of potential speakers? Many Aboriginal people resent that 'objective' scientific pessimism, which they feel to be discouraging. 2.4.2

Modification

Modification is, I suggested thoughout, the most pervasive outcome of contact and interaction. Recall from sections 2.1-2 that the contact between

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

69

indigenous languages that had been going on for thousands of years created language areals that cut across typological affiliations. Modification and adaptation were normal processes and the skills of Aboriginal people with coping with unknown situations surpassed those of intruders by far, even if they were insufficient overall. The colonial period led to a new situation which can be discussed on the basis of these questions: (1) Are there instances of modification that are unrelated to the English language and British colonialism? (2) When were languages modified more or less intensively? (3) How pervasive has contact with English been overall? Some modification indeed was independent of British colonialism and occurred before the first settlement in Sydney Cove. Picking up a thread from section 2.3, question (1) looks at the impact of the Macassan fishermen and of the pidgin that was in use then. Question (2), then, turns to English. What will only be dealt with in passing is modifications that occurred via English, such as when words from eastern indigenous languages entered those of Queensland. That section will be brief since a good deal has been said in section 2.4.1 and a good deal more will follow in section 2.4.4. A final point: The term modification is best understood as a scalar concept and assumes that a language that is being modified retains its linguistic and social identity so as to distinguish the effects of modification from contact languages (cf. Clyne 2003; Myers-Scotton 2002). 2.4.2.1

Macassan influences

The survey of the social history of contact (cf. section 2.3) showed that there was little outside contact up to the First Fleet. But there was some, which, it would seem, was related to the exploration and shipping routes to the spice islands in south-east Asia. Unsurprisingly, the Dutch played a role, but the French, too, were active before the British came and continued to be to the 1830s in the western part of Australia. The trepang trade that the Macassans engaged in is thus a part of European colonialism. The contact with the Macassars led to linguistic outcomes that are worth studying. Evans (1992), which is the most detailed study to date, identified 524 'established' and 34 'uncertain' loans in as many as 16 languages on Melville Island, north-west of Darwin, the Wesleyan Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria and Amhem Land (see map 2-4). There were about 22 loans in Tiwi, 76 in Iwaidja, 56 in Garig, 75 in Mawng, 73 in Amurdak and 45 in

70

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

Burarra (Evans 1992: 47). Evans also identified several temporal layers and some onomasiological fields in which these loans were used, cf. table 2-4, adapted from Evans 1992, app. 1, pp 68-88. Table 2-4. Loans due to contact with the Macassars Boating anchor (balaqo), boat (biseaq, kappala?, parahu) Building, carpentry beam (= 'door'), plank (galuma?), supports ('house') Clothing material, adornment jewellery (mani? mani?), soap (sabuq), trousers (salúwara?) Commerce, trade money (rupia) Drink bottle (botolo?) Fishing fish-hook (pécaq), fish-net (panambi) Foods and food preparation porridge (buburu?), rice (barasa?), salt (ce?la) People, personality European (balanda), woman (nona) Winds, directions downwind (< down turuq)

Some loans are, in fact, of English, viz• botolo 'bottle', others are of Dutch origin, viz. balanda 'white person', Malay, viz. kanji 'starch'. Sabuq may be from French. Some, such as balanda, were borrowed into pidgins.

2.4.2.2

English influences

The lexis of a language can be likened to a cognitive map. With reference to Fowler (1991), Leitner (2004b) showed that the influence of Aboriginal languages on mAusE amounted to more than the addition of a few words such as kangaroo or billabong. But the impact of English on indigenous languages has been more pervasive. Part of the picture was dealt with in section 2.4.1 under the heading of loss. I will now adopt a broader perspective and show that modification is a reflection of the power relationship between different languages or varieties of a language and leads to the recasting of the underlying cognitive map and rules of communication. Regarding lexical fields, English influences have been reported early. Dixon, Ramson, and Thomas (1990), for instance, recount an episode by the explorer Mitchell, who met some Aborigines near the Gwydir River in northern New South Wales on 8 January 1832: We heard calls in various directions, and 'whitefellow' pronounced very loudly and distinctly. 'Whitefella' or 'white man', appears to be their name (of course derived from us) for our race, and this appellation probably accompanies the first intelligence of such strangers, to the most remote,

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

71

interior regions. (Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, 1839, Vol. 1, pp. 71-2; fr. Dixon, Ramson, and Thomas 1990: 231)

The Queenslander carried a report on a talk at the Royal Society of Queensland on Yerongpan, which was used around Brisbane and Ipswich. Dr. Joseph Lauterer made many observations, a few are of interest here: Many words are taken from the English in a mutilated form, e.g., buredn, bread; tseruse, trousers; whymerigan, (white Mary), an English lady; bullae, ox; goondool (gondola), a small boat; deamer, steamer. Some words have only been invented when the white man came in contact with aboriginals, e.g. the horse "yereman" is named after the kangaroo, guruman; the sheep is called monkey. The names of native weapons, as adopted by the colonists, are mostly derived from the Sydney blacks. The boomerang, for instance, is called baragan, or bargan, in the Yerongpan language. (21 March 1891)

It is worth adding that these words had been borrowed into Yerongpan via other eastern languages. The following excerpt is from a report on McKinley's expedition from Gawler to Birdsville, west of Melbourne: Aborigines along the route took their word for 'elder', 'old man' or 'chieftain' - pinnaru - and added to it 'whilpra', which came from 'wheelbarrow' but was applied to any wheeled vehicle. John McKinley was to the outback Aborigines of South Australia, the Wheelbarrow Chief, the Whilprapinnaru. (Lockwood 1995: 40)

A systematic survey of the effects of English on the lexis of indigenous languages will identify many areas where English has made inroads into the 'lexical-cognitive maps' of their speakers (Fowler 1991). The examples in (33) illustrate loans into the area of human artefacts and technology, human classification, food (consumption), education, the social domain (such as kinship, language, mythology and ceremony), elements, fauna and flora, and qualities. (34) illustrates complex words that have been coined to express new meanings. Related to this are loan translations and paraphrases in (35). (36) concludes with semantic shift. (33)

Loans (including phonetic adaptations)

Example

Meaning

Language

Etymology, other processes

dindihdh jimba bi-bi pikipiki wadyiman

dish sheep pig pig white man

Bundjalung Bundjalung Bundjalung Ngiyampaa Sydney

< E tin dish1 < E jumbuck [really pidgin E] < E reduplication of 'pig' < E reduplication of 'pig' < E white man

72

Chapter 2

bottle bread sugar Chinese

badal baradu djuga jaw-jaw (34)

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians Sydney Sydney Sydney Bundjalung

headlights > money

Woiwerrung, Melbourne Walmajarri, Kimberley, WA Nyangumarta, Pilbara, WA Guugu-Yimidhirr, Cooktown, Qld.

An interesting example is how Aborigines referred to horses. When they saw different kinds of quadrupeds that the First Fleeters had brought, they referred to all of them as kangaroos, except to dogs (Leitner 2004b; section 3.1.1.1). Horses were also referred to with loans from indigenous languages and Macassan. The most prominent expression was yarraman whose origin is unknown. It has acquired currency in pidgins and become a regular word in mAusE. Nanto from Kaurna and járan from Macassan were also used: nanto, which means 'male kangaroo' in Kaurna.... Kaurna people first called horses pindi nanto 'European kangaroo', but by 1840 they had dropped pindi European' and simply called them nanto. Nanto quickly passed into languages across South Australia, Central Australia and further north ... Alyawarra and other languages near the Northern Territory-Queensland border have both words: yarraman and nantu. Yarraman has come from the east while nantu has come up from the south. Another word for the horse has been borrowed from the Macassan traders. Jaran, Macassan for 'horse', is found in languages of Arnhem Land's north coast. (SSABSA 1996c: 169)

Turning to morphology and syntax, the following examples from Chris Nangala Wellard illustrate English words in an indigenous text. The words are partly integrated grammatically and marked by case or other morphological markers: (37)

Yanulu August-rla Brisbane-kirra Yurrampi craft-wardingki-patu Second National Indigenous Business Conference 'In August, Yurrampi Crafts travelled to Brisbane to attend the second NIBC' (Junga Yimi 2: 2,1995)

74

Chapter 2

(38)

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

September-rla-rnalu meeting wangkaja, wali natirli yanurnu committee member-patu panu purda-nyanjaku. 'During September, we attempted to hold an AGM, but many committee members could not attend.' (Junga Yimi 1: 3, 1996).

The discussion of Nyangumarta above has shown how languages can be influenced grammatically by English. The three variations of the sentence Ί will hit you' in example (39) show the gradual shift from a traditional sentence structure to one that is heavily influenced by English. Sentence (a) has the traditional VOS word order and extensive inflectional affixes. In example (b) the object marker -nta is left out, while the VOS order is retained; (c) eventually shifts to the English SVO order: (39)

(a) Wirla-lama-rna-nta hit-fut.-l.sg. Subj-2.sg Obj (b) Wirla-lama-rna hit-future-1 sg Subj. (c) Ngaju-lu I-Erg

nyuntu ngaju-lu you I-Erg nyuntu ngaju-lu you I-Erg wirla-lama-rna nyuntu hit-future-1 sg. Subj. You

I must return to the rise of new social varieties whose use correlates with age. Older speakers often deplore these developments, says SSABSA (1996c: 8) but purism is an obstacle to language transmission and shows that languages have been modified. Sharpe, for instance, notes "also a great concern to get 'pure' language, not 'contaminated' with English, and to carefully record differences in neighbouring dialects" (1993: 73) amongst Bundjalung speakers. But, she says, I [Sharpe; GL] also remind learners that they are a new Bundjalung group, and it will be up to them to set their own norms and become their own role models. If they gain reasonable fluency, even with 'defective' pronunciation, they will, after a little tuning in on both sides, be able to understand and communicate with native speakers. (Sharpe 1993: 81)

In contrast, the Nyangumarta community is accepting more anglicized variations of the language in the schools so as not to discourage or shame the students and make them unwilling to use the language at all. 2.4.3

Contact languages

Section 2.4.2 could be relatively brief on modification as much had been covered in section 2.4.1 and a good deal will be included here. Contact

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

75

languages are pidgins, creóles, bilingually mixed languages and stabilized learner varieties that arise under specific social conditions (Thomason 2001; Clyne 2003). My survey will be based on these questions: (1)

When and why did contact languages arise?

(2)

What were the languages that provided the dominant input into contact languages? What was the relationship of contact languages in Australia with the rise of such languages in the South Pacific?

(3)

Are there any contact languages that have proceeded along the path to variety formation and, possibly, self control (cf. diagrams 1-1 in Chapter One and diagram 2-2 below)?

As to question (1), pre-colonial contact languages will be ruled out by definition; they are dealt with as languages of wider communication inside the traditional ecology. As the survey of the conditions that could give rise to contact languages showed (section 2.3), such languages were common in Australia from the late 18th century. There was even one contact language, viz. Macassan Pidgin, that drew on resources other than English, i.e. Malay, Dutch, etc. Most contact languages, though, were based on English, and most have disappeared. Only Kriol and Torres Strait creole have survived and been accepted as indigenous languages proper. Question (1), thus, provides the main input for question (2), which will be treated briefly and with a view to embedding the Australian situation inside the contact situation in the South Pacific. Question (3) will look at Kriol and Torres Strait creole, survey their main features, patterns of stratification and their path to variety formation. A few preliminary remarks regarding questions (1) and (2) may help to avoid a simplistic interpretation and applicatio of what is shown in diagram 1-1. Recall that Sydney was the location of the first settlement and soon became a central hub for cross-Pacific traffic and trade. It became a meeting place of people and languages from all over the world and was crucial to the rise of contact languages. The maritime traffic brought the South Pacific Jargon, traces from Atlantic pidgins and of varieties of North American English (Wurm, Mühlhäusler, and Tryon 1996; Leitner 2004b). Sydney was absorbing linguistic input from the outside and could diffuse it into its hinterland; alternatively, it could spread Australian features to the emerging pidgins in the South Pacific. The spread followed the tracks of explorers, the stock routes, the growth of the pastoral industry, gold mining, and the creation of townships. Of the range of distinct groups involved in expansion, some acted as 'conveyor belts', such as the Afghan camel

76

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

drovers, Chinese gold diggers, Kanakas from the South Pacific, pearl fishers from Japan and Malaya. The role of Sydney in shaping the texture of the pidgins diminished in the second half of the 19th century. Brisbane and other northern towns now grew in importance and South Australia, too, became a factor in the spread of the pidgin to the north and west during the second part of the 19th century, according to Mühlhäusler (1996c). He refers, for instance, to the fact that Adelaide had become a central point of transit when the overland telegraph was built between it and Darwin and when the railway line was constructed between Sydney and Perth. The Afghan camel drovers, too, often operated from Adelaide. The intensity and complexity of contacts, naturally, were factors that stabilized and localized or re-lexified the pidgin. 2'

\ \

3

OUTSIDE INFLUENCE

CONTACT/INTERACTION between LANGUAGES and VARIETIES OF LANGUAGES

/ CONTACT LANGUAGE BASE

4

(a) MODIFICATION (b) CREATION (c) MULTILINGUALISM (of CONTACT LANGUAGES)

Diagram 2-2. Amended description of contact outcomes

Given that complexity of scenario, it is sensible to rule out a linear model for the diffusion of influences that would seek to trace their origin to adjacent languages in contact. The search for the origin of a feature is like the search for a needle in a haystack, and it has rightly been argued that features could leap over large distances and travel across widely separated languages. That would account for the rise of local variations in different parts of Australia at different periods of time. It would seem plausible also that the first contact outcome was not what diagram 1-1 suggested. There were not, in other words, recognizable jargons or pidgins (Leitner 2004b).

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

77

The assumption that identifiable contact languages arose immediately is, I would suggest, oversimplified. What emerged first was a fluid common contact language base, which was undifferentiated with regard to specific outcome types. Diagram 2-2 above below how diagram 1-1 could be modified. The base - a fluid contact language - is sometimes called a jargon, an early pidgin or a communicative strategy that is highly variable. It draws on diverse inputs from indigenous languages, varieties of English, Macassan pidgin, Chinese Pidgin English or from outside Australia. As it is highly individual initially, it may also be characterized by strategies that speakers used successfully in the past. Once is is used more widely, successfully and frequently, it may develop into pidgins, creóles, stabilized learner varieties, AborE or other ethnic varieties. But such distinct outcomes emerged only later and after an ill-defined period of variety formation. Having clarified this modification, I turn to specific contact languages.

2.4.3.1

Indigenous lingue franche, koinés and pidgins

Though English exerted the most pervasive pressure in the early periods, indigenous 'options' were sometimes pursued. Mühlhäusler said that "in a number of instances, English has been resisted as a lingua franca and Aboriginal communolect languages have developed, partially through processes of simplification and dialect levelling. Koinés are typically found in remote settlements" (1996b: 14). Mühlhäusler and Amery caution that "there is an urgent need for more detailed investigation of indigenous lingue franche and koinés throughout Aboriginal Australia... Only one Australian koiné, Dhuwaya, has so far been documented in any detail" (1996: 22). The main differences between lingue franche and koinés, i.e. outcomes (a) and (b), were seen in the degree of simplification: These indigenous lingue franche may have been essentially unchanged from the traditional languages which gave rise to them. There may be little evidence of simplification or language mixing. All of these indigenous lingue franche have of course incorporated many loan words from English and, as lingue franche, there is an increased likelihood that they have incorporated loan words from the other languages of the region. On the other hand, the emerging lingue franche may have undergone koineization, demonstrating significant language simplification and evidence of a number of languages contributing to their structures... The resultant koine is a hybrid or amalgam of the contributing varieties. It is a

78

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

language that has undergone some simplification, dialect mixing and dialect levelling. (1996: 19) As other researchers have categorized these languages in a slightly different manner, it may be best to look at these two concepts as if they were lying at opposite ends of a scale. Lingue franche are, Mühlhäusler argued, common in post-colonial Australia, in the north above all, while koinés developed in other areas. The following list has examples from both types of indigenous contact languages: lingue franche Nyangumarta (WA) Wik Mungkan (NT) Guugu Yimithirr (Qld) Warlpiri (Central Desert) Western Desert Language (WA)

koinés Dhuwaya (Yirrkala) Yolngu (NT) Papunya Luritja (NT)

In the Bass Strait, he mentions Flinders Island Tasmanian as a historical example. It disappeared a long time ago. Wurm, Mühlhäusler, and Tryon (1996; map 5) ignore detail but do point to the commonness of lingue franche and koinés. Since they were often used in areas that are considered 'strong' today, one cannot avoid the impression that even these areas have come under heavier pressure than has been implied in section 2.4.1. Today, a few languages expand as strong lingue franche or koinés, others weaken. In contrast to what was said earlier, Bucknall (1997) refers to Nyangumarta as a mixed language derived from Mamyjiljarra, Kartujarra, Martwangka, Warnuman, Ngarla and others. The language emerged when languages in the region were weakening and acquired status first at ceremonial functions, then also at others. It is spoken by some 700 speakers in an area from Port Headland north to as far as Broome and inland to Marble Bar. The Census of 2001, however, lists only 245 (table 2-3). Nyangumarta is becoming the first language of young people. O'Grady (1996) observed four dialects, viz. partially localized compromises, which are recognized as a (new) language. When the communities applied for funding for an independent school and to develop teaching materials, they tape-recorded children to see how they used the language and where it was used naturally. A 5year-old child was recorded as saying this (Bucknall 1997: 45): (40)

Mami-lu-pa tait-lu ka-nya-pulu-pulinya kiriki-karti Mum-Erg-and daddy_Erg take-past-those-2 nd creek-towards Subj.-those.-2 nd _Obj 'Mummy and daddy, those two, took them (those two) to the creek'

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

79

Bucknall explains that it was not intended to use this one example to evaluate the state of the young people's language, however, as the child came from ... a strong Nyangumarta speaking family, the use of Nyangumarta suffixes on English words was a matter of some concern... They were aware of some intrusion of English into Nyangumarta but had not realised the extent to which it was happening. (1997: 45) There is a high level of borrowing. Words like marni, tait, kiriki (< creek) were adapted to the grammatical and phonological requirements of the language. Despite that, the language was no longer 'pure', while the community wanted children to learn 'good' Nyangumarta. The extent of loaning increased further when members of the communities left for the nearby cities and were exposed even more to mAusE. Nyangumarta has been changing further in the direction of English and, yet, has retained its ability to signal group identities. Its sub-varieties began to differ in terms of the readiness of their users to mix or the desire to remain tradit-ional. Example (41) illustrates the one; (42), a repetetition of (39), the other: (41) (42)

Push 'em, Jili! (a) Wirla-lama-rna-nta hit-future-l.sg. Subj-2.sg Obj Ί will hit you' (b) Wirla-lama-rna hit-future-1 sg Subj. Ί will hit you' (c) Ngaju-lu I-Erg Ί will hit you'

Push it! nyuntu you

ngaju-lu I-Erg

nyuntu you

ngaju-lu I-Erg

wirla-lama-rna nyuntu hit-future-lsg. Subj. You

Lexical code-mixing in (41) illustrates the first variety. The three versions in Nyangumarta in example (42) show the clear movement away from traditional grammar. The second person object in (42) is marked by -nta and the independent pronoun nyuntu. There is no suffix in (b) and (c). Version (c) in (42), in fact, has the typical English SVO order. Its use correlates with age; younger speakers adopt the English word order more easily, older ones retain the traditional one. Similar changes have occurred elsewhere. The lexis of law, kinship, fauna, medicine or topology are being depleted through lack of use and vowel harmony is being lost. Yet, older community members and teachers accept such changes so as to maintain the language. Forster and Mühlhäusler (1996) mention other indigenous lingue franche, such as Pidgin Kaurna, which emerged soon after the foundation

80

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

of South Australia. It acquired an Anglicized sentence structure and used pronouns in ways that ignored syntactic functions like the transitive or intransitive subject, object or possessor. The pronouns oichau 'me' and ninko 'you' correspond to possessive pronouns ngaityo 'my' and ninko 'your' in other sources (...) (fir. Foster and Mühlhäusler 1996: 4): (43) (44) (45) (46)

Oichau yaungun ninko mura mura Ninko Taiine ninko werle Ninko kattena oichau kaue Ninko wakkinna meyu

2.4.3.2

'Me give you bread' 'You build you house' 'You fetch me water' 'You bad man'

History of English-based contact languages

I will turn to questions (1) and (2) above but begin with a brief episode on one of the first meetings of the intruders with Aboriginal Australians: After nearly an hour's conversation by signs and gestures, they repeated several times the word whurra, which signifies begone, and walked away from us to the head of the bay. (Tench 1979: 36; fr. Troy 1993a: 34)

Signs were the primary vehicle of communication, but vocal utterances were unavoidable. Interpreting this word in context, the British thought it meant 'begone; to walk away'. There were communication problems from the start and, running out of patience and time, Governor Phillip took recourse to kidnapping. Gradually it became easier to communicate, and contact languages developed that could be used by both sides. Bennelong, one of the kidnappees, learnt English quickly and was soon said to speak broken English (Troy 1993a: 40). Troy even says that he was a creator and 'carrier' of what was to become New South Wales Pidgin English: By 1792, the foundation for New South Wales Pidgin was developing and because it was the favoured means of cross-cultural communication it further hindered the colonists' attempts to acquire the Sydney Language .... Evidence for the development of a contact language is found in Collin's observation: Several of their young people continued to reside among us, and the different houses in the town were frequently visited by their relations. Very little information ... was obtained through this intercourse; and it was observed, that they conversed with us in a mutilated and incorrect language formed entirely on our imperfect knowledge and improper application of their words (Troy 1993b: 19)

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

81

The language drew heavily on indigenous languages, which, Troy said, showed that settlers had made some progress in learning Dharuk, the Sydney language. But the growth of the pidgin flouted all efforts and by 1796 officers, and administrators used it. One is quoted by David Collins: By slow degrees we began mutually to be pleased with, and to understand each other. Language, indeed, is out of the question; for at the time of writing this (September 1796) nothing but a barbarous mixture of English with the Port Jackson dialect is spoken by either party; and it must be added, that even in this the natives have the advantage, comprehending with much greater aptness than we can pretend to, every thing they hear us say. (fir. Troy 1993a: 41)

Aborigines found the pronunciation of some English sounds difficult. Under the influence of their own languages, they replaced /v/ by [w], made idiosyncratic changes to words that contained /s/ and modelled words for new concepts on the basis of their own linguistic resources. 'Gun', for instance, was called godroobeera 'a stick of fire' (Troy 1993a: 42). As the pidgin stabilized, it now used the resources of English more, and the indigenous input dropped to below 10 per cent (Mühlhäusler 1996a: 36). The pidgin became increasingly common in intercultural communication and was to have the greatest influence on pidgins that developed elsewhere on the continent. More on that presently. At this point one should recall that this New South Wales pidgin was quite varied and was not always as rudimentary as Troy and others might think. I will indeed argue below that there emerged a common contact language base, at first, that was differentiated into distinct varieties later. Mühlhäusler (1996a: 34), for instance, quotes from a letter that Bennelong had written to the King after he had returned from England in 1796; that letter shows precisely the varied nature of the early English: Sir I am very well. I hope you are very well. I live at the Governor's. I have every day dinner there. I (i) have not my wife; another black woman took her away; we have had (ii) murrv [meaning bad] doings: he spear'd me in the back, but I (iii) better now: his name (iv) is now Carrowav. All my friends (v) alive and well... (my numbering, GL; underlining by Mühlhäusler 1996a: 35)

The lack of do-support for the negation in (i), the use of the Aboriginal word murry in (ii) and the lack of the copula in (iii) and (v) are clear indicators of pidgins. But the genitive 'Governor's' and the presence of the copula in (iv) and other features show that this letter reflects a somewhat

82

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

more advanced learner English, possibly an early form of AborE, rather than a pidgin (cf. section 2.4.4). In the early decades of the 19th century, New South Wales pidgin underwent what Sebba (1997) called tertiary hybridization: it became the language of Aboriginal people, especially of those that did not share a common language. It was also used in a small garrison in Newcastle by 1804 and in the Australian Agricultural Company establishments there in 1825. After the exploration of a passage across the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, it was taken eastward across them and reached Penrith, Bathurst and the Lachlan and Darling Rivers (Wurm, Mühlhäusler, and Tryon 1996; maps 6, 7). By 1830 it was a lingua franca throughout New South Wales, with allegedly little variation, though the role of lexical resources from different languages such as Dhurak and Wiradjuri has been acknowledged. It never became a creole in New South Wales and Victoria and disappeared there by the mid-19th century (Mühlhäusler 1996a: 40). Some aspects of the spread of New South Wales pidgin into Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia are worth mentioning. Convicts and staff in the prisons of Victoria and Tasmania, explorers, pastoralists and others met Aborigines who already knew some pidgin because they had become involved in whaling and sealing in the Bass Strait before and had been exposed to a more general contact language, the common maritime pidgin and the South Sea Jargon. On that early period Foster, Monaghan, and Mühlhäusler (1999) write that from the early 1800s, contact between Europeans and Aborigines began along the coastal regions of South Australia. At this time sealers and whalers were based at Kangaroo Island, maintaining links to Western Australia, Bass Strait, Tasmania, Sydney, and beyond. According to Clarke: 'In 1820, there were an estimated fifty sealers with about a hundred Aboriginal wives and children, living in the Bass Straits to Kangaroo Island region' (1994, p. 3). Many of the Aboriginal women were abducted from Tasmania; others from Port Lincoln, the Adelaide plains and the mainland opposite Kangaroo Island, and were forced to live as virtual slaves (see Clarke 1997). When it is considered that the sealers were also of mixed origin, including 'British, French, Portuguese, black and white Americans, lascars (sailors from India), New Zealanders, Maoris, Tahitians and various other Pacific Islanders' (Dineen & Mühlhäuler 1996, p.85), it is likely that a pidgin quickly developed. (1999; no page)

A very mixed and ideal base for a pidgin to arise! A local word like wurley 'hut, shelter' would thus be used throughout the region, though it

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

83

originated from Kaurna in the Adelaide region. The pidgin became a vehicle of communication in South Australia when missions were set up in the 1840s. It was used across the whole of the south-east but had acquired local features. A level of re-lexification, to use a technical term, was a common accompaniment of its spread. When it was taken to Western Australia, it localized again (Amery and Mühlhäusler 1996: 46). Its expansion northwards followed three routes (cf. map 3-1). The first one was the sea route to the penal settlement in Moreton Bay, which was close to today's Brisbane, in 1824. Presbyterian and Lutheran missions had been established there in 1837 and 1838, respectively. From the late 1830s a path inland followed the explorers' and pastoral routes. That route reached the area west of Brisbane in the 1840s, the west of Rockhampton-Mackay further north by the 1860s, and the west of Cairns by the 1870s. It followed Leichhardt's track to Darwin and ended in the Kimberley. A third path started in South Australia. The pidgin had stabilized in the coastal region and was taken north and west in connection with the railway line to Alice and Kalgoorlie, as Foster, Monaghan, and Mühlhäusler (1999) show: From the 1860s and 70s, the frontier of White economic activity began to spread into the more remote northern regions of the state, bringing previously 'untouched' Aboriginal groups into contact. Much of this activity was pastoral in nature, including the establishment of cattle stations and droving on the major stock routes between Marree and Alice Springs and Marree and Birdsville. Perhaps the most intense and sustained contact was brought by capital building projects such as the Overland Telegraph between Adelaide and Darwin, completed in 1872; the Great Northern Railway from Port Augusta to Oodnadatta, completed in 1891, and the building of the Trans-Australian Railway from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie, completed in 1917 (...) .... During this period, words derived from northern Aboriginal languages entered SAPE [South Australian Pidgin English; GL], such as kaditcha 'evil spirit', nardoo 'aquatic fern', and witchedy 'edible grub'. Apart from these local additions, the SAPE spoken in the Far North seems to have retained its NSWPE [New South Wales Pidgin English; GL] core and the additions made to it in the south. Thus, Kaurna-derived forms such as nanto and wurley appear at Oodnadatta, for example. By the early 1900s, the pidgin had become well established in the Far North, as S.A. White writes: 'for many miles on either side of the overland telegraph line, there is little chance to-day of finding a native who cannot speak a few words of pidgin English.' (Observer, 31 October 1914)

The story of Aboriginal pidgins has thus far been told on the premise that there was a single act of creation in the Sydney region from where it

84

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

was taken to the hinterland, southwards into Victoria and Tasmania; and northwards into southern Queenland. As it was spreading, so this account would maintain, it acquired local additions and was relexified under the influence of the contact with indigenous people there. It was further spread across the continent to Western Australia and to the northern tip of the Northern Territory where it localized, once again. While it was expanding, it was losing round in Sydney. Queensland now assumed the formative role that Sydney had had before. However, this account overlooks the formative effect of the independent contact with speakers of the emerging pidgins in the South Pacific and Melanesia (Wurm, Mühlhäusler, and Tryon 1996; vol. I, map 9; Mühlhäusler 1996b; T007). There was a give-and-take and cross-fertilization of pidgins in the region. Between 1864 and 1904 Kanaka labourers were imported to the farming and fishing industry in Cape York and the Torres Strait islands. These labourers had been kindnapped from the Loyalty Islands, off New Caledonia in the south, in the early period; at the end of the 19th century they came from the northern Solomon Islands and may have brought with them a form of Loyalty Island jargon. That jargon is said to have formed the base of the Queensland Kanaka English. Kanaka English disappeared after 1901 in most of the regions where it was used as speakers shifted to English and developed a variety of AborE. Yet, pockets of Kanaka English survived to the 1990s along the coast and in towns like Cairns or Townsville, according to Mühlhäusler (1985).18 Chinese Pidgin English, too, played a formative role as its speakers interacted with Kanakas in the coastal areas and with Aboriginal labourers inland.19 The interaction between these marginalized groups explains that it is quite likely that this Queensland's pidgin could diffuse to the hinterland and that the outward contact ensured that it fed into the emerging pidgins in the South Pacific (cf. Baker 1993). Let me come back to the specific roles that Sydney and Queensland had in diffusing features from Aboriginal contact languages inland and to outside the continent (question (4) above). There are a number of examples that show that Aboriginal pidgin English participated in this cross-Pacific scenario. There are, however, two very different accounts of the social history of contact. One holds that Australian pidgins influenced the emerging South Sea Jargon, the other that they were (largely) shaped by a 18

19

Mühlhäusler (1985b: 242) shows the input from mAusE. Thus, newcomers were called nusam 'new chum', an archaism in mAusE. He also has examples that show the Melanesian input. Riba, which occurred in (81), is from BrE. Some Chinese settled, e.g., in Croydon or Cloncurry in western Queensland.

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

85

pre-existing South Sea Jargon, which was already used when the First Fleet arrived in Sydney (cf. Baker and Mühlhäusler 1996). Though a South Sea Jargon has only been attested in the 1830s, one cannot dismiss this idea lightly since whalers, sealers and other adventures had been in the Bass Strait independently of British colonization. They came there as early as the mid-18th century and may well have used a nautical jargon that ultimately derived from the Atlantic pidgins. If such a jargon was used in the Pacific, it could have formed the basis of, or have heavily influenced, Aboriginal pidgins, given the frequency of contact. That would explain, partly, that Australian and South Pacific pidgins are so similar. Keesing (1988), for instance, argued that a Worldwide Nautical Pidgin English existed before whaling became a major business in the Pacific and that it played a crucial role at the beginning of the 19th century. By the 1840s that 'global' maritime pidgin would have localized into the Pacific Nautical Pidgin English, which itself spread across the Pacific islands and was re-named Pacific pidgin. It was that variety of Melanesian pidgin, she believes, that fed into the pidgin that had been brought to Queensland in the way decribed above. Tryon, Mühlhäusler, and Baker (1996), however, reject this account on historical grounds and Baker and Mühlhäusler (1996) on linguistic grounds. They have identified nine clusters ('factors') which reflect their movement across the Pacific. As these features were moving forward and backward, hopping from one island region to another during the early 19th century, there is no way to prove the historical stages that Keesing has to assume. Table 2-5 lists of some of the significant features and identifies regions of origin, recipient pidgins and the number of features inside each category: Table 2-5. Formative inputs into Australian and Pacific pidgins Factors Origin 1 foreigner talk 2 Atlantic & Asian pidgins 3 local language in the region 4 Australian pidgin

5 9

Feature (examples) preverbal no; zero copula, etc. all same 'like'; what for 'why'; been 'past tense'; got 'have', etc. mat/e 'kill'; kanaka Pacific Islander'; kaikai 'eat; food', etc. plenty 'very'; -m 'transitive verb'; (a)long{a) '[a multipurpose prepos.]', etc. Australian pidgin what name 'who'; Adj+fellow+N 'adj. marker"; gammon 'lie', etc. Melanesian what name 'which, what'; finish Pidgin English 'marker of completion', etc.

N° Recipients 3 16 Pacific 5 Pacific 15 Melanesian Pidgin English 28 Melanesia dir. 19 used also in Queensland

86

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

There are features, such as the transitive verb marker -im or -it (see below), that have been attested in Australia earlier than in Pacific pidgins and cannot be explained by Keesing's account. The theory put forward in Baker and Mühlhäusler (1996), thus, has a high level of credibility and explains the similarity beween Pacific and Australian Aboriginal pidgins equally well. Australia must be attributed a crucial formative role in this context. Koch emphasizes that role further when he writes that "it also had a significant influence, especially via Queensland plantations of the late nineteenth century, on early Melanesian Pidgin English (...), which developed into the currently spoken English-based pidgins and creóles of the Southwest Pacific, namely Tok Pisin, Bislama, Solomon Island Pijin, and Torres Strait Creole..." (2000: 13). What these experts fail to say is that the role of Australia was very intensive up to the 1820s in the south-east, shifted to Queensland during the second half of 19th century, and became irrelevant thereafter. Put differently, when trading and labour recruitment from the South Pacific islands became less significant, the pidgin stabilized in a situation of relative isolation. Could it be that a level of local isolation was a precondition for pidgins in the north of Australia to creolize? That may well be so, as Australia's economy shifted away from cross-Pacific trade and as the quality of trade involved more skilled labour.20 I will now turn to the linguistic evidence and will illustrate, first, aspects of the localization of pidgins, taking South Australia as an example. I will then turn to the creativeness of Australian pidgins in merging English inputs with indigenous language substrates to create a new grammar that was diffused to the South Pacific or Melanesian pidgins. Foster, Monaghan and Mühlhäusler show that "words from South Australian Aboriginal languages represent the most obvious local developments that in a sense extended the lexical resources of the imported pidgin" (1999; n.p.). The following examples are from several local languages: Adnyamathanha: Arrernte: Booandik: Kaurna: Narrunga: Ngarrindjeri: West Coast: 20

witchedies 'edible grubs' kaditcha 'evil spirit'; quei 'girl' drual 'Aborigine'; malanne 'wife'; marton 'good' cowie 'water'; pondobery 'gun'; wurley 'hut' bardoo 'meat' mull darby 'devil, spirit'; petin 'to steal' coodla 'kangaroo'

That is a hypothesis that warrants further investigation. But clear indicators are the industrialization of farming, the growth of a food conservation industry (cf. Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering 1988).

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

87

Koch (2000a), too, argues that New South Wales pidgin localized at the same time that it spread northward. The word gunyah 'hut, shelter' from Dharuk, for instance, was replaced by humpy from Yagara in the Brisbane region by the middle of the 19th century. Gunyah is used, to give one example, in Leichhardt's journal in 1845 (fr. Dixon, Ramson, and Thomas 1990). Both words are entered in the Macquarie (1998), but gunyah may have gained a wider currency. In Victoria, Koch says, 'no', and 'good' were known as borak and merrijig (various spellings), respectively; in South Australia, in contrast, mucka and balya were common (2000a: 15). As such local developments did not, of course, immediately lead to a lexical shift, there developed a level of 'overlexicalization' (see Leitner 2004b; section 3.3.1), which may well account for a hitherto unstudied layer of dialectal lexis in mAusE (Leitner 2004b, section 3.4.4). As to features that were diffused to Melanesian pidgins, two of the most interesting ones are -im, the so-called transitive verb marker, and the suffix fella (see table 2-5.) The transitive suffix consists of a vowel and Irai-, fella occurs in 'ethnic' compounds - witness blackfella - and as a grammatical marker of adjectives and of other functions. To quote Koch on the verb marker: One of the most charateristic features of AP [Australian Pidgins, GL], as well as other Southwest Pacific PCs [Pacific Creoles, GL] is the use of the "transitivity marker" -im. Baker ... concludes that 'all the evidence suggests that the transitive suffix was a NSW innovation which reached MPE [Melanesian Pidgin English, GL] via QLD [Queensland, GL]' (...). The -im transitive suffix is first attested in 1826 in the Dawson (1830) corpus from Port Stephens, NSW (...). An alternative transitive marker -it is also found in early NSW Pidgin. The form predates -im, and is found already in the jargon/pidgin of the early Sydney colony (...)..." (2000a: 17)

The following examples show how these markers were used. Example (47) is from McKinley, who was the first to cross the continent in an expedition that was to find the explorer Burke, who failed to find a route from the south of Australia to the north in 1861. The story tells the reaction of an Aborigine who was chastised by McKinley when he had lost a letter he was supposed to carry to Hobart. The other examples are from Koch (2000a): (47)

(48)

'now, Mr. McKinley, I'm bin gabber along you, I bin losem that letter, and white man bin find em, me plenty frightened and run away. ' (fr. Lockwood 1995: xxiv) 'Top 'top, bail me do it that yet, 'top 'nuddar gubbana come Stop... not I do-Trans, that yet stop another governor arrives

88

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

"Wait, I won't do it yet, I will wait till the next governor arrives' (49) Bel boodgeree kill it pickaninny Not good kill-Trans. babies 'It is not good to kill [possibly 'hit, hurt', GL] babies' Though there is no doubt that these 'markers' derive from the English pronouns him an it, Koch says they are used very differently, a use that amounts to a new grammatical pattern, a pattern that is neither English nor indigenous. He argues that this new pattern could have developed as a result of the interaction of English and indigenous languages and of a grammatical re-analysis. Learners, he maintains, could have been exposed to the 3rd person singular pronouns it or (h)im as accompanying verbs and might have developed "frames" like "VERB, VERB im, VERBií, VERB'gm or VERB ií" (2000a: 18). Of course, learners may eventually arrive at a correct analysis So Koch turns to properties of the Sydney languages that show that they used object and subject suffixes or clitics that could be seen as a model for what learners did do (cf. Koch 2000a: 19ff). He argues that what at first sight looked like a generalized use of (h)im (or it) to mark transitive verbs was really the result of a complex re-analysis of grammar: "Aboriginal learners reanalysed English sentences of the type under discussion in the manner shown in Table 1 (...)", he says (2000a: 20). Here is his table: (a) English grammar/analysis (b) English realization/expression (c) Australian grammar/analysis (d) Australian realization/expression

V VERB V VERB

Object it, him Object +it, +im

This shows that both the English and the pidgin analysis in (a) and (c) assume that there is an object. On the realizational level, English has an overt pronoun object it or him (see (b)) or a full noun phrase. The pidgin has a 'zero', 'understood' object (in (d)) or else a full one and -it or -im. A pidgin sentence with -im or -it as in (d) is thus only superficially like an English one with him or it. The 'pronoun' -it is really a clitic attached to the verb and marks it as transitive (in (d)). The 'understood object' is inferred since the verb is marked as transitive; the sentence has a meaning like the English "I am eating, reading 0obj."· There could have been these rules: English

pidgin (from English) pidgin (new)

(a) VERB+pronoun (a1) VERB+ii+0 (b) VERB+NP (b') VERB+NP (= mere alternatives)

(a") VERB+ti+NP (b") VERB+0 (= different forms)

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

89

English marks objects explicitly and has rules (a) and (b). New South Wales pidgin had (a') and (b') and left the object unmarked optionally (cf. (b')). The new grammar marks objects twice; one possibility is (a"), where there is both a clitic/suffix attached to the verb and the object. Example (b") has an understood object. The following examples illustrate these patterns (Koch 2000a: 22f): (50)

Mary no like it, so it leabe it VERB-ÍÍ + 0 'Mary does not like it, so she left (it).' (51) ... pose dat come dat take it blackpellow bael dat likit kangaroo VERB-ÍÍ + NP '... if he [the evil spirit] had come he would have taken Aborigines; 'he doesn't like kangaroos' (52) Dat no good; bael massa like him VERB-im + 0 'That's bad, the boss doesn't like (it)' (53) Massa like him black pellow... VERB-im + NP 'The boss likes (us) Aborigines' (54) We tee, massa VERB + 0 We'll see you, boss' (55) Massa like black pellow; black pellow like massa, yeas, yeas VERB + NP 'The boss likes Aborigines and the Aborigines like the boss, yes' Koch argues that the new pidgin grammar "is as simple as that of English, where the basic construction is VERB NP; that is a (transitive) verb followed by a noun phrase object, which may (trivially from the point of view of speakers) be realised as an enclitic pronoun" (2000a: 22). The re-analysis suggests that, from an historical angle, the pattern was being extended and stabilized. As Koch refers to children's analyses of -iml-it, one is led to believe that he is talking about an early phase of creolization. Another fascinating aspect of his study is the data on the competition between -it and -im and the fact that grammatical patterns varied across the continent at different periods of time. Representative evidence is, of course, impossible to come by, but Koch (2000a: 25f) managed to find data from the entire 19th century and from different parts of continent. He says: ... one can see both the relative proportion of -im and -it and the relative use of either transitive suffix compared to the unsuffixed verb. We can observe

90

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

a decline in the use of -it as the pidgin spread west and north (although -it long remained for certain verbs such as give). The percentage (of any kind) of transitive marking ranges from 39% in Brisbane (...) to the nearly categorical 89% in Borroloola [Northern Territory, GL]. This tends to support the view that its occurrence became more frequent, nearly obligatory, over time. (2000a: 25)

As -im became more common, the old pattern with an explicit or else an understood object and with the verb unmarked for transitivity declined rapidly. Koch believes that the introduction of this new marking progressed at a different pace throughout New South Wales and Queensland. But as pidgins had disappeared in the south, south-east and even in the Brisbane area by the 1860s, that claim is hard to check on historical data. What can be shown is that -it and -im patterns were exported to the South Pacific from Sydney in the early period and from Queensland later in the century. As to the shift from -it to -im, Koch thinks it is due to phonological differences between indigenous languages in inland and northern New South Wales and has nothing to do with English. He believes the grammatical re-analysis throws light on whether the ergative or the transitive / intransitive patterns are more deeply rooted in language systems and whether one can identify the role of transfer from indigenous languages: Despite the variation in AP [Australian Pidgin, GL] between / and me or he and him in subject function, there is no evidence of any correlation according to the transitivity of the verb. This perhaps confirms the view that ergativity is a "shallow", merely morphological phenomenon (...). I suggest rather that morphological ergativity is a reflection, and marking, of a "deeper" lexico-grammatical principle of language organisation, namely the rigid distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs (and hence clause types). And it is this deeper grammatical principle, ingrained in the consciousness of AL [Australian languages, GL] speakers, which was also influential in promoting, in the developing pidgin, the polarisation in form between transitive verbs (VERBim) and intransitive verbs (VERB). (2000a: 28)

Australia's pidgins, thus, created a grammatical construction which used the resources of English, was heavily influenced by the grammar and phonology of the Aboriginal language substrate, and resulted in an analysis that was neither English nor indigenous. I will be briefer on the spread of fella and on the functions it fulfills. Its use in the same sense as the English word fellow was illustrated in (55). Its use in compounds like blackfellow

and whitellow

(or as -fella)

was

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

91

mentioned in section 2.4.3.4. All that needs to be said at this point is that it functioned as a mere ethnic label. In pidgins, however, it is also used as an adjective marker, as in big fellow water, a demonstrative as in that fellow wind, in numbers, and as a pluralizer of personal pronouns, as in yupela (Koch 2000a: 3ff). There have also been competing forms like oldman and old woman, where man and woman function as adjective markers, or one in, for instance, 'big one Governor' for 'big Governor'. Here is an example from Koch (2000a: 36): (56)

I told em Ί told them

that old man settler that old settler

cobbon rascal (is) a great rascal'

These patterns, too, originated in New South Wales, spread across the continent and influenced the South Pacific and Melanesian pidgins. Having shown various aspects of Australian pidgins that also occurred outside Australia and, undeniably, point to their formative role outside the continent, I can turn to a comprehensive summary of the history of contact, which Harris (1986; esp. 322) has proposed in his classic study of Kriol. Diagram 2-3 on page 92, which has been slightly addapted, graphs the periods of time when Australia's pidgins were spreading inland, interacted with indigenous languages and, for a brief period in the Northern Territory, with Chinese Pidgin English that had been taken there by the Chinese. The New South Wales pidgin or, as it is referred to here, the S.E. Aust. Pidgin English, drew on three sources, namely the unstable Nautical Jargon (referred to as a strategy of speaking above), English, and local Aboriginal languages. By 1800 a pidgin had emerged, had stabilized by the 1820 and was taken to Port Essington on Cobourg Peninsula, northwest of Darwin, in 1838. There, it could draw on what had remained of the contact pidgin in the former settlement in Fort Wellington at Raffles Bay (1827-29) and it localized.21 Though Port Essington was abandoned in 1849, the pidgin apparently survived and reappeared when Darwin was set up in 1869. The pidgin in Darwin was one of two, the other being the Pastoral Frontier Pidgin English, which had reached the north by the 1870s. Around 1900 the two pidgins converged into Early Northern Territory Pidgin English, which ultimately became Kriol - the topic of section 2.4.3.4. Pidgins in the south and south-east had disappeared, as I hade said earlier. According to Wurm, Mühlhäusler, and Tryon 1996; vol. I, map 15) and Mühlhäusler (1996b; T012), pidgin English was replaced by English or, more likely, a variety of AborE in New South Wales by 1845, and in Tasmania by 1860. In Victoria,

21

No pidgin developed at Fort Dundas on Melville Island (cf. Harris 1986: 114).

92

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

where the pidgin was common from the 1830s, it had disappeared by 1890. In contrast, it continued to be used in South Australia until the 1920s. Nyungar Pidgin in the south-wesem part of Western Australia reached the Indian Ocean at an undetermined period of time between 1830 and 1890. 1788

1800

1840

1870

1880

1900

1908+

Chinese Pidgin English

J /

Ά Nautical Jargon

Later Northern Territory Pidgin English

Darwin Pidgin Engl.

/Τ t

1

Aboriginal Languages (NT) S.E. Aust. English**· Pidgin ^.English

Aboriginal \ Lang's \

Early Northern T. Pidgin English

\

«

Pastoral Frontier ,--' T Pidgin English

Kriol

Aboriginal Languages (SE Aust)

>

Development of Pidgins

•

Expansion,-•Creolisation convergence at Roper and stabilis- River; furthation of pid- er expansion gins of NTPE elsewhere

Diagram 2-3. Australia's pidgins and the wider South Pacific

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

93

Apart from mapping the main lines of descent and of the interaction in Australia, this outline is of interest to an understanding of the relationships between the Pastoral or Plantation Pidgins in Queensland with the pidgins outside Australia. Mühlhäusler et al. (1996: 414) have put forward a hypothesis that is reproduced, with slight adaptations, as diagram 2-4: Chinese Pidgin English

Τ Pacific ' ' Jargon ,Englisl)

Queensland Plantation Pidgin English

Papuan Pidgin ^ English

New Caledonian Plantation Pidgin English

Samoan Plantation Pidgin English

Solomon Islands Pidgin English

New Hebridean Bichelamar Indirect or weak linguistic influence Direct mutual influence Diagram 2-4. Queensland's inland pidgins and interactions outside

The complexities of contact in the Australian-South Pacific region at the end of the 19th century were poorly alluded to in diagram 1-1 in the form of a box labelled "outside contact". It may be good therefore to emphasize the

94

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

role of what was called 'outside contacts'. There is, as Mühlhäusler has said so often, continuous and repeated divergence and convergence, and a traditional family tree model, which would be based on the divergence or separation of language varieties only, would be impossible to draw and could not do justice to the local formation of pidgins and creóles.

2.4.3.3

Cape Barren English

Cape Barren is a small island close to the north-eastern tip of Tasmania and south of the slightly larger Flinders Island. Both islands have played a crucial role in the early removal of Tasmanian Aborigines from their lands. Little is known about the islands before whaling and sealing began in the early 1800s and a convict colony in Tasmania was set up in 1804. Sutton reports that "between 1800 and 1810 a band of sealers and whalers set themselves up in Bass Strait with native women and consorts" (1975: 62). After the whaling and sealing trade declined in the 1830s, they turned to the sale of mutton bird feathers. The community was quite mixed by then, with men coming from various parts of Britain, Tasmania and mainland Australia, the women being from Tasmania and the mainland. There was one Maori and one Black American woman. When Tasmanian Aborigines were forced to live on Cape Barren, they mixed with the already mixed population. And according to Crowley, a "separate Tasmanian Aboriginal linguistic identity" (1996: 31) emerged and did not disappear completely when they shifted to the local contact language. In contrast, Sutton (1975) emphasizes the heavy non-Aboriginal input in the population. What, then, is the best way to classify Cape Barren English? There are various options. It might be a contact language whose status at the time of inception is uncertain. Crowley (1996) thinks it is an Aboriginal English contact variety used by Tasmanian Aboriginal residents. Sutton avoids such a strong hypothesis and suggests it may be classified as a regional dialect of AusE: But a speech community may be different from the mainstream right from the start, and then isolation could perpetuate those initial speech differences. This appears to be partly the situation with the speech of Cape Barren Islanders. Looking at their history we can see three main sources of cultural influence - that of their original British forebears, that of the Aboriginal women who were the wives of those forebears, and that of the Australian society of which they form a part. (1975: 65)

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact 95 Without further and first-hand evidence, it is impossible to decide. What seems plausible is that the ethnically mixed speaker base in Cape Barren was like that on Norfolk and developed a variety in between a pidgin and a mixed language since there was enough access to native English. Whatever it was, it did not undergo what Sebba has called tertiary hybridization that would have restricted its use to the Aboriginal segment of the population. It remained a language of the entire mixed population at the time of its formation. The linguistic evidence that has been discussed by Sutton (1975) and Crowley (1996) shows that some word pronunciations go back to EngE and ScotE dialects and must have been used by the sealers. The phoneme /i/, for instance, is articulated so close as to be like the short [i], which is found in the south-western varieties of EngE, but was common generally around the beginning of the 19th century (cf. Leitner 2004b; section 3.6). Words like follow may be pronounced as [foli] or [voli], swallow as [swoli], [zwali] or [zwola], which would suggest a south-western EngE origin (Sutton 1975: 70). Though non-rhotic, Cape Barren English has no centring diphthongs but the long monophthongs /e:, o:/, which had been common in 18th century EngE. And that suggests that Cape Barren English was separated from the developments in EngE before the final loss of the postvocalic /r/ led to a centralized, schwa offglide (cf. Wells 1982). Such features that can be trac-ed to EngE dialects at the relevant period of time, they show the conser-vative nature of Cape Barren English. Others, in contrast, reflect the influ-ence of local languages and pidgins. Cases in point are the replacement of /Θ, δ/ by [s, z]. Regarding grammar, Sutton (1975) notes a number of non-standard features, such as done, come for 'did' and 'came', the use of we was for 'we were', that occurred widely and can be traced to non-standard EngE dialects; but they can also be found in non-standard mAusE.22 There are EngE dialect words, local words like chooks 'chicken' and those from Aboriginal languages. Crowley (1993: 68) mentions barilla 'saltbush', bidgie-widgie 'burr' and boobyalla 'baby food'. But, says Onsman, there are only few examples of the old form of Cape Barren English, which, he says, add to its mystique as a "secret" language. Earlier, the speakers were thought to be mumbling, and few successful attempts were made to record it. However some individual words remain in currency. From old Nautical English, "οΓ co'e" (old cove) for "fellow" and "chains" (despite metrification) remain.

22

These features also occur in AborE, pidgin, Kriol and Torres Strait creole.

96

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

From Palawa varieties, "warrener" for "seashell" and "kunnigong" for "pigface plant" (Carpobrotus rossii) remain. From muttonbirding, "muttonbird" for "shearwater" (Puffinus tenuirostris, called yolla in Palawa) and "muttonfish" for "abalone" (Haliotis spp.) remain. Some of these have spread to other dialects of Australian English, (web document, 2002) Such features are, as expected, more common amongst traditional Cape Barren Islanders and less so of the more than 4,000 people that moved there from Tasmania. They, too, show traces of the original Cape Barren English. Given that Cape Barren English was used by both Aborigines and settlers, it would be wrong to describe it as a contact language of Aboriginal people only, pace Crowley (1996). It must be seen as an outcome of the interaction of dialects of EngE with local languages and not as an offspring of AusE.

2.4.3.4

Kriol and Torres Strait creole

Kriol is the most widely used contact language today, with about 3,000 speakers according to the Census of 2001 and McConvell and Thieberger (2001). It is spoken from around Alice Springs to the Kimberly in Western Australia and the north of Queensland (with the exception of Cape York). Torres Strait creole has some 1,240 speakers, and has focal areas on the islands, in Cape York, Cairns and other coastal towns. Both creóles have acquired status and are recognized as indigenous languages. They have been codified to some extent, with writing systems, are used in creative writing, etc. Kriol is used as a medium of education. Both are occasionally broadcast on indigenous media or in indigenous programs on the ABC. There are three points that I need to repeat from section 2.4.3.2 before I can turn to a detailled description. The first is that Torres Strait creole is similar to Cape Barren English in that it was formed at a time prior to or, at best, parallel to the rise of AusE. The Torres Strait islands were annexed by Queensland as late as 1893. Missionary and other activities before that time were controlled from Britain, to the extent they were controlled at all. They are a part of the colonialism in the region. The links to EngE in diagram 1-2 are, therefore, crucial. The second point concerns Kriol. It is not a creole for all speakers, for some it still is pidgin. As a result, one will want to differentiate several types of Kriol-using communities. The third point is that many experts and communities maintain that there are several creóles or pidgins that are used in different parts of the region and commonly go by the generic name of Kriol. Yet, differ in terms of history, texture and status. Convergence has not been completed and may not come to completion.

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

97

I will now come to Kriol and follow Harris (1986), Wurm, Mühlhäusler and Tryon (1996), etc. in my account. As shown in diagram 2-3, Kriol has two different origins. One is the Darwin Pidgin English, with its precursors in Port Ess-ington and Raffels Bay, the other is the Pastoral Frontier pidgin, which was used in a vast area stretching from Western Australia to inland Queensland. According to Harris (1986: 147) the precursor of the Darwin pidgin formed between 1825 and 1870, when a permanent settlement was established and when Chinese, Europeans and Aborigines interacted in the vicinity of emerging townships, mining camps and cattle stations. Darwin was a very cosmopolitan town at the time, and the pidgin that had been brought there from South Australia was in wide use. Harris (1986: 165) mentions a stockman who drove sheep and horses between Port Augusta in South Australia and Darwin in the early years of the 1870s and who, allegedly, said that pidgin was used all the way up to Darwin. "Beginning in approximately 1870", says Harris (1986: 185), "this pastoral frontier, both in the temporal and spatial sense, began to extend from Queensland into the Northern Territory, along the valleys of the Roper and Victoria river systems and into the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Within that broad band of pastoral frontier activity, it is the eastern section which is of most interest in this study." It is there that the major pastoral properties were established between 1879 and 1885 (Harris 1986: 200ff). Map 2-4 on page 98, which is adapted from Harris (1986: 202), shows the major stations and geographic details. In the next passage an Aboriginal boy describes the atrocities referred to in section 2.3 in pidgin (fr. Harris 1986: 224f): (57)

Well they bin puttem chain longa neck. Linem up 'You altogether run that way now. Line up, ' Makem ready 'Now go on' Kickern in the rib, one of them. 'All start. Right! Linen up! Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu! Finish They bin gatherem up all that now... Takem down to that creek.... Puttem heap there. Chuckem big mob of wood... everything, dog and all. They bumem now... And chuckem kerosene, strike some matches and burnem. Lot. No anything left, eh? All ashes. Burnem finish. Lot.

Massacres forced survivors to relocate at pastoral leases or missions. The East African Cold Storage Company is responsible for one of the last

98

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

attempts to exterminate the Aboriginal population in 1899. The company was given a huge lease of land to establish a cattle run from Roper River into Arnhem Land.23 In the process the traditional tribes were removed from their lands and massacred and any form of resistence was broken.

1 Springvale 4 McArthur River 7 Florida

2 Elsey 3 Bauhina Downs 5 Valley of the Springs 6 Hodgson Downs 8 Calvert 9 Urapunga

Map 2-4. Major pastoral properties in the Roper River region

To stop total extermination, the Anglican Church established a mission at Ngukurr in the Roper River system, south of Arnhem Land, in 1908. As elsewhere, life was heavily controlled and left little room for languages and cultures to be practised and passed on to children. The original communities in the region included eight language groups that were now uprooted and thrown together into a new "multilingual mix" (Harris and 23

I have not been able to find any reference to that company apart from Harris (1986). The work of the Australian food processing industry is well documented in Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (1988).

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

99

Sandefur 1985). Of the traditional languages, viz. Alawa, Mangarayi, Mara, Ngalakan, Ngandi, Ngungubuyu, Rembarrnga, Ritharrngu and Warndarang, only Ritharrngu remained in regular use outside the mission. Some other languages retained some currency so that some adults could get by with their languages when they interacted with people who shared their language repertoire. When that was impossible, speakers would turn to the pidgin, which they could use as a complementary vehicle of communication. The situation for the children was very different. They had been placed in dormitories, away from their parents, forbidden to speak indigenous languages and taught English. Cut off of parental contact and with children of other language background, the pidgin became their first language in daily interaction and creolized. The question arises, however, if what was really happening was that children acquired and used a range of varieties ranging from pidgin to forms closer to the concept of AborE developed in section 2.4.4. Roper River was the first place where the Northern Territory pidgin creolized. And it is the area where Kriol has now existed for a long period of time. Though the Roper River pidgin was widely used elsewhere, on cattle stations, mining sites, etc., it did not creolize because of the strength of indigenous languages and the fact that Aboriginal people had the option to shift to another local language. Several decades later that pidgin did creolize in Barunga, which was formerly known by the name of Bamyili. Barunga, a small town, became an important military site during World War Π and provided the ideal location for creolization. There was a heavily mixed population, intensive communication and high social mobility.24 Yet, there was a crucial difference between Barunga and Roper River. Barunga, now called Ngukurr, is some 60 km east of Katherine and 200 km west of Roper and was a township that Kriol-speakers from Roper River migrated to. Creolization was, thus, not as spontaneous as in Roper River, as Roper River speakers could act as a model for those who now used the pidgin as their first language. As a consequence, Kriol did not have the same status in Barunga and was not used in the same way as in Roper River. And that may explain why there is no consensus on the status and function of the Roper River and Barunga varieties. One may even ask if it is correct and appropriate to refer to both as Kriol or if one should speak of different, if linguistically related, creóles. Rhydwen (1996), for instance, argues that there are sufficient local features to show there are different Kriols, if they 24

In 1988 Barunga became famous for the 'Barunga statement', which marked the beginning of the native title movement, as many readers will know.

100

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

are defined as a set of expressions. And communities perceive them to be different, if they are defined as a social code (Leitner 2004b, section 1.3.1). Irrespective of these disputes, a creole could now expand from two centres and support the creolization of Northern Territory pidgin in other places. I will return to such disputes later but continue with a survey of features of Kriol (cf. Sharpe and Sandefur 1976; Sandefur 1985; 1991a; Sharpe 1985) and others. In terms of social stratification Kriol is said to divide into a lait 'light', a hebi 'heavy' and a prapa 'proper' variety, which are best seen as being located on a scale (e.g. Sandefur 1991a: 204). The low end is assumed to have more traces of indigenous or other input languages, the upper end is closer to mAusE. But, I should add, the reference to mAusE is only true from the first period of creolization in Roper River, since the history of its predecessors, the pidgins described above, was partly independent of mAusE (cf. also the story of mAusE in Leitner (2004b; section 3.6)). I will begin this overview with phonology. Table 2-6, which is adapted from Sandefur (1991a), illustrates, he says, the consonants of prapa Kriol: Table 2-6. Kriol consonants place, manner stop affricate fricative nasal lateral rhotic semi-c.

Bilabial Ρ

b

labio- Dental alveolar Retrodent. flex t d rt rd

w

tj 3

f m

Palatal alveopalat.

b1 th dh s s 2 η 1 rr

rn rl r r

tj j 3 sh s 4 ny

?

velar glottal k g h ng

iy y

Some of the symbols are unclear and suggest fricatives; they are marked with superscripts. As indigenous languages do not distinguish voice in stops, affricates and fricatives and lack alveolar and post-alveolar fricatives (section 2.2), the Kriol described must be removed from traditional languages and must be, I believe, represent a lighter variety. Sharpe (1985: 182) says that a voice contrast may be made according to phonetic context. Stops in intervocalic position or before a nasal may be voiced. The pidgin or low end, she says, has only a rudimentary consonant system, with bilabial, alveolar, retroflex, alveolar-palatal, and velar consonants. They can all be found in heavy Kriol, too. In less 'heavy' varieties, English contrasts have been introduced. Fricatives, for instance, occur, but consonant clusters may still be avoided. In initial position the first consonant of a cluster is normal-

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

101

ly deleted, e.g. don 'stone' and biya 'spear', the second option is that a vowel is inserted between the first and second consonant, as in bi-lang-gid 'blanket' and buludang 'blue tongue (lizard)'. Garajim 'scratch', jilib 'sleep' or jineg 'snake' are slightly more complex in that /s/ is replaced by an affricate. Regarding vowels, table 2-7 represents the middle or prapa variety: Table 2-7. Kriol vowels

high mid low

front i e

central

back u 0

a

Heby Kriol would only have three vowels, i.e. /i, u, a/, in line with indigenous languages. Prapa,, in contrast, adds the mid-front and mid-back vowels Id and loi. The phoneme /e/ also corresponds to mAusE /ei/ and /au/. Lait Kriol would have a set of rising diphthongs /ai, ei, oi, au, ou/, though some of them could be reduced to monophthongs. Since words could be borrowed several times, there are phonological doublets or triplets such as balijiman - blijiman - plisman 'police'. A similar case is mawuj > mawus > maus > mauth 'mouth'. Some doublets cannot be placed on a scale of phonetic similarity and represent alternative choices. A case in point is brog and frog, both for 'frog'. The interaction of segmental and lexical phonology has increased the number of homophones and led to 'therapeutic' responses to reduce their number (Rumsey 1983). An interesting, if little plausible, point by Sharpe and Sandefur (1976: 66) is that prapa has no phonological system of its own but is, one might say, recreated during interaction as a result of the application of levelling and other rules that transform heby into prapa. These rules would 'restore' consonant clusters (e.g. biya > sbiya) or 'replace' alveolar sibilants by the alveolar stops (e.g. jabi > sabi). But with systematicity being an indispensable property of all languages, such a performance-based hypothesis is doubtful. Morphology, too, reflects the indigenous input. Personal pronouns, for instance, distinguish the singular, plural and dual (Sharpe 1985: 185f): singular 1st and 2nd 1st exclusive 2 nd 3 rd

yunmi ai/mi yu im

dual

plural

mindubala yundubala dubala

yunmalabat/minalabat, wi mela(bat), mibala yumob, yuwalabat, yubala alabat, dei, dem

102

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

As expected, Kriol shares features with both indigenous languages and English. The dual in pronouns and the absence of a gender distinction in the third person singular are from indigenous languages. The suffix bala from 'fellow' occurs in compounded dual and plural pronouns, such as the plural alabat from 'all about' and mob in yumob (Koch 2000a). Such plural pronouns have been noted above in other pidgins and indigenous languages. Other features such as the use of mi and that of dem and dei in subject and object position remind one of non-standard English. To continue with the likely input from indigenous languages, recall that most languages mark local or temporal relations with affixes (section 2.2). Kriol, in contrast, has a somewhat mixed systems. While most temporal and local relations are expressed by prepositions, there are also a few affixes. I should add that prepositions reflect a high level of polysemy and do not replicate the English system fully, as this list shows: la(nga) bla(nga) burrum garrim nomo garrin wansaid la

to, at, in, into, on (to) possess., for the purpose of, for, for the benefit of from, out of with, having, instrumental sense without beside

Fella and one have become almost obligatory markers of adjectives in pidgins (Koch 2000a). In Kriol they appear as the suffixes -wan and -bala, cf. examples (58) and (59). Like -baia in the (b) example of (59), they can also mark a noun that is derived from a verb (Sandefur 1991a: 207): (58) (59)

Aibin luk jigi-wan sneik (a) stilim-bat (b) stilimbat-bala

Ί saw a poisonous snake' 'stealing; to steal' 'thief

Verb morphology is complex and different from mAusE (Hudson 1983; App.). There may be three inflectional suffixes i.e. one for transitivity and the progressive, one for adverbial notions such as movement, termination, etc., and a third one for the iterative aspect, as table 2-8 on the next page shows. They are illustrated in the following examples. (60) has a verb that is intrinsically intransitive, (61) has transitive verbs. The verb in (61) is marked with -am , a clear reflection of the -m-suffix described earlier: (60)

Mela bin kemap st 1 pi. exist, past arrive 'We arrived from J.'

from abl.

Janjuwa Janjuwa

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact (61)

Orla kid bin PI. kid past 'The kids threw stones'

103

tjak-am ston throw-trans, stone

Table 2-8. Kriol verb phrase verb stem

inflection 1 -Vm trans. -in progr.

inflection 2 -ap upwards, forceful, extensive action -at towards goal, cessation -bek reversal, reciprocal -dan downwards, termination -{a)wei away from -of off, away from an elevated entity

inflection 3 -bat iterative

To give a few more examples of intransitive verbs: go 'go, move', kamap 'come', kemp 'camp, sleep', bogi 'bathe', poldan 'fall (down)' and breikdan 'break down'. Transitive verbs are, for instance, lik-im 'lick', majurr-um 'muster, nak-am 'hit', gather together' (probably from 'knock') and nidil-im 'infect'. Hambag 'to pester', which is possibly derived from E humbug, can be transitive or intransitive. In (62) humbug is intransitive and the circumstantial target of pestering or the goal of the action is expressed in locative form; in (63) it is transitive and the goal is expressed as object: (62)

(63)

Pipul kin hambag langa yu people can pester LOC 2nd sg. 'People can pester you for money' Dis boi hambag-am-bat this boy pester-TR-ITER. 'This boy is annoying us'

for 'purpose'

mani money

as us

Transitive verbs are derived from process or event verbs by means of the suffix -urn or a variant of -urn. Blou-um is an activity verb 'to blow', juweirr-im 'to swear at', ran ran-am 'to run someone over': (64) (65)

Win The wind Detboi That boy

bin blow-um blew binjuweir-im swore at

wan nes a nest mi me

la graun to the ground

Unlike what was said on the transitive marker -im above, -im can also express the causation of an action or state, as in flai-im 'to fly sth', jumokam 'to smoke sth', dran-am 'to push sth below surface, to drown s.o.', or an object of result, such as bagarrap-am 'to spoil, ruin, make useless' from bagarrap 'spoiled, useless' or stak-am 'to catch, hold fast' from stak

104

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

'stuck'.25 Here are some examples that show the impact of mAusE from the late 1901 century that was alluded to above (cf. also (71) and (88)): (66) Wi bin dens-am juju We danced a corroborée (67) Det kid bin bomit-im orla taka [< mAusE tucker] That child vomited [all] his food Aspect is a major grammatico-semantic system in English and Kriol marks the progressive and iterative by means of -in and -bat, respectively: (68) Dem kids dei bisi pley-in la trempolin Them kids they busy playing LOC trampoline The kids are active playing on the trampoline' While -in is derived from the non-standard form -in, the point that distinguishes Kriol from English is that it may be placed before or after an adverbial particle in intransitive phrasal verbs: (69) jid-an-ing jid-in-dan both meaning 'sitting' jing-at-ing jing-in-at both meaning 'singing out, calling' The progressive marker is used to derive activity or process verbs: (70) krus-ing 'drive around for enjoyment...' betl-ing 'try to do sth without success' [< mAusE battler] The iterative -bat expresses both repeated activities and the fact that a subject is in the plural. Bat is, according to Sharpe (1985: 187), more frequent than the progressive: (71)

Dis motika i bagarrap-bat [= mAusE bucker up] this car 3rd sg. spoiled-ITER 'This car is erratic it goes for a while and stops' (72) I shut-um-bat mi garra stone [=] 3rd sg hit -TR-ITER l s t sg.obj 'with'stone 'He was throwing stones (and hitting me) repeatedly' Most second order suffixes are derived from English prepositions, some from phrasal verbs, such as jidan 'sit down', standap 'stand up', others combine with an aspectual meaning, such as -ap 'upwards, upwards to a goal' or 'carry out action to its fullest, completion': (73) kalim-up 'climb' draibim-ap 'drive toward a goal' falaram-ap 'follow, to catch up with [in contrast with alaram] 25

Sharpe (1985: 186f) mentions that -it can be a transitive marker, e.g. gibit, duit.

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

105

'move along behind a moving object, follow' [adapted fr. Hudson (1983: 172)] Kriol marks tenses by bin (past), andi (future) and unmarked (present) (Sharpe 1985: 187ff). The following examples serve to illustrate them: (74) (75) (76)

im bin gilim me mi jabi im andi jilib jaya

'He hit me' [gilim fr. kill+iml] Ί know' [from pidgin savvy] 'He will sleep there'

Past tense bin can be contracted to imin 'he was' or to nebim 'never/not was/were'. Reflexive actions are marked by, e.g., mijelb/mijel 'myself; reciprocity is indicated by goja for 'together' [< gotta], the passive is expressed by bin got, by an intransitive verb with a passive meaning or else by olabat in subject position. Here are a few examples of these forms: (77) (78) (79)

imin opened sambody bin openim it olabat calim yalbum

'It opened/was opened' 'Somebody opened it' 'It's called album', lit. 'they call it album'

Kriol expresses intention, obligation, abilitaty or inabilitaty in these ways (Sharpe and Sandefur 1976: 68): (80) (81) (82) (83) (84) (85)

wandi im wandi go la gin a gin bajimab gan yu gan go la mi

riba

'intention; want to' 'He wants to go to the river'26 'ability; can' Ί can bring it' 'inability; cannot' 'You cannot go with me'

In copular sentences, be is not used, as in this equative sentence: (86) (87)

tharran munangu (im) burrun Darwin that (< 'that one') white person (he) is from Darwin yunmalabat dadi la tap [recall the indigenous pattern] our daddy at top 'Our father is in heaven'

Jidan, jandap, leidan can be used in place of a copula but they characteristically mark physical position. The following examples show the negation of sentences and a few other syntactic processes (Example (88) also has the mAusE word tucker): (88) 26

Buji yu nomo gibit mi, wel yunmi gona fait blanga jadlot daga

The word riba 'river', which occurred in (81), has been replaced by creek in mAusE. That shows that the pidgin predecessors of Kriol have retained linguistic material from the input varieties.

106

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

'If you don't give (any to) me well, you and I will have to fight about that food' (fr. Rumsey 1983: 179) (89) wen jad olgamen bin kukum blanga im daga, im nomo bin gibit jad najalot 'when that 'old woman' cooked 'for' her tucker, she no more give that 'another lot" In (88) the negative nomo 'no more' occurs in pre-verbal position, unlike in mAusE. The all-purpose 'associative' preposition blanga from 'belong to' is used in the sense of 'about' or, more specifically, 'in relation to'. The demonstrative jadlot 'that lot' has a plural marker 'lot' but has a singular reference here.27 (89), in contrast, has the singular demonstrative jad 'that', the transitive suffix -urn, and, as in (88), the mAusE word daga for 'food', which is, of course, identical to tucker 'food'. Kriol has both clear eivdence of Australian and of EngE dialect words. Note, once more, the word of riba 'river' which has been replaced by 'creek' in mAusE in (81) above.28 Kriol seems to be easily understood after some exposure, says Sandefur, but he adds that "because of the transparency of Kriol, many English speakers think they understand it. But therein lies the problem. Because they think they understand some Kriol, they think they can understand all of it and hence there is miscommunication" (1991b: 121). Kriol speakers are guilty of that same mistake. They, Sandefur says, "view English through a Kriol grid in the very same way that English speakers view Kriol though an English grid" (1991b: 123). Miscommunication works both ways. Sandefur narrates an incident where a woman was reported as saying "imbin breigim im am", which was understood as that the woman had broken her arm. She was put on a truck and carried to hospital. It turned out that the arm had been severed as breigim means 'to sever'. Transparency is a frequent source of miscommunication.29 Kriol has gained status and is recognized as an Aboriginal language, it is one option in the language repertoires of many Aborigines and is elicited in ABS censuses (e.g. ABS 1999; 2002a). And yet, Harris writes, "Kriol speakers never identify themselves as Kriol people" (1993: 157). They use traditional language names even if they do not speak any. Unsurprisingly, Kriol was used as a medium of education in only a few places. Bilingual 27

28 29

Regarding phonology, note that the fricative /v/ in give is rendered as lb/. The voiced fricative in 'that' is replaced by a palatalized stop /j/. The AND has the first attestation in 1833 in Tasmania. Leitner (2004b) discusses problems due to the transparency of Aboriginal concepts like women's business, etc., in mAusE.

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

107

education programs that included Kriol were abolished by the Northern Territory government in 1999. Attempts to codify Kriol and to propose a uniform writing system, too, have been resisted widely, notes Harris: Thus, there is hostility towards standardising written Kriol, towards creating a written form that is no-one's dialect but that everyone could read. Rodgers writes: 'The Barunga school books were influenced by non-Aboriginal teacher linguists who seem to have developed a 'School Kriol' dialect, which is more than simply the difference between oral and written Kriol modes.' ... At present no orthography is acceptable. (1993: 162f)

Kriol is, in other words, still an ancillary language and is losing many of its earlier features under the increasing influence of mAusE. It is, one might say, becoming ever lighter in many areas where it is spoken. Steffensen (1979: 119) reports that children and young adults in Barunga, for instance, tend to switch between light Kriol, non-standard and standard mAusE. Sandefur agrees that this is a common pattern: The vast majority of split-range speakers are mother-tongue speakers of Kriol who also speak English or upper-mesolectal Aboriginal English, which they learnt as a second-language, usually through schooling. These people still speak their mother-tongue, although many Europeans are convinced otherwise. The most important speech-usage rule in operation among Kriol speakers is 'English with Europeans, not Kriol'. As a result, Kriol is seldom used by split-range speakers in the presence of Europeans. When it is used, however, the European often thinks the Aboriginal person is speaking a traditional language because of the unintelligibility to Europeans of fluently spoken Kriol. (1985: 201)

Kriol speakers seem to make ever more room for AborE in their speech repertoire and exploit both to signal an in-group and out-group distinction. To turn briefly to Cape York and the Torres Strait, there are some 200 islands of which only 17 were inhabited at the time of colonization. The languages of Torres Strait islanders divided into an eastern, central and western branch. Meriam Mir, the dominant one in the east, is related to Papuan languages, while Kala Lagaw Ya in the west is related to the PamaNyungan family. In contrast to Aboriginal Australians, Torres Strait islanders were traditionally monolingual and did not consider themselves related prior to the annexation by Queensland. In fact, there seems to have

108

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

been a high level of violent conflict amongst the inhabitants of the different islands (Single 1979: 7). More brutalities occurred in the context of the colonial exploitation of the islands and the establishment of a mission on the eastern island of Erub by the London Missionary Society in 1873 was welcomed by the local population and by white settlers. The history of the language habitat cannot be summarized in detail (cf. Shnukal 1991b), but it is important to emphasize that the social and educational development differed from Aboriginal Australia, where schools and missions were regarded with suspicion. In the Torres Strait, in contrast, both were welcomed and, within a short time, "Christianity, 'civilization', advancement in the new order, and 'ownership' of the new technology have been linked in Islander consciousness with the acquisition of English" (Shnukal 1991b: 99). There was a willingness to acquire English, even if what was really learnt was the pidgin English that the teachers of the London Missionary Society had brought in. It was similar to the South Pacific pidgin, replaced local languages in education and showed that that policy had finally failed. When the London Missionary Society established a Papuan Institute on Mer at the end of the century, there was an even greater need of a lingua franca and Meriam Mer and Kala Lagaw Ya were downgraded. The downgrading of the formerly statusful local languages was willingly accepted by the local population and when the London Missionary Society left the islands in 1915 and when the (Australian) Anglican Church and the Queensland Department of Education took over the shift to English accelerated. Education was now in English only. Yet, segregated living patterns and semi-autonomous government ensured that mAusE could not take firm roots and that the pidgin, which had creolized by then, continued to flourish. From the 1920s, assimilation, the new goal, enforced English even more to the detriment of both indigenous languages and the creole. World War Π was a crucial period. Torres Strait Islanders had fought in the army and entertained a belief that they would become a part of the mainstream. When it was clear that this would not be the case, the creole flourished again. That continued to be so for as long as Islanders stayed on the islands. It was only when they moved to the mainland or government settlements that mAusE could make strong inroads. Yet, Shnukal writes that we should note, however, that, despite the official English-only language policy, there has for decades been an unofficial transfer bilingual education program in operation in the outer island schools. The majority of teachers have always been Islanders and they invariably begin instruction in the children's primary language, whether creole or an indigenous language, gradually moving to English in the upper primary classes. (1991b: 110)

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

109

Torres Strait creole counts as 'strong'. But one must bear in mind the small size of the population and that it is confined to some islands, some remoter areas in Cape York and, possibly, to 'home uses' in mainland cities. Turning to linguistic features, there are only a few useful papers, e.g. Shnukal (1985a/b; 1991a). To avoid unnecessary detail and to continue the theme of social variation, it is best to summarize her account of variable features that relate to age and region (1985: 159). She divides features into two categories, i.e. those that vary by age and those that vary by region: Table 2-9. Variable features of Torres Strait creole Variation by

AGE

REGION

(a) word stress

(b) intonation (c) vowel and consonant quality (d) transitive/causative marker

1. Phonology

(e) shwa (f) fricatives 2. Morpho-syntax (g) transitive/caus. marker (k) causatives (h) plural marker (i) copula (j) conjunction (1) possessives (m) position of aspect markers 3. Lexicon (n) use of English lexicon

(o) rentention of

substrate lexicon (p) adoption of western island lexicon

Shnukal argues that age-related variable patterns reflect the usage of the Meriam Mir, less that of Kalaw Lagaw Ya population. Old speakers tend to retain the substrate, younger ones shift to more English-like patterns. Thus, batól 'bottle' is the traditional form, bótol the younger one. Unstressed vowels are not reduced in either variety. The morpho-syntactic patterns from (g) to (j) correlate with age. Younger and more norm-oriented older speakers, for instance, omit the transitive marker, introduce plurals, use the copula and conjunctions. To close with regional patterns, Shnukal mentions that eastern Islanders have short centring or low off-glides in words like mate 'friend', which results in [msst] or [msBt], while the western Islanders

110

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

either have a monophthong [met] or a rising diphthong [mejt]. In other words, speakers with a Kalaw Lagaw Ya substrate are more like speakers of varieties of English. The transitive marker is -i in the east and -e elsewhere. A related pattern is that eastern Islanders prefer, Shnukal says, "the transitive/causative marker -e" (1985a: 167), while others use a periphrasis with meke or an unmarked infinitive verb. There are some variable patterns, such as the reduction of unstressed vowels. The word bottle, for instance, is pronounced as [botai] by older speakers on all islands, and as [botai] by younger ones, especially on the eastern islands. Shnukal (1985a: 173) adds that generational differences provide evidence of decreolisation - as in Kriol - and that all but one feature show a movement towards English. 2.4.4

Aboriginal English

Traditional indigenous languages, Kriol and Torres Strait creole are regional languages. AborE, in contrast, is a nationwide vehicle of communication, the most prominent one within the modern Aboriginal language habitat and the variety that is exerting the strongest influence on mAusE.30 But despite its apparent usefulness, few contact languages have led to more controversies. Some of my interviewees called it a 'rubbish language'. A civil servant responsible for allocating funds to language programs said that, if she had it her way, she would give about ninety-five, ninety-eight per cent for that [i.e. Aboriginal lg.s; GL] and then whatever is remaining to Aboriginal English. And one of the objections I might have and it's not merely a fact of the importance to me but one of the difficulties I'd have with Aboriginal English is that it's the language of the colonizer that gave Aboriginal people a form of communications between they (sic) and the colonizer as part of their whole drama. I would suspect the proponents of Aboriginal English would come largely from mission forces. I have no evidence to substantiate that belief but I'd suspect that would to be the case. My private concern would be with Aboriginal languages itself first and foremost, (my corpus, 1996)

She herself spoke mAusE in the interview but had a few traces of AborE. Mudrooroo, an outspoken enemy of the churches, takes a slightly different stance when he says that AborE is a response to oppression: 30

There is a large body of research of accessible studies. One could mention, for instance, Eades (1996), Malcolm (1995a; 2000b; 2001a/b) and various websites such as the ones accessible through the Edith-Cowan-University.

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

111

When we were collected together into those concentration camps called reserves or missions, we of the many languages had to learn English to communicate even with each other, as well as those over us, though the English we learnt differed from the language they spoke and has remained distinct until this day. (1995: 57)

AborE is the English Aborigines "are most at home with", he says, and "in many places this is what is now called 'Aboriginal English', an English dialect often interspersed with Indigenous words" (1995: 58). Set in the context of the restriction of traditional languages to tribes or other units, such contrasts highlight the range of opinions about the status of AborE and its characteristic features and raise a number of questions: (1) When did AborE arise? What were the main agents in bringing it into existence? How could it become a nationwide language? (2) What are its main characteristics? Do they stratify in terms of age, social, educational or regional background? (3) Do its characteristics show a link with other contact languages? (4) How far has it proceeded along the path to variety formation and, possibly, self control (cf. diagram 1-1)? I will continue the themes discussed in sections 2.3 and 2.4.3 and add detail on the social history of AborE. But I will begin with a definition of AborE in the Macquarie Dictionary and by Ian Malcolm. The first edition of the Macquarie (1981), for instance, had no entry of it at all, possibly because the dictionary tended to exclude encyclopedic entries generally. Its third edition (1997) defines AborE as one of a number of variants converging on Australian English, especially characterised by the pronunciation, lexis, and idiom typical of many Aboriginál people, including distinctive elements of vocabulary and grammar taken from Aboriginal languages and alternative or obsolete uses of Australian English.

Ian Malcolm, a leading expert in the field of AborE and indigenous education, has defined it as [A] range of varieties of English spoken by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and some others in close contact with them which differ in systematic ways from Standard Australian English at all levels of linguistic structure and which are used for distinctive speech acts, speech events and genres. (1995b: 19)

112

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

Such definitions are based on a view of language as a set of expressions (langueι) rather than as a social code (langue2) but they do emphasize the role of pragmatic and discourse characteristics. Malcolm's definition is especially interesting in that it refers to a broad range of possible speakers. 2.4.4.1

Views on the origin ofAborE

The preceding section has already implied some details about the texture of AborE and the way it may relate to other outcomes of contact.31 As Aborigines were faced with English in a quasi-natural learning situation, they were trying to cope and most did quite well in terms of achieving communicative goals. Their learning skills were often considered superior to those of the intruders. If that is true, one would presume that after the contact language base had emerged, one of the identifiable differentiations that developed after a period of time would have been AborE (section 2.4 and diagram 2-2). It would have been identifiable by its 'distance' from earlier pidgins and would have been closer to the English Aborigines were exposed to. Malcolm (cf. 1995b: 21) identifies four paths that could lead to AborE. I have modified his representation slightly in diagram 2-5 below. With four sources and the contact language base that existed before, one is faced with a more difficult situation to describe its texture and status throughout Australia than is the case with Kriol. Can one expect AborE to be homogeneous in any way? Are its functions and its social position the same across the continent? Malcolm's definition that AborE covers "range of varieties of English" is very sensible and the diagram on page 113 implies that one should expect regional or dialectal patterns, remnants of the influence of indigenous languages after speakers have shifted to AborE, or else the effects of the attempts of learners to master English. Fossilization is a prominent characteristic of what learners do when they use a foreign or second language. One might expect deliberate attempts of speakers to include features from their indigenous heritage. To come to the final preliminary point, since the four paths were, or can be, taken at different times in different parts of the country and could cooccur, one should expect temporal layers, with some varieties of AborE being further advanced on the way to mAusE than others.

31

There is an ambiguity as to what counts as AborE. Foster, Monaghan, and Mühlhäusler (1999), for instance, speak of 'Aboriginal English' nontechnically, but mean Aboriginal pidgin English.

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

113

The paths (a) and (b), for instance, presuppose the existence of a pidgin or creole and a more open access to English to permit decreolization. They rest on a desire to adapt to its conventions and would be taken by speakers who opted to shift from the pidgin to a form of English closer to mAusE. As New South Wales pidgin was disappearing by the 1840s, its speakers did shift to English in the south-east. In the north and centre the shift was likely to occur at the end of the 19th century and in some areas later sill. The shift may not have taken place at all and speakers could continue to be bilingual in an indigenous language and a form of AborE that owes a good deal to the available pidgins. Koch (2000b), for instance, shows that well in his comparison of the AborE spoken by bilingual Central Australian Aborigines. In the Torres Strait creolization occurred in the early decades of the 20th century only and the shift to mAusE was a matter of the 1920s and 1930s, unless, of course, speakers replaced the pidgin by mAusE. Path (c) also presupposes a situation where indigenous language speakers did, or were forced to, shift to English when they had access to it. One might think that this was the case in, or in the vicinity of missions and stations where intermediate stages of learner English, i.e. the interlanguage, played a role. AborE speakers who had been present in various places will have acted as models for those speakers who depidginized their English or shifted to English from an indigenous language. In other words, the major origin of AborE would typically be the schools or situations where Aborigines came into close contact with white people and had easy and persistent access to English. Path (d), too, presupposes an interlanguage base that must count as an intermediate layer of English. Section 2.4.3.2 showed, for

114

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

instance, that Bennelong had achieved a high level of competence, even though Troy (1993: 40) quotes Tench approvingly that he was a 'broken' speaker. Amery and Mühlhäusler wrongly believed his English was pidginlike. For simplicity's sake, I repeat a short passage of his letter from section 2.4.3.2 (identical features are marked with the same number): (90)

Sir I (i) am very well. I hope you (i) are very well. I live (ii) at (iii) the Governor's. I have every day dinner there.... we (iv) have had murry ['bad'; GL] doings: he (v) spear'd me (ii) in (iii) the back.... his name (i) is now Carroway.... (fr. Amery and Mühlhäusler 1996: 35)

Note the use of the copula in (90)(i), which would be absent in pidgin. Passage (ii) contains several prepositions where pidgin would have one or a generalized one. There is a definite article in (iii), which would be missing in pidgin. In (iv) Bennelong uses the present perfect and in (v) the simple past, while verbs would be either unmarked or use the past tense marker bin and a verb form in pidgin. Clearly, this passage signals a advanced form of learner English, not a pidgin. What we do not know is whether Bennelong was and remained the only or one of a few Aborigines at the time with such a level competence. I would suspect that there must have other Aborigines who spoke English equally well. Some girls, for instance, lived with pastors and had access to English. But how influential were such speakers? Did they act as models and pass their English on to others? Did they maintain English after they left such a favourable environment? Despite the presence of such speakers, there is little doubt that the common language base would support the growth of a pidgin during the early years of the 1790s. Pidgin formation would be repeated countless times thereafter. But those other circumstances where access to English was easy would make AborE a possible outcome at the end of the early decades of the 19th century. The Native Institution in Parramatta was, I said earlier, the first organized attempt to educate Aborigines. Troy says nothing about the command of English of the children but she does imply it as children were placed in a dormitory away from their parents, Christianised, given vocational training and taught basic reading, writing and arithmetic.... By 1817 the children were reported as able to read the Bible and were attending Sunday School: With respect to the capacity of the natives to learning, we can have no doubt, as the Native Institution founded by Government about three years ago (1811)... proves ....

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

115

In 1819, a fourteen year old Aboriginal girl won the first prize in the Anniversary Schools Examination, ahead of twenty Aboriginal and one hundred non-Aboriginal children. Macquarie [the Governor, GL] was very gratified.... He believed that through education it would be possible to exploit Aboriginal labour. They were potential 'assets' to be trained as mechanics and labourers so that they might well find 'useful' roles 'as members of the lower orders of society.' (my italics; 1990: 22f)

Readers may recall from section 2.3 that the innocent-looking phrases "vocational training" and "basic reading, writing and arithmetic" described the major objectives of colonial education that were pursed throughout the Empire (Brutt-Griffler 2002). The goals were not set high and English soon became the sole language of mission and government schools. While there was some success in teaching English, the main outcome was a pidgin or a rudimentary learner English. German missionaries observed that "broken English is common amongst most aborigines [sic!], which serves them for communication amongst themselves as with the whites" (Schneider 1882: 47) in the 1830s.32 Pidgin English had become the language of intertribal communication. In his description of the Lake Boga mission, Schneider says that Aborigines "repeatedly shout out in their doubtful English: 'You best fellow, master!'" (1882: 78). Note the lack of the copula be, the lack of the article - which are typical features of pidgin English. "As for the language of instruction", Schneider remarks, "it is English. Yet, missionaries have acquired the language of aborigines so well that they can use it with ease, preach their sermons in it and use in the initial stages of teaching" (my transi; 1882: 142). The old people were found to be almost unteachable but they were proud, when, after several years of teaching, they could read a little English. The situation for children was very different: Some learn astonishingly and easily, others slowly, but their memory is faithful and what has been acquired remains a lasting possession. Most of them express great zeal, repeat many times and on their own accord what they have learnt outside class and even ask the teacher to give extra lessons in the evenings. He is naturally pleased to do that. Some half-caste children are, admittedly, superior to the others in terms of talent. But soon the better pupils read fluently, others more slowly, some start spelling first or arrange little words out of the letters. (Schneider 1882: 143f)

But despite the many negative comments on the English acquired and used, it seem that Moravian schools achieved reasonable standards in 32

I use a lower case a in aborigines to translate the German word Eingeborenen.

116

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

general. The Moravian school at Ramahuyck for instance, was accepted as a regular member of the Victorian Association of Common Schools in 1872, following to Schneider (1882: 145). On the Moravian mission schools in Cape York, such as Mapoon, Paton (1913) said that the children generally learnt very well and that their articulation compared well with that of white child-ren. Girls, he added, were generally superior to boys. On the schools at Mapoon and Weipa he said this: One might think one is listening to an exceptionally good class of white children. The only disturbing sound is the strong pronunciation of "s" but the accent is good and every word is articulated distinctly. (Paton 1913: 12) The achievements in reading were very good, in some cases even astonishing compared with the little time they spent at school. The success in writing was comparable to what one would expect at different levels in a white school. Overall, boys are outdone by girls. (Paton 1913: 23) Troy commented on the situation in Woolmington in these terms: Teachers, missionaries and colonists frequently remarked that Aborigines, especially children, were very quick to acquire spoken English and reading skills. 'Aborigines seemed to enjoy reading and asked for more books. They also learnt to count, as tables do simple arithmetic.1 (1990: 23) The schools did apparently produce young people able to express themselves in English and read texts in English. Other Aborigines had a model of their own people, even if they did not attain it. The children's English could well have been an interlanguage. But one should not be blinded by such positive descriptions. School attendance was low, irregular and not all schools did equally well. And often it was foreign missionaries that acted as model speakers. But could one, for that reason, rely on Troy's description, i.e. that "although the schools did provide some Aborigines with English as a target language for a short period of time there was little maintenance of English as a target language once they left school" (1990: 23). She has no hard evidence, though it would have been natural that their competence would suffer attrition once they left school and the European context. On balance, I would maintain that it may be more accurate to regard the children's English as a learner variety that could weaken during adulthood, but I do not think it was a pidgin. There would thus be evidence of a continuous tradition of AborE and of the assimilative power of English from the beginning. And such high levels of proficiency were indeed recognized, as this quotation from 1910 shows:

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

117

Children in school can be educated like white children and to the same extent, and the parents object to any distinction in the curriculum or the standard required.... The ordinary blackfellow is as good at numbers as his white brother. Some become great in oratory and speak English chastely and beautifully. (R. Smith; fir. ABS 2001: 8)

To give an example from South Australia, the Lutheran Church acquired a large piece of land on the coast at Koonibba, west of Ceduna and of Port Lincoln, in 1899. The German pastor C.A. Wiebusch established a mission there, which provided agricultural jobs, was to civilize Aborigines and keep them under the influence of Christianity. A school was added in 1900 and was, after some frustrations, quite successful. Though Wiebusch gained an enormous influence over several tribes and used the local language, Sunday Services that were attended by large numbers were conducted in English from 1903 (Mattingley and Hampton 1988: 203). School attendance was low as children disappeared regularly with their parents. Despite the persistence of cultural practices, the congregation grew and, by 1916, more than 113 Aborigines were baptized. At its height in 1950, the station had 500 inhabitants, a school, a church, a hospital and other facilities. According to Horton, "during this period of mission administration and training, Koonibba people made a significant contribution to the development of farming, road building, railway maintenance and construction work in the region. They [Aborigines, GL] were well represented in the armed forces during the world wars" (1994: 558). The intensity of contact, education and employment meant that there must have been a need for a reasonably high level of English. With no pidgin being observed there, AborE must have developed. Like other missions, Koonibba was a seedbed for AborE. Much the same situation obtained in the west. "Between the years 1836 and 1871", writes Malcolm, "there were a number of Aboriginal mission schools which tried to educate the native children in order to prepare some of them in the service of white settlers" (1997b: 15). But as in the east, schools and missions were often moved from one place to another and did not create a sense of continuity. They often could not, as Aborigines were driven off of their land, died or were killed. The Swan River Mission is a good example. Founded in 1836, it was moved to Freemantle in 1842, to Albany in 1852 and back to Perth in 1871. Malcolm suggest that the above description of the contact situations between Aborigines and white settlers proves that it is difficult to speak from the sociolinguistic point of view of one particular contact situation with the English language and its influence on present-day Aboriginal English, with the exception of

118

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

the early contact with the Sydney Language (...) where the contact situations were far more frequent and occurred much earlier (1788-1796) than in other states. (1997b: 16)

There were, he implies, some peculiarities in the wast that did not obtain elsewhere. One example was that "the parts of Western Australia which were often visited by explorers and settled by Englishmen constituted the large territory of the Bibbulman race which was the largest homogeneous group in all of Australia comprising more than 70 "family" groups [...], linked by one language with little variations" (brackets used in original, GL; 1997: 16). There was, thus, not such a need for, and possibility of, a pidgin to arise as in the much more multilingual east. When Aborigines did speak English, it may have been a variety of AborE. A very prominent, but largely ignored, area is the (Spanish) Catholic mission of New Norcia, northeast of Perth (Strong 1995). As one reads the descriptions of exhibits or texts in the museum, one comes across reports that refer to the fact that mission work was done in Spanish and English. One can read a passage about an Aboriginal child that was sent to Spain and could speak Spanish exceedingly well. The mission policy on Spanish education, the teaching of English and/or the encouragement of Nyungar and contact languages have not been documented so far. Differences in approach to contact apart, there was a significant level of commonness of the types of contact and the educational tradition across the continent that will have shaped the texture of AborE and made it a quasinational variety of English. Rose (1996), Mattingley and Hampton (1992) and others provide ample evidence of the kind of English used in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Rose says that the first Aboriginal newspaper was The Aboriginal or Flinders Island Chronicle produced between September 1836 and December 1837. This extraordinarily interesting publication handwritten and handcopied in English - was the work of three Englishspeaking Aboriginal clerks in the employ of G.A. Robinson, the controversial figure who served as Commandant of the Aboriginal settlement on Flinders Island in the Bass Strait. It is of such historical significance and contains such important elements of reportage that it must be considered the first Aboriginal publication, even though it was clearly controlled by the White camp commandant. (1996: xxivf)

There followed a gap of about one hundred years before the Australian Abo Call: the Voice of the Aborigines was published in 1938. The Abo Call was followed by the Westralian Aborigine (1954-57). The period after

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact 119 Aborigines acquired citizen status produced a vast number of Aboriginal publications such as Smoke Signal, Black Knight, Churinga, Alchuringa, Koorier, Black Liberation, or Koorakookoo (Rose 1996). The names betray the political bias of the 1960s and the contact of Aboriginal activists like Gary Foley or Robert Eggington with European and American left wing movements. Rose says little on the authenticity of early Aboriginal publications that would bear upon the issue of whether or not their English was sub-edited by white English speakers, but it looks as if it was not. Early articles carried a certification of authenticity: "I certify that this copy was written by one of the Aboriginal youths at Flinders Island... [signed] by Thomas Brune" (Rose 1996: 4). The following excerpts can be taken as representative of the language of the Aboriginal Australian press at that time. Striking features are italicised: (91)

In commencing our Journal agreeable to the prospectus we cannot look back on the Events Connected with our history this we leave with the Divine blessing to the heart and head that has been instrumental in uniting us together and providing us with Instruction guiding us into the habits of civilised life.... (from first issue, 10 September 1836; fr. Rose 1996: 4) (92) The Native people of Van Diemen's Land is gone out hunting and some of the men his got some books out with them and they are sunging and reading out in the bush and praying to God every night I suppose.... (93) My friends which are here now and my people is well off in Flinders Island the men which his now out hunting will come again on the Settlement.... (94) The Natives people his learning about God and learning to read and learning about Jesus Christ and the way that we should go to heaven when we dies and if we be bad men we will go down into everlasting burnings." (28th September 1837; fr. Rose 1996: 5) (95) Aboriginals which are in the bush what business they 0 stooping out two long in bush the people is gone have plumpudding to day on the 11th of October 1837 the which are in the bush wonte have none at all.... (11 October 1837; fr. Rose 1996: 7) Example (91) attempt an extreme level of formality - note commence, the post-posed adjective agreeable to, though there are no punctuation marks that indicate sentence breaks. Examples (92) and (93) show the hypercorrect insertion of h in his, non-standard AusE sunging, the 'wrong' relative pronoun which, lack of plural concord, the lexically transparent

120

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

word come again instead of 'return', and extreme formality in the use of the subjunctive be in the infinitive construction. (95), finally, illustrates the non-standard AusE double negation, the pidgin-like what business for 'in order to', the orthographic error two for 'too', and the relative clause with no head noun the which. Other features that could be named from other texts are thank for 'think' or 'thought', the progressive 'it is right to carrying wood' (Rose 1996: 9) and the α-adjective construction in a walking down (Rose 1996: 11), aswimming (Rose 1996: 13). Though I focus on deviations here, the real point is that this English illustrates a high level of competence and shows that the variety of AborE may be seen as a learner variety of English. Readers may judge themselves how big the difference from AusE may have been. One should also add that there must have been enough Aboriginal readers with enough literacy skills to read and understand such texts. Mattingley and Hampton (1992) contains written versions of spoken English of South Australian Aborigines. Here are some excerpts from the late 19th and early 20th century that show AborE to be close enough to nonstandard AusE. The first is a story by three Aborigines named Pendowen, Neenimin and Barakbournau, whose age is not given. (96) One night a party of blacks were encamped on the range between Mount Murhead [Beleter] and Guichen Bay, and were greatly frightened by a shock of earthquake (mondle m'read; literally, thunder in the ground) ... we were all frightened; the ground shook... (fr. ar. 1880; 1992: 7) The next excerpt is from a letter by Kropinyeriy, an Aborigine, to the Chief Protector: (97) (a) ... my failing health ... has made it necessary for me to forego my shearing the past year, which would just about cover the amount we are behind as per Account... I am willing to pay for all you do for us... Hence I would ask you to see your way clear to send us Rations ... as I pride in my independence... (b) Kindly permit me to express complete surprise ... at your suggestion to come to live at this Mission, after all the years of honest labor and endeavor to live independent of Missions... (fr. ar. 1912; 1992: 23) Note the formality of style, the command of appropriate constructions and, in passing, the -or spelling, which I discussed as a property of mAusE in Leitner (200b). The next excerpt narrates what it was like in the old days: (98) They used to go and cook this thing in a big boiler, three-legged boiler, for 'em. They'd flour in an' a water an' they stir it up.... Have

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

121

a big copper of tea for them.... oh them days, there was a big mob of Aborigines.... Big waterhole there used to be, an' they' have a swim an' wash themself. An' -+hese womans used to make a rice for the kids you know. (fr. a woman born in 1924, told ar. 1985; 1992: 24) This example reflects a proximity to non-standard mAusE. But there are differences, such as the use of themself, which was discussed in Leitner (2004b, section 3.6.3), the use of rice as a count noun and the repetition of of in copper of tea. The following excerpt from a letter by Mickey Free, who lived on Koonibba, shows many of the same features. Mickey Free wrote to the Chief Protector of Aboriginals in 1912 and requested land to be granted to 'halfcastes': (99) Just a few lines to ask you can english govrment grand us halfecste [sic] people a block of land. I am speaking for the sueful [useful, sic] halfecste people only, those halfecste are working for their living, and also they are working for the country and also they are helping to support the country, so I think we have a right to ask govrment to give us start. We want home we got famley coming on. also we want english school for our childrens. this is english countri we like to deal with english people, this german mission seems to me only home for their own people, no good for the Blacks and halfecste people we don't get no treatment... we really don't get no treatment., the mission station being fifteen years, there is no home for us yet. (Mattingley and Hampton 1988: 203f) The tenor of this letter reflects the self-consciousness that mixed Aborigines had reached at the time of the first World War, when they were serving as soldiers. There are infelicities of spelling, such as halj{e)cst, grand for 'grant', govrement and phonetic spellings such as famley, etc. There is double negation (dont get no), clause connections without overt subordinators, e.g. in "We want home we got famley coming on', etc. In the next excerpt Rachel Brady, who was born in Flinders Ranges in 1924, narrates the experiences of her grandmother: (100)

It was depression time then (when we were at Ram Paddock). No one used to get ration in that days. No, no they never had it, them old peoples. Them old was battlers. When this depression time, you know, they used to 'ave plenty o' rice. An' these womans used to make a rice for the kids you know, put it in a big pie dish an' cut it in cold blocks, an' put a plum jam on top first an' cut it in slices, then give it each child. That's all they'd have, rice an' meat.

122

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

Our mens used to get kangaroo. Young fellas all workin' on them stations. Our womens used to go out with the dog. Kangaroo dog used to get two, three kangaroo. (Mattingley and Hampton 1988: 24) Examples (91) to (100) are evidence of spoken and written forms of English from the middle of the 19th to the beginning to the 20th century. We will find many of these features in contemporary AborE (see next section) so that one might see in them a high level of stability of this form of learner English. By implication, these examples demonstrate the historicity of AborE and that it must have existed alongside pidgin English in many areas, perhaps even in those where Kriol and Torres Strait creole had developed. How-ever, it is not known at what period of time such features ceased to be seen as deviations by their users and when variety formation, to use the term from diagram 1-1, set in in AborE. If that were known, one would have an understanding of when English was appropriated by Aborigines to express Aboriginal identities. One would also be able to to date the transfer into AborE of the genres studied by Malcolm (2000c; 2002b) or of the informa-tion-seeking strategies mentioned by Eades (1982). I might end this histor-ical survey by saying that the acceptance or institutionalization of the features illustrated presupposed a level of separation from the Anglophone society and avoidance of contact. 2.4.4.2

Contemporay AborE

Having shown that there must have been a fair amount of stability in the kind of English learnt or acquired in educational and social contexts, the following survey of contemporary AborE will focus on variable patterns, i.e. patterns that correlate with region, style and age, but include references to features that have existed for longer than others and that complement the survey of the social history of AborE. Example (101) is from a story about a conflict between an Aboriginal man and a white farmer, (102) is a humorous episode about a woman who was taken to court. Both examples show various variable properties of AborE: (101) Episode from the "Rainmaker Story" (cf. Leitner 2004a/b) Β: '... Look, I'll give you two, three months... After three months the country (i) wouldn't hold any sheep.' T: 'Hm, hm. You (ii) can't do nothin', old McTaggart said... B: Why? You want see (iii) lem? ... You go away, you'll see it.... 0 North wind (iv) gonna blow every day.

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact 123 (102)

"[The judge asks:] What (i) your address?' Tat woman tell im: 'Tis (i') dress, I (ii) bin ave on.'.... And ten tat judge (iii) fulla, (iv) he say: 'How you been (v) plead?' She (vi) tellim tat judge: Ί bin (ii) pleed from me 'ead, tat udder fulla, he bin it me tere.' Judge den tellim, tat woman: Ί (vi) fine you five dollars.' And she 'appy, an she say: 'Oh tank you, I bin (vi') lose um tat five dollar last week'" (fr. Mudrooroo 1995: 57)

Both passages illustrate ft-dropping in head, happy, the replacement of dental fricatives by plosives in that, other, voice alternation in then, i.e. den and ten, and the use of 'em. Unlike in mAusE, the long monophthongs lì:, u:/ may be short and merge with short vowels. Words like seek and sick become homophones, i.e. [sik]. Once again, and in contrast to mAusE, the diphthongs /au, ai/ as in boat and eight, can be realized as long monophthongs. But they can be shortened and lead to homonymy. There are substrate influences and fossilization in areas where indigenous languages are still in use. Thus, the distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants may be absent in areas that are under less pressure from mAusE. Voiced phonemes may then be unvoiced and dog may be a homophone of 'dock', seize of 'cease', etc. Often, several processes apply simultaneously and produce homonyms such as buy/pay. Fricatives may be replaced by the nearest stop and may be devoiced, if voiced. Thus, utter stands for 'other', tank for 'thank'. Leitner (2204b; section 3.3.1.2) discusses the expression of Aboriginal concepts in mAusE that show the influence of the phonological system of AborE. Thus, in Aboriginal societies things 'sacred' are also 'secret' and vice versa. As a result, there is often only one word. AborE conflates these 'two' meanings into tikrit, according to Harkins (1994: 161). mAusE expresses them, logically, one might say, as the compound secrect-sacred. Turning to other matter, stress may be shifted to the first syllable as in 'longway, 'longtime and 'kanga'roo (Kaldor and Malcolm 1982: 84). Adjacent words may be contracted into a unit or, alternatively, phrases may be resegmented. Thus, 'all the' may become alia, 'we was' we'as and 'the other end' may turn out as the nother end. The 'n' in nother is due to the resegmentation of 'an other'. As to intonation, the High Rising Tone, which is considered a prominent feature of mAusE (Leitner 2004b, section 3.4.1), is common and here are some examples from my own corpus: (103)

A: (a) Yeah to me it means that you got to maintain your own way, you know, the way we were brought up... (b) Learning our own, how to get on with people... with our people and learn their rules and things, so that we get on better with other people Τ (Yipirinya)

124 (104)

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

A: The only one is sort of like near our college Τ (Yipirinya)

There is, thus, a considerable amount of variation in pronunciation that reflects the historical confluence of inputs from the sources mentioned. They have stabilized and made AborE a separate variety of English with variable systems of pronunciation. They are visible in precisely those same phonemes that stratify in mAusE. If long monophthongs, for instance, are diphthongized or shortened, they can be used to project opposing loyalties. Grammar, too, has variable patterns that were already visible in (101) and (102). Recall double negation, em 'them' or gonna to indicate future time. Wouldn't can be used for the past tense of 'will not' or, put more technically, to express past or future predictions. Such usages occur in all layers of mAusE. Example (102) above shows features of pidgin English: The copula be is omitted in (i) and bin is used to indicate past time in (ii), filila occurs in (iii) and reminds of the use of 'fellow' with nouns. Finally, -im is found in tellim and shows the persistence of Australian pidgin features (section 2.4.3.4). But most examples reflect the resources of mAusE grammar. In a study of grammar, Malcolm (1995b: 24f) has identified a range in areas where AborE has patterns of its own: (i)

distinctive markers of plurality - eg. use of expressions such as lots, mob, alia, instead of the SE [= Standard English, GL] plural marker -s; variable use of plural -s.

(ii)

possession expressed by juxtaposition of possessor and possessed, rather than the use of SE -s' or possessive pronouns.

(iii)

the use of a broader range of pronouns than the Standard English system to enable greater specification .... Use of the invariant third person pronoun 'e (for he, she, it). insertion of (so-called resumptive) pronouns after subjects

(iv)

Some features, he said, were regional: (v)

omission of the copula (various forms): e.g. "What your name?" "that not a cow"

(vi)

use of "la" or "longa" in locative or allative function - e.g. "go la nother tree"

AborE, thus, has systems of its own, but, he adds, the grammatical features of mAusE tend to be very common throughout Australia. Of the many studies of regional varieties, I will mention Koch (200b), Harkins (1994) and the studies by Malcolm. I will survey some areas that show what these varieties of AborE are like. I will begin with plural marking:

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

125

(105) that two blanket (Northern Territory; Harkinsl994: 44) (106) shooting alia bird (West. Australia; Kaldor and Malcolm 1982: 55) ( 107) We was picking for wild onion (NT; Harkins 1994: 44) (108) We bin went to Hermannsburg and then we saw all them blokes racing with horses (Northern Territory; Harkins 1994: 44) One might agree with Malcolm (1995b) and Harkins (1994) that plural marking is redundant, conceptually, in (105) to (107) since plurality is implied in the numerals (105), quantifiers (106), or world knowledge (107). Only in (108) would it be necessary. Harkins (1994: 45f) said that the confluence of four factors can lead to the omission of the plural -s: (i) the "comparatively low audibility" of the plural -s; (ii) semantic regularization; (iii) discourse knowledge; and (iv) the transfer from Arrernte and Luritj^ which don't mark plural obligatorily - yet do have a singular, dual, and plural. Semantic processes are involved when a noun is redefined as referring to the iteration of an activity, not plurality, as in (109). She adds that there is, what she calls, unspecified number in (110), as the sentence is vague about whether Kevin has one or more than one car: (109)

That's what I'm finding really interesting, when I'm doing these tapings and so on (Harkins 1994: 44) (110) Kevin got car (Harkins 1994: 44) Unspecified number, she says, is used in mAusE, as in "[being a] carowner". The plural themself, too, reduces redundancy and seems to both use an indigenous pattern (see section 2.2) and one of mAusE (Leitner 2004b): (111) And the elders knew themselve when they got there (silaail9.com) Possessive relations have a number of distinct patterns. AborE may use the resources of mAusE, as in (112). One finds the juxtaposition of the possessor and the possessed in (113), which also occurs in indigenous languages, but Harkins explains it as the omission of -s. The preposition for, which can be pronounced as [fo] and [po], is used in (114) and (115); belonga in (116) comes from pidgins and creóles, readers may recall. There is a possessive construction with gotta in (117), and finally, one can find words and suffixes from indigenous languages in (118) and (119): (112) (113) (114)

Before, you gotta think about your father's father... (Northern Territory; Harkins 1994: 55) That little one [0] mother speaks Luritja (Northern Territory; Harkins 1994: 55) the bed for that girl the quilt bin curl up (Kimberley region, Western Australia; Kaldor and Malcolm 1982: 85)

126 (115) (116)

(117) (118) (119)

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

Rachel mob-for dog bin die (Kimberley region, Western Australia; Kaldor and Malcolm 1982: 85) I know my mum's language and what's my father's language is, and my grandfather's language: father belong to my mum and father belong to my dad, 's language I know that... (Northern Territory; Harkins 1994: 56) After that they bin turn and we bin takem back we gotta motorbike (Northern Territory; Harkins 1994: 56) We got that little baby ikwerenhe [Arr. 3sg poss; sic] titty-bottle (Northern Territory; Harkins 1994: 56) Aunti Wilmasku place (Kimberley region, Western Australia, Kaldor and Malcolm 1982: 85)

Like many other varieties of English, AborE, too, can use determiners in ways that differ significantly from BrE or mAusE. The examples below, for instance, show that they can be used as in mAusE, see example (120). There is the somewhat colloquial, non-standard that in (121). In (122) there is variation: In (i) the article is omitted, in (ii) the proper form is not used, and (iii) and (iv) are similar to non-standard mAusE. One in (123) is common in many non-native varieties of English: (120) (121) (122)

(123)

Kevin's (i) a man, and Bruce is (ii) big boy (Northern Territory, Harkins 1994: 58) when Kitty bin blow that candle out (Western Australia, Kaldor and Malcolm 1982: 86) We went (i) on bush trip on Monday ... and .we saw (ii) a emu egg at Telegraph Station, and (iii) them boys tryen to get it, but we told them not to take (iv) that egg (Northern Territory, Harkins 1994: 57) Annisa showing one bush onion (North. Territ., Harkins 1994: 58)

While Kaldor and Malcolm (1982) merely list such features, Harkins (1994) maintains that AborE has different number and definiteness systems from mAusE. She argues that there are three levels of reference, i.e. unspecified, indefinite and definite, which interact with three numbers. Table 210 on page 127 has the details. A number of syntactic and structural-semantic systems have now been mentioned and I can turn to the clause and the Verb Phrase. Mood may be used differently from mAusE, as the following examples from Malcolm (1995b) show. Example (124), for instance, lacks inversion in questions, (125) has no do-support, the progressive copula is missing in (126) and a condition is expressed by the mere juxtaposition of its two parts (127):

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

127

(124) I can go now? (125) You want it? ( 126) Where you going? (127) You talk you're out The characteristics of examples (124) to (127) are not unknown in English but require special contexts in which agreement is anticipated. Dosupport may be missing in routine questions in informal contexts, the copula in (125) may disappear in fast speech. And if conditions are expressed as in (127), they express more of a threat than a neutral condition. These features do not require special sanctions in AborE. Table 2-10. Determiner and reference variation in AborE Number

Unspecified definiteness Indeterminate number Ν Singular Ν Dual two Ν(-ί) 33 Plural N-j

Indefinite

Definite

some/any Ν a/one Ν two N(-s) N-s, lotta N(-s)

the/that Ν the/that Ν the/that two N(-i) the/that/them/alla N(-s)

The Verb Phrase is, once again, a site of the merger of different resources, such as of varieties of mAusE, contact and indigenous languages. The "Rainmaker Story" in (101) and the joke about the judge and the Aboriginal defendant in (102) already showed some detail. Recall the prediction-inthe-past in 'wouldn't hold any sheep' in (101) or the use of bin to mark past time in (102), e.g. in Tis dress I bin ave on'. Since these patterns are not used uniformly, one may turn to a quantitative study of how various verb systems are expressed in the AborE of Western Australian children. Malcolm (1996) studied the continuous aspect and its interaction with tense, the copula in statements and 'Yes/No' questions. Of the many findings I will turn to a those that relate to other contact languages in table 2-11, page 128. As expected, there is a high level of variation amongst the seven school children. Of the two forms for the simple past, the standard one had a 'high' of just above 20 per cent with two children; with the others it was below the range of 10 per cent. As there was no progression in relation to age, Malcolm concluded that "clearly, from the earliest age, the children have access to the standard form, but they show an overwhelming preference (90%) for the unmarked form. That remained stable over the entire age 33

AborE may well have a dual, but two in this example is a mere numeral.

128

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

range and suggested that the unmarked form was a strong dialect feature which was resistant to the influence of school English" (1996: 151). As it is not available in non-standard mAusE, it must be an ethnic marker. Table 2-11. Tense and aspect in Aboriginal children (a) (simple) present (non-cont.), 3rd p. sg. (b) (simple) past (non-continuous)

(c) present/past continuous

(i) he walks (ii) he walk (i) they walked (ii) they goed (iii) they sawn (iv) they seen (v) they see (vi) they bin seen (vii) they bin see (i) they are/were working (ii) they working (iii) they is/was working (iv) they were work (v) they bin working (vi) he is work

standard unmarked standard overgeneralization lexical item past participle invariant bin+p. participle èin+invariant standard be omission be reversal -ing omission bin+ing -ing omission

The expression of the simple past were even more interesting. Standard forms dominated with above 50 per cent for each child and their frequency increased to about 70 per cent with the older children used. The invariant form in (b)(iv) averaged at 20 to 25 per cent. Bin and the infinitive in (b) (vii) came next and all other options were very rare indeed. While mAusE expressions thus came out as the most frequent ones, the split between the standard and non-standard should not be overlooked. AborE is quite close to non-standard mAusE in many respects. It would be worth investigating if these forms are used in the same way as in mAusE or if there are deeper differences behind. The decreasing use of the pidgin form bin amongst older children points to a gradual, if partial assimilation to mAusE patterns or - one might say more accurately - the avoidance of features that are too stigmatized. Aboriginal children tend to avoid forms close to pidgins or those of broad, regionalized varieties of AborE. As in the case of Kriol and Torres Strait creole children participate in the process of decreolization. Unmarked tense patterns were used for both present and past. Malcolm found that the omission of be, i.e. (c)(ii), decreased if sentences did not have a third person subject and that this decrease was stronger with older children. In contrast, in sentences that did have a third person subject, i.e.

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

129

(c)(iii), be omission declined and did not show an age-related pattern. The second most frequent form, the standard form in (c)(i) showed fluctuation. And the omission of -ing occurred with third person subjects only. None of the other forms in table 2-11 was found in the data. To explain such patterns, Malcolm points to communicative-functional causes and a socio-psychological drive to reduce the grammatical redundany on the one hand and of grammatical complexity on the other: The picture with respect to the past continuous shows an interesting contrast to that with respect to the present continuous. Here, as Figure 5 [not reproduced, GL] shows, it is the standard form (...) which, with over 50% of the occurrences, is clearly preferred. The zero auxiliary form (e.g. they working) only occurs erratically, totalling 21% of the occurrences (...). The other high frequency form follows the standard dialect containing the auxiliary, but without the standard pattern of subject agreement (e.g. they was working).... The question, of course, arises as to why the zero auxiliary form is common in the expression of the present continuous but so rare by comparison in the expression of the past continuous.... The auxiliary is a redundant feature in the formation of the present continuous, since present is normally unmarked and the aspect is shown by the -ing suffix. The salience of the auxiliary is, however, greatly enhanced in the past continuous because it is necessary for expressing the tense. (1996: 156)

What about the lexicon and lexical semantics? Mudrooroo's belief that AborE is interspersed with indigenous words should be easy to prove. But Eagleson's finding in inner-city Sydney is surprising. He concluded that "the vocabulary of the children is not marked by any distinctive flavour.... In fact the Aboriginal children would seem to absorb current developments and extensions as quickly as their white peers" (1982: 137). When I asked indigenous Australians if they used indigenous words when they spoke English the standard answer was "No, I don't know any indigenous words". But the following example is from a girl in Western Australia, who taperecorded herself for the fun of it: (128)

[telling about a make-believe kangaroo hunt] D [for a proper name, GL] got a gun and shoot it so we just 'as chasin 'im so I got it in da leg so we bin cook we dug da hole and take all his tjuni (belly) out so we bin put 'im in da hole put all da waruk (firewood) so.... be bin cook 'im so we got a warta (bushes) and we bin put it on da parna (ground)... (Kaldor and Malcolm 1982: 97) Here are a few words from Kaldor or Eageleson's studies:

130

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

mirrigan 'dog' koorie 'Aborigine'

gubbah 'white' bogie 'swim'

gungie 'policeman' wetjala (etc.) 'white man'

Kaldor and Malcolm suggested that "the extensive use of such vocabulary items is more common in desert areas where the children are bilingual speakers" (1982: 97) and added that there are, however, some words current in the English speech also of speakers who are monolingual in WAACE [West Australian Aboriginal children's English, GL]. These vary from one area to the next as they were originally part of the vocabulary of the local language. Some examples of frequently used words in different areas are yamadgee (Aboriginal person, Gascoyne-Murchison area), mardu (Aboriginal person, Jigalong) ... koorda (kurta) (brother,...) At this point I should come to the exclamation choo, which means something like 'this causes me shame', according to Malcolm (pers. com.). Here is an example of one of nine school children at the age of around 10 years that I recorded at a Geraldton school. They were talking about what they did over the weekend and were interrupting each other constantly. S3 is at the centre of attention and suddenly uses that word: (129)

S3: Ee was in the dog pound Intv.: Huh S3: Ee was in the dog pound before we came here (laughter of all) SI: You was in the loo S4: You was in the scrub S3: The scrub or the jungle that what SI: That's Aaron (introducing that boy to me, GL) S3: Choo Intv: Do you want to... How could you tell me a little a a story about about the bush . Do you know a story about the bush S3: No This passage requires some comment in the context of what was said in section 2.4.2 about the norms of communication. The boy had been joking for a while when SI suddenly singled him out and identified him by name. As singling out may cause the feeling of shame, he reacted with that choo. I made things worse by continuing with a request for a story. All of a sudden that lively boy was reduced to a mere 'no' and silence. A communication breakdown, but also a singling out of him by his own friend. Though it is hard to generalize, the use of indigenous words seems to be rare. Aboriginal concepts are now normally expressed by means of mAusE

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

131

words. It is them that may have acquired different cognitive meanings and connotations; they may occur in the company of unusual words from the anlge of mAusE or with different frequencies. There is little quantitative, in-depth empirical research into such questions, but the lists in Eagleson, Kaldor, and Malcolm (1982) are stimulating and may be enriched by findings from elsewhere. Table 2-12 is from Malcolm (1995b: 25): Table 2-12. English words with distinct AborE meanings word to lie to jar to drop to dust big-mob kine darktime alltime latetime longway big shame language bro feed rock

word class meaning(s) verb [pretending] to scold to hit, kill to overtake quantifier much, a lot, many adverb way, manner adverb night always late afternoon/even. far, long way away

comment(s)

noun

e.g. 'speak/use language'

indigenous language brother, friend [same as] 'tucker' (down to the size of) pebbles

Kimberley Kimberley

Here are some 'real' data from them and my own corpus: (130) Mummy lie-say dis kine (Mummy said, pretendingly, this way) (KM 1982: 98) (131) 'e bin lie-drop it (He pretended to drop it) (KM 1982: 98) (132) langwij {Sydney Morning Herald, 11 March 1995, section: News and Features) (133) It was segregation just like a prison camp. They didn't encourage them to talk language (fr. George White, cf. Aird 1996: 11) ( 134) Uh but he stole our feed, that's why (silaai24.com) The so-called serial verb lie-say in (130) and (131) is of interest since it reflects a pattern that is typical of pidgins and shows the continuity between them and AborE. It also shows the regional origin of the speakers. A clear difference between in-group and out-group communication shows up in the extent to which expressions like in (130) to (134) are used. When they are used to outsiders, they may cause comprehension problems. Readers may

132

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

well recall the episodes I recounted in the introduction to this chapter that highlighted the cultural distance between the author and the people I interviewed. I mentioned that Aboriginal norms of information seeking, eye contact, etc., have been carried over into pidgins, Kriol and even AborE (section 4.4.4). There is a level of cultural continuity that feeds into the modern contact languages and can cause problems. The Australian Law Society, for instance, has responded to them and its websites carry information that may be important to lawyers who practice at court. Such steps create a higher level of awareness and act as a bridge to a survey of the properties of AborE at the level of discourse and text. The word choo in (129) signalled a problem. The rest of the passage showed its effect: silence. My way of asking questions at Yipirinya School in Alice Springs, too, was inadequate. But a much more acute problem is the conventions used in story-telling and, at a more advanced age, in writing of reports or other tasks. Aboriginal children have for long been seen as inarticulate, unable to cope with literacy requirements. Various methods have been trialled to remedy the situation - with little success. Malcolm (1994a; 2000c; 2002b) and his team at Edith-Cowan-University have taken a novel approach. They analyzed well over 200 narratives and other genres they had recorded at a large number of schools in Western Australia and showed that their structure is strongly based in the cultural experiences and traditions of Aboriginal society. They could show continuity in what has normally be seen as mere breaks. I will come back to the political implications of that research in Chapter Four but need to explain that it is for that reason that Malcolm has shifted the definition of AborE (cf. above) to the level of pragmatics and genres. His insistence that AborE draws on pragmatic and discourse resources of indigenous languages even in areas where they have disappeared long ago, may call for some clarification. One may well feel that what has disappeared cannot exert any influence. But Fee (1997: 31) has pointed out in relation to American Indian varieties of English that indigenous English derives its nature also from the discourse conventions of the Indigenous language, lost or not. John J. Gumperz and Jenny CookGumperz point out that 'even where the original native language is lost the old discourse conventions tend to persist and to be taken over into the group's use of the majority language. In fact these conventions come to reflect the identity of the group itself...' Thus the influence of standard English on Indigenous writers may be far from central and we, as literary critics, cannot rely on our knowledge of our own discourse conventions to see us through an interpretation of their work.

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

133

Malcolm and his team were amongst the first to look at distinct pragmatic conventions in AborE. The concept of schemata that they are using to capture their observation is defined as a mental representation that mirrors the regularity of people's experience. Genres, in contrast, are discoursal forms that derive, partly, from mental schemata. Put differently, schémas are cognitive ways of organizing experience semantically; genres spell it out in and through discourse. Aboriginal schémas and genres may be informed by earlier cultural traditions, and are yet able to adapt themselves variably, often minimally, to those of the mainstream Anglophone society. There are other features that have been carried over from indigenous communicative practices. I might recall the strategies of contact avoidance, the avoidance of the uptake of a suggested topic, the apparent lack of gratitude or the avoidance of greetings (Malcolm 1997b: 9ff; Eades 2000). Malcolm has argued that speech events like singing and informal talk can be performed simultaneously and with the same communicative objectives in mind. Such a fusion of events is clearly visible in the stories that Muecke (1983) collected in Broome with the help of Paddy Roe. And as I said, such conventions are obvious in those genres mentioned above. Malcolm and Rochecouste (2000: 4) have classified the data into these eight schémas Travel Gathering Encountering the unknown Problem solving

Hunting Observing Isolation from the group Borrowed schémas (e.g. tales, news, jokes)

which are used to perform different communicative tasks and which influence the linguistic choices made at the level of discourse strategies and discourse markers right down to the choice of verbs, etc. They may be based on universal, cultural or societal criteria or else be idiosyncratic (Malcolm and Sharifian 2002: 170). Of these schémas Travel, Hunting, Observing and Encountering the Unknown were the most frequento and prototypical ones. Malcolm and Rochecouste have defined them in terms: Travel is a schema that "may be defined as the experience of known participants organized in terms of alternating travelling (or moving) and non-travelling (or stopping) segments, usually referenced to known time of departure and optionally including a return to the starting point. Hunting relates the experience of known participants organized with respect to the observation, pursuit and the capture of prey, usually entailing the killing and sometimes eating of it.

134

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

Observation is tentatively defined as - often shared - experience recalled in terms of observed details, whether of natural or social phenomena. Encountering the unknown relates experience (either first-hand or vicarious) of strange powers or persons affecting normal life within the community and is manifest in the expression of appearance or disappearance.... (2000: 269f) Concrete texts, they concede, often may merge genres. Those that utilize the resources of English may play a significant role. But the four ['pure'?, GL] types, Malcolm and Rochecouste (2000) said, accounted for some 80 per cent of their corpus. But frequencies of occurrence and particular ways in which they have been recorded differ between the cities and the country and between Sydney and other rural areas (Malcolm 2000a; 2002b). An extensive study of the urban-rural distinction between Yamatji Lands, a rural and small-town area, and Perth found these patterns (Malcolm 2000a): Table 2-13. Most frequent schémas in urban and rural areas Rank Observing Scary Things Problem Solving Hunting Travel

Yamatji Lands Γ (27.5 stories) 1" (27.5 stories) 4" (7.5 stories) 3 (20 stories) 4' (7.5 stories)

Perth (x 4) 4 (12 stories) 2 (20 stories) 1 (24 stories) 3(16 stories) 4 (4 stories)

Interesting is the rank order shift between Observing, the most frequent schema in Yamatji Lands, and Problem Solving, the most frequent one in Perth. That latter schema is, Malcolm believes, a borrowed, non-traditional one that seems to supplant the indigenous one of Observing. Other schémas, too, are more typical of the city, viz. Borrowed/Hybrid schémas and Dramatizing. While Dramatizing has the same rank, Travel is only half as frequent in Perth than in Yamatji Lands. I would infer from these observations that Perth strongly reflects the priority genres of a metropolitan area, of TV, the school, etc. They all emphasize dramatization and Problem Solving but downgrade Observation and Travel. In the country, the observation of natural or social phenomena and travel across long distances with the purpose of hunting, etc., may still be more focal (at least, for as long as TV is not too intrusive). Frequencies, then, would reflect both the pressure to assimilate to the mainstream - and highly urbanized - society in Perth and the possibility of a more traditional lifestyle in the bush. Indigenous

2.4 Linguistic responses to contad

135

children's narratives should be contrasted with those of white children in terms of such concepts as 'sharing time', 'topic associating' (as against 'topic centred'), etc., which would highlight the cultural difference between the two groups. The concept of 'sharing' has been recognized as a particularly important one that rests on traditional lifestyles. It also avoids the singling out of individuals, who may, in certain circumstances, 'go shame'. I can now turn to some of the stories these researchers have studied in detail. The first very simple one recounts the activities of a little girl with her friends. She was at the time in Year 6/7 at a school in Pilbara, Western Australia, (Malcolm 1999b: 21): (135)

'Joint activities' 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15

Text Yesterday Annette and I went down the creek Annette was clime the gum tree and was write is name. I see Suzanne walk across the creek and we went to sue. We went more along the creek and see Matt with Fred walk across the creek to is house. Sue and Annette I went back along on the sand. and we was laying down the sand. The two boys was come along the creek to us. We was tall a story about the devil and Fred went to is sister house. The sun set down and we went home. I went home too.

'Tracking' went climb write see went went see went was laying

was tall [tell]

went went

One senses what Malcolm calls the "tracking" structure, the pulsation between moving forward and acting on location. The next passage is about a 'spearing event' and is more complex. Again, one can identify the pulsating, the movement and action-on-location pattern (Malcolm 1999b: 23). Some features are worth mentioning. The progressive in line 1 marks the overall scenario, which is then elaborated in simple tenses. There is no climactic event, but a technique is used that Malcolm calls "surveying" or "zooming out" (1999b: 12), which gives equal weight to sub-events.

136

Chapter 2

(136)

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

'Spearing' event 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 IO34 11 12 13 14 15

Text mm um... when we was spearing the other day... and... and... we didn't went den um... we was- we was wal- we walk back me an Alan... den...den after that which went 'ome When Aun'yun when Aun'y thing went too went spearing dem... them... them... um Alan caught the first fishthen um... Tim Tim walk back home so me and Alan stop dere... ...and Tim and Andy and Karl walk back... den me an Alan and Clive and... das all we was still dere and walk behind dem... den... we walk back and bough' something... then...walk back 'ome...

'Tracking' spear go walk go go Catch walk stop walk be be Walk walk Buy Walk

The next story is interesting for the expression of deictic pointers that locate the event in time and place and for the role of shared knowledge: (137) Hunting an emu 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

mán wént hunting an e sawn a track an e followed to ees hole an e found that hole e digged it an digged it an e trying pullin de gundi but e went to go karl [=call] ees wife an Q.: What did he tell his wife? 10 but e come ere., our granddad 11 goanna an [??] da

34

There is a slight inconsistency in Malcolm's table. I have used the linearization of the text, not that in the table.

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

137

12 an uw wurduna Í=pulling1 13 and a burrona f??1 14 16 I found that goanna 17 An de girl was pullin and pullin η pullin 18 An de girl went look for [missing word] Q: What did he find? 19 Jungurna [jarnkurna = emu] These texts, Malcolm and Rochecouste say, reflect the children's primary level of verbalizing experiences and need to be taken seriously: Aboriginal people are heirs to a rich, orally transmitted cultural tradition. The oral skills which are imparted to them as children both embody Aboriginal culture and provide them with the means of maintaining it. These skills are, for many Aboriginal children, the primary means of approaching experience and knowledge, that is, they are fundamental to learning. Despite this, these oral skills are are not usually utilised in any way of formal education. (2000: 266)

Many of their findings are, they recognize, not specific to Aboriginal culture. They can be, indeed have been, found in narratives and discourses of Afro-Americans, indigenous Latin Americans, etc. They are nonetheless significant. Could they all be found in narratives told in indigenous languages, Kriol or pidgins? Which of them signal a differentness from mAusE narratives and those toled elsewhere? There are in-dications of specifically Aboriginal elements: The tracking and pulsating movement, the role of observation and of shared knowledge, and the 'being part of a community' reflect traditional patterns and have been carried over into AborE.35 Indigenous patterns seem to have acted as "a buffer in which much of the distinctively Aboriginal semantic content has been retained", according to Malcolm and Sharifian (2002: 172). The buffer is sensitive to the wider context and vulnerable to hybridization, which is more typical of the cities than the country. AborE does embrace, as Malcolm has argued, a "range of varieties of English ... which differ in systematic ways from Standard Australian English ... and which are used for distinctive speech acts, speech events and genres" (1995b: 19). We have now achieved greater depth, note regional patterns at the level of pragmatics and understand Malcolm et al.'s assumption that Aboriginal Australians are 35

Sharifian (2001) pursues many of these ideas from a more theoretical text linguistic and cognitive linguistic angle.

138

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

frequently bidialectal, using Standard Australian English in cross-cultural communicative situations and workplace environments. Many have become very able at negotiating the use of their dialect both with other Aboriginal groups and in the wider Australian society. However this does not mean that these speakers know they speak two dialects or that one of the dialects they speak is called Aboriginal English. Like every other English speaker, they see themselves as speaking English. (1999a: 22) If the continuity of indigenous traditions is not recognized in the domain of discourse, Aboriginal discourses and texts may appear incoherent, simplistic or deficient to the outsider and disadvantage Aboriginal children at school. The educational implications of this analysis will be raised in section 4.2.2.

2.4.4.3

Notes on the linguistic history ofAborE

Section 2.4.4.1 focused on those aspects of the socio-historical background of contact that has caused the rise of AborE and other contact languages. The preceding section looked at the texture of AborE today. I will now fill in a gap I left in my account that bears upon an under-standing of the texture of AborE today. Turning to historical linguistic data, I will show what is known about its development from a common contact language base into what it was like at the end of the 19th century. I should recall two points here. The first is that, irrespective of the precise period of origin, AborE owes part of its texture to the EngE dialects transported. The second one is that it has undergone a series of linguistic and sociolinguistic changes, has come under the pervasive influence of mAusE and proceeded to what I have called variety formation in diagram 1-1 (cf. also diagram 2-5). Malcolm's (1997b) diachronic study of AborE in eastern and the western Australia shows how different resources have been wedded together and have replaced each other in the course of linguistic history. Diagram 2-6 on page 139 from Malacolm (1997b: 21) looks at evidence in phonology and reveals that the substitution of fricatives by the nearest plosives was attested first at about the 1830s - which, incidentally, is the period when an Australian accent base had formed (Leitner 2004b; section 3.6). However, since Malcolm's data do no more than point to first attestations and do not trace the subsequent diffusion, one must infer that the phonemic or allophonic subsitutions were used before the dates and continued to be used thereafter. Some of them were, for instance, observed around the middle and as late as end of the century (cf. section 2.4.2.2):

2.4

Linguistic responses to contact

139

5

145

ρ «

/

\

f

J—•tj

k

Lh

9

W 1: 1788-94 2: 1796

3: 1813-18 4: 1818-27

j 5: 1830 6: 1827-35

7: 1835-45 8: 1852

9: 1875; 1879

Diagram 2-6. Consonant substitutions in history of AborE

The data in the diagram seem to suggest that the substitutions started out with forms closer to the various Australian pidgins (see section 2.4.3.2). Yet, there is a problem that turns out to be resolved in an interesting fashion. If one were to base one's understanding on the view that AborE is closer to what was described in section 2.4.4.2 and accepts the definitions quoted in section 2.4.4, this diagram appears to illustrate the process of depidginization that was assumed to be one of the paths to AborE in diagram 2-5 (section 2.4.4.1). Thus, Malcolm's (1997b: 22ff) examples of words that were borrowed several times at different periods of time show that depidginization must indeed have occurred as AborE has gradually shifted to patterns closer to (m)AusE. Mister, for instance, was rendered as midger (1788-94), mither (1835-45) and mitter (1835-45). Fricatives were no longer categorically replaced by stops. Words like bout 'about', gain 'again' and bacco 'tobaco', pose 'suppose' show the deletion of unstressed syllables, Englan, dum 'dump' and peak 'speak' the reduction of consonant clusters. Malcolm suggest that depidginization will have begun in areas where New South Wales pidgin had been used before and where Aborigines had acquired native-like English. When, however, the effects of depidginization and learner varieties of English merged and stabilized is unknown.

140

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

The diachronic evidence from grammar is equally interesting. The unmarked simple present (in third person singular) and the simple past, for instance, are attested from 1801, the use of bin as a past time mark between 1820 and 1880 in New South Wales and from the beginning of the 20th century in Western Australia. The deletion of the copula verb be is attested from 1800. Number, possession, determination, etc., have been expressed in a range of ways and attestations that suggest the role of indigenous languages are from the 1820s. The distinction between count and non-count nouns was variable and words like terror, flour and water could be used as count nouns. The phrase 'was a terror to us' is from a speaker born in 1880 and quoted from Mattingley and Hampton (1992: 7). Here is another expample from a woman born in 1920; she was recorded in 1992: (138)

They'd put a flour an' a water an' they stir it up with this big spoon' (fr. Mattingley and Hampton 1992: 24)

Malcolm (1997b: 35ff) sums up his findings in an impressive table that I will not reproduce. I will instead add some passages from older South Australian Aborigines to show the continuity of those patterns in AborE. (139)

(140)

(141)

36

Dad was a camel driver and he used to pull up at Alice Springs a fortnight or three weeks while I go [unmarked past tense] to school there. I used to wag it a bit - used to go in [preposition] the sheepyards. 0 [no article] Sheepyards 0 [deletion of past tense were] not far from police station... (speaker born 1910; fr. Mattingley and Hampton 1992: 104) A show came along and we all went to work for them. Yes, we walked on fire, and we done [past tense] pretty good [adverb] for our show. They never [negative marker] seen anything like that before, (elderly woman recorded in 1984; fr. Mattingley and Hampton 1992: 121)36 I never [negation] been good at school and I choose [unmarked past tense] working for white people and [simple coordination] that was the time I was learning to understand English. Midnight we was [irregular verb] waiting for supper... Well, I go [unmarked past tense] back to sheep camp, me an a young bloke we went [marked past tense] back to sheep camp... Old Paddy made a big fire and we had a big fight... over tucker [mAusE lexis]. And after that I beat him. I belted him... And he chucked the sand [noun as count] on

Never is frequently used as a negative marker and is not uncommon in IrE, Afro-American English and elsewhere.

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

141

[preposition] my face and he runned [irregular verb] away, (elderly man recorded 1984; fr. Mattingley and Hampton 1992: 130) The AborE of these speakers reflects their English at the beginning of the 20th century and reveals a considerable level of stability throughout the 19th and 20th century. Malcolm rephrases his own observations when he says that "this comparative analysis shows how much present day Aboriginal English appears to maintain some of the influence of the earlier processes of simplification which took place in the contact period" (1999b: 140). He makes two more points: Some of the simplifications observable in the recent data were not observed in the earlier data. In some cases (e.g., invariant don't·, invariant is/was; use of past participle form for past tense; lack of inflection on adverbs) it would appear that these reflect the ongoing influence of nonstandard Australian English. In a sense, however, such cases represent movement along what Mühlhäusler (1986) has called the restructuring - rather than the developmental - continuum, in that the forms affected would not even have been used at earlier stages of simplification. In many cases, simplifications made earlier are no longer made. Present day Aboriginal English (...) makes extensive, if selective, use of the English inflectional system.... It is also remote from the influence of pidgin.... It seems clear that, in the ways in which it has been developing in the community studied [La Perouse, Sydney, GL], Aboriginal English has been drawing heavily on the intralingual resources of English as spoken in Australia and making analogical adjustments to its system, often overgeneralising forms which are current in more prestigious varieties. Thus, as we have observed, "double marking" is one of the most pervasive processes which affects both the verb phrase and the noun phrase. (1999b: 140)

AborE is, in other words, breaking away from older layers of simplified pidgin-like varieties. Restructuring, the process responsible, amounts to the fact that older features are replaced by others that are closer to (m)AusE. Like Norfolk or Cape Barren English, it came under the increasing pressure from mAusE at the end of the 19th century and exploited these resources more frequently. The effect of that pressure may be more pronounced in the southeast than the north, northwest and Centre and be more typical of urban than of rural locations. What is not clear is when Australianization became stronger. Rose's (1996) collection contains some clues that suggest a shift to mAusE norms and practices could be identified in the indigenous press as early as the 1850s. From then on, Aboriginal newspapers hardly used even the non-standardisms that were and are common in the spoken variety.

142 2.4.4.4

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

Standardization and communicative purposes

The preceding sections have pursued various avenues to a comprehension of AborE. In contrast to other studies, they have emphasized its historicity or, put differently, the fact that its development began at much the same time that pidgins arose. AborE has been recognized in Australia's national language policy (Lo Bianco 1987) and is being promoted as a proper form for group-internal functions and, to a lesser extent, for public domains. AborE may even widen the communicative experiences of white people who live in areas where Aborigines make up a large proportion of the total population. Wignell has indeed observed among primary school children a number of idiomatic expressions which come from Aboriginal English are in common use. Two typical examples are the words deadly and flash. Deadly, said with lengthened vowels and an exaggerated rising/falling intonation contour is typically used to say that something is good or desirable: it has positive affect. (1997: 1+3)

Facts like these show that processes like restructuring, the importation of indigenous pragmatic and textual patterns and norms of communication have led AborE to proceed on the path to self-control (diagram 1-1). It is increasingly used as a way of representing Aboriginal voices in film, on TV, radio and in the print media. The ABC, for instance, broadcast a soap opera in the mid-1990s entitled Masters that re-created the way Aborigines spoke in urban settings (see (149) below). Print media reproduce the direct speech of Aboriginal people. And films like Rabbit-proof fence by Phillip Noyce (2002) or Australian Rules by Paul Goldman (2002) are telling cases of its increasing public acceptance. As to reference materials, an important starting point was the ABC's lists of Australian placenames in the 1950s. Many of these names were of Aboriginal origin. But Reed laments in the preface that, on balance, all but very little has remained: Australia possesses a heritage of place names which pay tribute to the lively imagination of her Aboriginal inhabitants. To visitors from other countries, and indeed to many Australians, they have a curious fascination, for they are unusual and pleasant-sounding. It is a tragedy that the meanings of so many of the names have never been recorded. (1967: 6)

Thieberger and McGregor (1994) is a dictionary of indigenous words from 17 Aboriginal languages that groups words into onomasiological cat-

2.4 Linguistic responses to contact

143

egories and translates them into English. It is also useful for the study of AborE. But the most important glossary is Arthur's (1996): He argues that over time, this colonial language changed. It became no longer a restricted form of communication, a pidgin, but a complete and sufficient form of English, although it still differed to a greater or lesser degree from the English spoken by non-Aboriginal people. The period when this happened varied throughout the continent.... This form of Australian English, which is often still called 'pidgin', is more accurately described as 'Aboriginal English'. It is a dialect of Australian English.... There are many forms of Aboriginal English. (1996: 2)

Ignoring grammar and pronunciation, he deals with meaning, semantic history and etymology on the basis of a cultural, onomasiological approach. The third edition of the Macquarie (1997), finally, includes AborE words and thus makes some progress towards making (m)AusE more inclusive than it was before (Leitner 2004b; section 3.5). AborE words are no longer removed to glossaries but treated as a legitimate part of mAusE. Mudrooroo's (1988) novel Doin wildcat. Mudrooroo is an example of literary codification. It has a spelling system of its own for dialog to bring out more closely Aboriginal pronunciation, as this excerpt shows: (142) Turtle, ee calls again: 'Send me down some, eh!' Ee's startin to get wild at that monkey. Ee goin to fix im. Ee looks about, sees sharp stones layin on the gound. Ee gets em. Puts em all around the foot of that tree. Well, that monkey goes on gutsin is self, an is belly gets out like this. At last ee finish. Ee so full that ee just slides down the tree trunk an right onto those sharp stones. Ee leaps up. Now ee's wild too. 'For that, I'm goin to kill yuh,' ee shouts.' (1988: 31) This passage marks Α-deletion, the reduction of -ing to [in], the use of -em for 'them'. The reflexive pronoun is self is spelt in two words and the resumptive pronoun 'he' is spelt as ee in Turtle, ee calls. Ward (1991), too, uses AborE in dialog. She does not go as far as Mudrooroo, but her spelling conventions do signal the sound of AborE. Witness fulla, threw for 'throw', (you) gunna (get into trouble) for the future 'gonna' or vhat do you vant

(1991: 32f). One notices non-standardisms, especially the replacement of /w/ by [v], which is extremely uncommon in broad mAusE. This passage shows a number of other phonetic details: (143) 'You are silly in zer kitchen. Sister Gertrude can't vork viz you, oonths all zer ozzer girls, zhey cannot do vork viz you zhere,

144

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

oontz...oontz when you are to make zer butter, Sister Gertrude finds zer smaller girls turning zer handle and vhere iss Glenysen Spratsen? (1991: 35) But despite numerous deviations from mAusE, concord is regular, fbJ is not deleted and even -ing is used. The more AborE is used to represent Aboriginal characters and their idiom, the more one thinks that AborE may have reached the stage that mAusE had reached at the end of the 19th, when literary conventions required the use of pidgin expressions to typify Australian characters in the bush and non-standardisms for those of the cities. It is worth quoting Arthur, who says that within the last few years, there has been recognition of the existence and integrity of the dialect. Some Aboriginal English terms have appeared in major newspapers; people speaking Aboriginal English on television now have their language heard, with subtitles if producers feel the dialect might make it difficult for non-Aboriginal people to understand. Publishers have begun to tackle the problem of presenting Aboriginal English .... (1996: 4)

Such steps show all the early characteristics of standardization, viz. the codification of expressions, the expansion of use, the acceptance by its speakers. As it is being standardized, AborE increases the distance from mAusE and identifies Aborigines as a separate group. The distance may be used to create a barrier between its speaker and those interlocutors limited to the mainstream of English (cf. Malcolm (1995c). 2.5

The modern language habitat

When English began to unsettle the indigenous language habitat, there emerged, I argued in section 2.4, a contact language base. Differentiations into distinct contact languages developed later. And even today contact languages reveal a shared base which their speakers can exploit to signal specific shades of meaning, loyalties with their mob, their region of origin, an urban, rural or traditional orientation. Closing this chapter, I will look at three questions: (1) How is that repertoire exploited to create an Aboriginal communicative texture? (2) Are all language resources integrated into a new language scenario or habitat and, if so, how? (3) To what extent are there cross-cultural communication problems?

2.5 The modern language habitat

145

These questions are located at different levels of abstractness. The first one deals with language at the level of performance, the actual usage made of the linguistic resources. The second one is about the roles and functions of the resources in a new habitat and their place inside the wider language habitat of Australia. And the third one deals with communication with nonAboriginal Australians in - typically - the public domain. That question will be returned to in Chapter Four as a concern of language policy. The following examples have been selected so as to illustrate how diverse resources can be wedded together so as to create Aboriginal discourse and stories; they continue a line of argumentation developed by Malcolm and his team. I will start with texts close to indigenous languages and end with texts near mAusE. The first text is from a collection of interviews by the Kimberley Language Resource Centre at Moola Bulla in Western Australia. Moola Bulla is a pastoral station in East Kimberley run by the Western Australian Department of Native Welfare, where many people still speak indigenous languages. Most older Aboriginal people in the Kimberley speak several traditional languages. The majority of storytellers in this book speaker either Kija or Jaru. All Aboriginal people in the south and east Kimberley also use a form of Kriol or English or both. (1996: xii) The passage in (144) combines features of Kriol with those from two indigenous languages and recounts the experiences of older people. The text is printed in two columns, the left one has the original interview, the right one the English translation (Kriol passages are in italics; passages raised below are underlined; fr. Kimberley Language Resource Centre (1996: 17)): (144)

"Watjin dem ol pipul' (N=narrator, Q=questioner; in Jaru and Kriol)

1

N: La rokol gan.gani rokol deya N: At the rockhole down there is seikrid pleis, darrugu £| pleis a sacred men's place

2 3 4 5 6

Q: Yu reken pipul bin libinran deya bifo, longtaiml A: Murlagarra! Ngalu murlagarra nyinagurra Q: Kempin eriya, big kempin eriya._ A: Ye. Murlagarra ngamungamu, ngalu jarrambayi bila

7

Q: You say people were living round there a long time ago? A: All around! They lived all round there. Q: It was a camping area, a big camping area? A: Yeah. They used to hunt goannas all over that

146

8 9 10 11

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

maninyurra.... country... Det Ngunkuwa yustu bi Ngunjuwa Rockhole used to karraborri kemp, en olidei be a corroborée camp, a hemp. Desda bigpleis holiday camp. Ngunjuwa was Ngunjuwa, dijan iya, rokol. an important place. People Dets weya da pipul bin fait used to fight one another wananaja deya. there. Q: Wot mit brom ebripleis? Q: People used to meet from A: Ebripleis brom oloba .... everywhere? A: From everywhere, all over.... Q: Yubela bin gedimfrait? Q: You [kids] got frightened? A: Yan.garnu ngarnalu burija A: We ran and hid behind maninyurra burnungga.... trees....

Is there a dominant language or variety in this passage? Obviously, the interviewer asks his questions in Kriol, the interviewee answers in Jaru and Kriol. Line (4) and the whole answer in (11), for instance, are in Jaru; line (9) is in Kriol, and (6/7) mix the two. Code-switching is a crucial constituent of speakers' ability to manage communicative encounters. The Kriol passages should be understandable on the basis of what was said in section 2.4.3. Note the words rokol 'rockhole', deya 'there [is/are]', pleis 'place, location', which also occurs as bleis 'site', and seikrid. Since sites that were 'secret' were also 'sacred' and vice versa, the word may be a loan translation and express the merger of these two meanings that is sometimes rendered as secret-sacred in mAusE (Leitner 2004b; section 3.3.1.2). If seikrid is understood in this way, the passage seikrid pleis, darrugu g pleis in (1) repeats in Kriol and in part-Jaru the fact that the rockhole is close to such a secret-sacred place. Darrugu means 'pertaining to the Law, secret-sacred' and specifically refers to men's business. Note the lack of be in (1) and its presence in (7) in a reduced form bi. Bin is used to mark past tense in (2) and (10); the -im suffix in (10) signals the transitivity of the verb. The substitution of /v/ by [b] in (8) and (9) and the use of diphthongs for mAusE /ei/ as well as the substitution of /Ö/ by IÚTJ in (7) show the continuity in AborE mentioed earlier. It is worth noting that the questions in (2), (5) and (10) are grammtically like statements that prompt an response. That point was explained in section 2.2 as a property of indigenous languages. The suffix -ran in libinran in (2) shows the integration of a Kriol word 'libin' into the grammar of Jaru. The following passage is from one of the stories recorded by Muecke (1983) from his interlocutor Paddy Roe. The story Mirdinan is about a man

2.5 The modern language habitat 147 who found his wife guilty of adultery and who kills her and her lover. In the following passages (a) and (b) he speaks to his wife after discovering her extra-marital relationship. In (c) he narrates events at the police station. Muecke argued that this story mirrors traditional narrative techniques. Features in italics will be raised below: (145) "Mirdinan" (a) "I know what's goin' on so never mind" he said "Tha's all right never worry" say "Come on yunme better go we go this way bush - " (p 4f) (b) they wen' 0 bush oh 'long the beach you know very close to beach "You bin goin' round with that Malay bloke tha's right?" he tell-im that man "Yes" he tell-im - (p 5) (c) everybody bin ringin' up this man gotta get hanged today telephone taliii minma means he tell-im everybody you know just like he talk little bit in English too - (p 14) Merging AborE and an indigenous language, these passages reflect the persistence of indigenous norms of story-telling. Note the second person inclusive dual pronoun, yunmi in (a), the transitive suffix -im. in (b) and bin as past tense marker in (c), and the preposition this way to indicate the goal in (a). These features are not unknown in Kriol, but Muecke maintains that this is an AborE text. So this text shows the cline that links Kriol with AborE in this western part of Australia. Code-switching with an Aboriginal language occurs in (c) and is pervasive in the story when Paddy Roe touches upon the spiritual abilities of the man - he is able to transform into a bird and flee several times before he is eventually hanged. Apart from these features, this passage is close to mAusE as the use of consonant clusters in round, hanged, the articulation of fricatives /Θ, 0/ and the use of concord in means, etc., show. The Rainmaker Story, which was already used in (101), will be taken up again to focus on the exploitation of varieties of AborE for narrative and discourse purposes. The story is, as I mentioned above, about a conflict between Left Hand Billy, the Adynyanathanha rainmaker, and the white

148

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

farmer, Mr. McTaggart. The farmer visits Left Hand Billy to tell him to get rid of his dogs or else he would kill them. Billy refuses and threatens to stop the rain so that the farmer's sheep would die. McTaggart proceeds and the rain stops. This text is another illustration of the intersection between Kriol and AborE (Leitner 2000; 2001a/b). The narrator exploits his linguistic resources to differentiate himself and the two actors. Relevant linguistic features are underlined: ( 146)

'The Rainmaker Story' (N=narrator, B=Billy, T=Taggart) (a) Ν: An| ol· McTaggart went down there .... and he said, ΌΓ man, you've got too many dogs. You've got to get rid of W . B: 'No. I can't do that....' T: 'Ah well, if you don't, I'll shoot ]em'. B: 'Na. You can't shoot 'em. You shoot 'em your sheep all die.' N: Anyway he [i.e. McTaggart] chuck 'em all in the buggy and took 'em and shoot 'em... An' the ol' fella cried.... He [McTaggart] came up. Τ: Ί shoot 'em all, ol' man.' B: (i) What (ii) you done shoot 'em for? They (iii) not harm to you. Hm?' B: (i) What (ii) you done shoot 'em for? They (iii) not harm to you. Hm?' (b) B: '... Look, I'll give you two, three months... After three months the country wouldn't hold any sheep.' T: 'Hm, hm. You can't do nothin', old McTaggart said... B: "Why? You want see 'em? ... You go away. You'll see it.... 0 North wind gonna blow every day. He'll stop sundown.... When he start warming up he's gonna blow 0 north wind.

One cannot fail to see the frequent phonological simplifcations {an', ol', etc.), the pervasive use of non-standard mAusE (e.g. double negation), but also the use of typical features of pidgins and creóles. It must suffice to refer to done shoot 'shot', preverbal negation in, e.g. 'not harm to you', the omission of the 'complementizer' to, as in 'you want see 'em', etc. The text also shows that many of these features can occur in pidgins, Kriol, AborE and non-standard mAusE. But the interesting point is that the narrator uses these resources to depict his characters (cf. Leitner 2001a/b). The next examples reveal the relationship of AborE with a more standard or, perhaps, less non-standard variety of mAusE: (147)

Drawing a line on domestic violence One Koori youth in a juvenile justic centre told him: "One time we

2.5 The modern language habitat

(148)

149

was all goin to this part at my cousin's place Mid my woman got all dressed up with make-up and everything and I knew it wasn't for me and I said, "Who 0 you dressing up for?" and that's when we started arguing and I smashed her.... Another said: "I was at my cousin's house and we was all drinking real heavy, drinking Beam and Sutho and had heaps of bongs and all that..." (The Sydney Morning Herald, internet version, 10 April 2001) A Kimberley story (Marshall 1989: 123) I didn't have much to do with the mob at Noonkanmbah except for going to watch the boxing there on weekends... I had a lot more to do with the fellas based at Paradise.

Example (147) contains few features of non-standard mAusE but has one, viz. the deletion of the copula be in "Who 0 you dressing up for?" That feature is not entirely uncommon in colloquial mAusE but here straddles all varieties. (148), too, is straightforward, except that one would label it as standard mAusE if it did not contain mob and fellas - two words that betray an Aboriginal speaker or, at least, an Aboriginal context. These words are conventional in AborE and possibly in mAusE. The final excerpt from Masters, the Aboriginal soap opera on ABC TV referred to earlier, shows the range of English Aboriginal Australians may 'master'. Speaker SI, a mother, applies for a job, S2 is the office girl. ( 149) S1 -01 : Excuse me, uhm I've got an appointment with the administrator... S2-01: Take a seat. I'll buzz Hector when he gets in.... 51-02: Listen, have you got anywhere I can powder my nose. It's real hot outside and I rushed all the way here, eh. 52-02 Well I usually powder my nose right here. So unless you want to sit on my lap, you can do it right there where you are. I'm sure no one would mind. S1-03 You know sister girl it's funny, but after all I've been through I nearly always manage to be the perfect lady. There are only a few things in my lifetime that have broken me temporarily from my normal quiet self.... S1-03 ... Injustice, that's another one. Can't stand by and watch that, eh, the unwanted advances ... and disrespectful smartasses and nobodies like you.... All I want is a bit of respect and an even break especially from a young girl like you. You got me?

150

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous

Australians

51-05: Now I am going to the toilet to powder my nose. You will buzz me when Hec gets in, won't you? 52-05: Okay S1-06: Thank you. The scene is comic for its style mix and it reflects and re-creates a clash of personalities. Samantha pretends to be a lady, though she comes from a poor background. Without me being certain about the full value of the expressions marked, to powder one's nose and my normal quiet self do sound pretentious and definitely old-fashioned. Samantha uses eh twice to do what is done by question tags in mAusE. But in S1-05 she does use a tag, won't you, to tell the younger woman off, who promptly reacts in the expected manner. Irony is expressed by talking flash or by comic uses of standard, old-fashioned mAusE expressions. It is by no means always clear in texts like (144) to (149) which 'language' is being used and which features may be part of pidgin, Kriol, AborE, non-standard, standard mAusE or an indigenous language. They challenge the notion of langueι, if defined as a 'language tied to a speech community'. These texts are fusing different resources at the level of la parole and show what happens when languages come into contact. The result is a cline of variation that ranges from a 'low' basilect to a mesolect and on to a 'high' acrolect. It may move on to signal mixed forms. Looking at the scenario in this way invites one to represent the various types of outcomes as intersecting circles, as in diagram 2-7 on page 151; it has been modified slightly from Malcolm (1995b: 23). AborE is at the centre of these circles, which suggests that it is the most important such resource. It shares features with AusE, indigenous languages and creóles. The closer it is to creóles the 'heavier' or 'broader' it is, the closer it is to mAusE the 'lighter' it is. The term 'light' for variants of AborE close to mAusE may be somewhat unfortunate. What is meant is that it has a higher social status and can be used for out-group uses rather than merely for in-group ones. Analogously, the closer creóles are to AborE, the 'lighter' they are. There are thus two dimensions. And if indigenous languages were taken into account, one would see a third one. These three dimensions create various pulls or, put positively, provide options that speakers can and do employ for their communicative ends. Mudrooroo described these choices in more prosaic, but political terms: Our Indigenous communities form what may be called speech communities, which may use any or all of the following languages:

2.5 The modem language habitat -

151

Standard Australian English; Indigenous English; Kriol; Indigenous languages

Standard Australian English is, of course, the language of power and economics, while the last three are social languages, with the Indigenous languages having not only social but cultural and ceremonial importance. The other two are also important as spoken languages of communication. Kriol (which may also be seen as shading off into Indigenous English) is now regarded by linguists as a separate language rather than a dialect of English. Often, this has occurred without consulting the Indigenous speakers, or only in ways which serve the ends of those wanting to utilize these English language variants for their own purposes: for example, the Bible has been translated into Kriol. The creation of a written language from a spoken one is not a neutral act.... As an oral language, Kriol has its place; but its status as a written language must be open to doubt. (1995: 59)

I will close with some comments on how the new habitat compares with the traditional one. To do this, I will raise three points. The first compares the new habitat with the traditional one. Identities can be expressed in terms of local factors as in mainstream society or in terms of kin relations. One is

152

Chapter 2

Language habitats of Indigenous Australians

from the 'south-east' or 'south' or from a particular township. Terms like Koorie or Mutitjulu, which were discussed above and in Leitner (2004b; section 3.3.1), show such 'local' affiliations. The identification of one's mob is another way of expressing identity. That can be quite subtle, as I experienced at a teacher-in-service training occasion in Perth. In a discussion about identity, it emerged that many participants could identify their kin in the room, though they had been born, or lived, in different parts of Western Australia. And terms like bruz, readers will recall, express a concept somewhere between kinhip and male solidarity. It is not unlikely that it was coined under the impact of Afro-American English. AborE is a national variety, basically, while Kriol is a northern language. And as I had said in Chapter Two, traditional languages, too, have lost much of their connection with the land. But the link is not lost altogether as the episode about the film-maker shows who could not continue with his presentation unless a part of the story was told by an elder from the area where that scene was shot. The nature of multilingualism, which was so pervasive in traditional Australia, has changed. Speech repertoires now include English, Kriol or AborE and multilingualism in indigenous languages is rare. Areal relationships between languages have been weakened. Again, there are remnants. How could Kaurna have been revived if areal relationships had all gone? Harris and Sandefur believe that there is no monolingual community in the north and add that "contemporary Kriol-speaking Aboriginal communities, following their long-standing tradition of multilingualism, are still basically multilingual in nature" (1985: 260). But there is change, they say. Roper River people can now interact with people far away as Kriol functions as a lingua franca and may be a vehicle of comprehension with speakers of Anindilyakwa. If language repertoires include traditional languages and ethnolects like AborE, I must ask what the rules are that regulate language choice. Upon observation and consultation with the communities associated with Yipirinya School, Alice Springs, Harkins (1994) suggested these rules: one should speak one's own language whenever possible one should always take into account the other participants in a speech situation and modify one's speech if necessary if the other participants do not all understand one's own language, use the most appropriate language that everyone can understand if all else fails, try English use code-switching to fine-tune the selected language, according to participants and topic (1994; section 2.2)

2.5 The modern language habitat

153

Though the rules assign primacy to indigenous languages and allocate a place to varieties of English, they cannot disguise the disappearance of styles such as the avoidance or joking styles. That leads to the last remark, viz. the expression of identities in public. There is a conflict that is not easily resolved. Green (1983) recounts her experiences as a teacher at an Aboriginal school. In one of her episodes a very lively boy goes shame when he is identified by name and requested to recount a story. Once she ceased to individuate the children and left them in their learning culture, she was more successful. My own episode in a school in Geraldton, see example (129), is similar. The boy was named by one of his classmates and went silent. Shame is a feeling of individuation and poses serious problems when its socio-psychological significance is not recognized. Requests for information and questions are demands for individuated action. Malcolm (1995c) recounts the feelings of several Aboriginal people when they are forced into such situations: To speak an Aboriginal language in front of white people has been seem as something of which to be 'ashamed' (Sheryl Rose, interviewed by Kevin Gilbert) .... Aboriginal people themselves imposed constraints on members to prevent them from using their language in the presence of outsiders. Elsie Jones described such constraints to Kevin Gilbert: One'll come up and speak to this other person in the language. And this person'll say, 'Shut up, shut up....that white person'll hear you.' (1995c: 6) Aboriginal people have reported considerable anguish when brought into situations where they had no option but to communicate with white people. One with a good deal of experience of such situations, Hilary Saunders, confided to Gilbert: I always get really nervous when I have to confront a whole session of gub. I get worried that they may ask me something that I don't know so I get put down in that way (...) The problem may result in total inarticulateness in the case of Aboriginal people from rural areas finding themselves alone in the city. (1995c: 7)

Various characteristics described above are, in fact, a frequent source of miscommunications in the public (and private) domain. I recall a scene when I was trying to interview some Aboriginal teachers at Yipirinya School in Alice springs. I kept asking questions - as an 'interviewer' - and all I got was silence. But there are more serious communication problems that have been studied especially in the school and legal domain. Since the

154

Chapter 2 Language habitats of Indigenous A ustralians

school domain was addressed in section 2.4.4, I will comment briefly on the legal domain. Eades (1984; 1988; 1993) has provided detailed analyses of misunderstandings in the courtroom where defendants plead guilty of deeds they never committed or could comit. Eades (1995) is the first collection of forensic communication and covers the full range of issues, such as the difficult role of interpreters or cultural judgements on, e.g., swearing (Taylor 1995). Aboriginal defendants and judges are confronted with enormous intercultural, linguistic and communicative differences that cannot easily be bridged. Differences in eliciting information, the use of gaze or of silence (Eades 2000) have been discussed above. Differences in word meanings are often blurred by the alleged transparency of a word (cf. Leitner 2004b; section 3.1) and invite interpretations of utterances that are not intended. While diagram 2-7, thus, lays out the repertoire that seems to be so easily exploited, intercultural and socio-psychological factors work against its full exploitation. Aboriginal varieties of English, indigenous languages and Kriol or Torres Strait creole may be avoided in public. And, since mAusE is, in Mudrooroo's words, 'the language of power and economics', the flash language you use but do not identify with and may not be fully mastered, silence and avoidance may be the result. The new Aboriginal language habitat has not, one might conclude at this stage, settled down and found a secure, self-assured place. But worse than the habitat may signal diverging identities.

Chapter 3 Languages of Australians of nonAnglophone background When Prime Minister John Howard gave a speech to a public forum at Deutsche Bank in Berlin in 2002, he began by praising the linguistic and cultural diversity of this remote continent and emphasized, amongst other things, that this is an asset for human resource management. When I visited Hella Australia, a subsidiary of a German car-parts supplier in Melbourne, its director, Dr. Uhlenbruch, naturally, had figures on what languages were spoken in the workforce. Workers from the shopfloor, he said, could occasionally be used for translation tasks or when overseas visitors came to the production plant. That positive view of diversity seems to be receding as recent studies on businesses suggest. Yet, statements like Clyne and Kipp's (1999), part of which was quoted in Chapter One, can still be widely heard: Australia is a country of diversity... A history of indigenous culture spanning 40,000 years has been overlaid ... with cultures from Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East, and the bearers of these cultures have brought with them, in addition to their food, their festivals and many other traditions, a multiplicity of languages. Some languages, such as German, have had a continuous presence in Australia... Others, such as Cantonese, have seen periods of greater and lesser importance, while still others, such as Thai and Korean, are relatively new arrivals. All form part of an emerging and uniquely Australian identity as a multicultural, multilingual nation with a strong heritage and an increasing orientation towards Asia and the Pacific, alongside its indigenous cultures and its historical ties with Britain. (1999: 1)

Such passages stand in stark contrast to the Anglo-Celtic myth that Jupp (1988) referred to in the preface to The Australian People. While that image was never entirely true, it formed the core of Australia's selfperception from the late 19th century to the early 1970s. But Clyne and Kipp's passage illustrates something else, too, viz. the difficulty of referring briefly to Australia's language situation. The change from a European, especially British tradition, to one that locates the nation in its South-East Asian and Pacific context, the transition from an monolingual Anglophone to a structured multilingual habitat and the effects of contact of migrant and indigenous heritages are prominent components of the current language habitat - but very difficult to put briefly.

156

Chapter 3 Languages ofAustralians of non-Anglophone background

This section will unravel the diversity and the underlying patterns of use that are due to migrants from non-English-speaking background. Details of their demography is discussed in Leitner (2004b; Chapter Two) and more of the crude data can be found in, e.g., ABS (1995; 2002b), Jupp (1988; 1995; 2002). Here I will address language-related themes such as these: (1) How did diversity develop in general and especially from the mid20th century? What demographic or other factors have promoted the level of linguistic diversity? (2) Do different communities speaking the same language behave differently with regard to their common language(s)? (3) How do languages develop linguistically in Australia's migrant context? Are there Australian forms of migrant languages? Are there even stable ethnic forms of English - comparable to AborE or Kriol? What is the fate of migrant LOTEs (4) What is the level of English proficiency of migrants? Are there any significant differences between different groups? Section 3.1 will turn to question (1). Brevity is justified as a good deal of the socio-historical background will follow in relation to specific LOTEs in section 3.2. The broad picture regarding question (2) in section 3.2 is based on census data and complementary studies. I will add findings from micro-approaches to language maintenance and shift but will be brief on the distant past.37 That section will also look at selected language communities and contrast European with Asian ones. Turning to question (3), language developments and contact outcomes are at the heart of section 3.3. As with indigenous Australians, we can organize the discussion around three outcomes, viz. multilingualism; the modification of migrant languages under the impact of English; and contact varieties of English or of migrant languages. As to modification, I will focus on the influence of English on migrant languages, as the reverse side, i.e. the impact of migrant languages on mAusE, was dealt with in Leitner (2004b; section 3.3). Question (4) shifts to the discussion to language needs and the proficiency of migrants in English and to the teaching of the English language. That will prepare the ground for a debate about political implications in Chapter Four. If we are thus turning to the migrants' language habitat, one must not ignore a point that is important in an immigrant context. From a political angle, migrant LOTEs overlap with the other languages that Australian citizens may use, irrespective of an ethnic background, and that that may be offered 37

Leitner (2004b; Chapter Two) deals with the problems of integration.

3.1 The social history of migrant language diversity

157

in education as foreign languages. Migrants of non-English-speaking background who maintain their native or ancestral language are just a part of a segment of the population that have a relevant language background. The break-up of the population in terms of the demographic criteria used by the ABS (cf. Leitner 2004b) are crucial to questions (3) and (4) and enable us to make medium- to long-term inferences on the future of LOTEs, but what can be referred to as the mainstreaming of languages in the educational domain creates a wider speaker base, whose size may be difficult to assess, but which may be conflict or harmony with the other.

3.1

The social history of migrant language diversity

Linguistic diversity was a pervasive feature of colonial Australia. But its level remained insignificant until the gold rushes and other political events in Europe around the middle of the 19th century. The relevant beginning of diversity is, in other words, a matter the second half of that century. I might quote Michael Clyne on details on the early diversity: The 1861 Census records 27,599 German-born, 38,742 Chinese-born and 11,589 other foreign-born, which includes those German speakers from Austria-Hungary.... In the course of the 19th century, the number of Celtic and Chinese speakers declined. Many migrants from the British Isles actually used as their main language Gaelic, Irish or Welsh .... He [i.e. Jupp (1988: 61), GL] suggests that there were 3,000 Welsh speakers throughout Australia in 1871 and that 'Irish may have been the second most widelyunderstood language in Australia in the mid-nineteenth century [although it] had been overtaken by German in the 1880s.... It was in the colonies of Victoria and South Australia whose main settlements were not founded until the 1830s ... that the bi- and multilingual tradition became strongest.... As from 1848, there was a thriving 'community language' press.... (1991:7)

Clyne (1996) has deepened that description and contains historical maps on how the distribution of LOTEs changed during the period from 1861 to 1922. Based on early patterns, the maps reveal the effects of later migrations, the shifts away or, one might say, déconcentrations' as migrants have moved, the role of urban growth, etc. Some of the traditional German areas shown in map 3-1 below are Hahndorf, Klemzig, Lobethal and other small towns were established in South Australia between 1838 and 1841. Marburg and Rose, west of Brisbane, are other old settlement areas. There was a lively press in German at that time and the first German paper, Die deutsche Post fiir die australischen Kolonien, was published in South

158

Chapter 3 Languages of Australians of non-Anglophone background

Australia as early as 1848 and was circulated in Victoria. German papers in Victoria were published by intellectuals who had fled the failed Revolution of 1848. "The significance of the German-language newspapers in the midnineteenth century in the young colony", says Clyne, "may be gauged by the fact that English-speaking candidates for the Legislative Council seat of South Bourke presented themselves in the Victoria Deutsche Presse, Germania, and the Deutsche Zeitung. They appealed directly to the German -speaking voters by stressing the attraction of their policies to that group" (1985b: 7). Apart from a secular press, there were papers such as the Australische Christenbote für die Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Australien, which existed between 1860 and 1911. German was used in businesses, even in the inner city districts, in churches, bookshops, libraries, clubs and schools. And it was taught as a foreign language at some schools. There were other communities. The Chinese, for instance, were an unstable labour force during the Gold Rushes. But they reached a level of stability at the end of the century when Chinatowns sprung up in several cities. Many of those who did not re-emigrate had moved to capital cities and inland towns in New South Wales and Victoria. Cultural practices and language maintenance were not important to them at the time. Gaelic speakers, too, did not try to maintain their language, though a lot of research needs to be done to see if that sweeping generalization is really true. Italians formed a few settlements that survived well into the 20th century but they were widely dispersed and Italians were typically well educated so that they could integrate quickly into the mainstream. Rando and Leoni say that "[T]hroughout most of the 19th century the small numbers and relatively high education levels and occupational status of many Italian immigrants meant a rapid acquisition of proficiency in English, although not a complete abandonment of the source language" (1992: 173). The close-knit 'New Italies' in northern New South Wales, north Queensland, the Riverina (southern New South Wales) and concentrations in Melbourne and Sydney were a matter of the late 19th or of the mid 20th century. Many readers will know of urban centres, such as Lygon Street in Melbourne. Italian was also a cultural asset and soon made it as a school language. It was now studied also outside the community, as Rando and Leoni (1992: 173f) have argued. Numerous other languages came to be used by the mid-19th century. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, for instance, were present as large numbers of European migrants came from northern Europe. Hotels, shops and other businesses were run by Scandinavians. They hurches and clubs were rallying points. In many cases migrants from different countries shared a common language and formed a community united by language. But they

3.1

The social history of migrant language diversity

159

were often heterogenous internally. German speakers, for instance, came from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, etc.38 In the absence of an established standard German throughout German-using countries, migrants came as and remained dialect speakers. French speakers came from France, Canada, Mauritius, Switzerland, and Belgium with different national varieties of French. Italy did not have a standard and Italians have remained dialect speakers. And the Chinese came from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and (recently) Vietnam. While counting (ethnically) Chinese, they may not even share a language. The standarddia-lect issue will be seen as a crucial element in what happens to LOTEs. As I just said, few communities created the necessary infrastructure to ensure longterm maintenance but, where they did, a main support vehicle was the schools that acted as caretakers of languages. They were often bilingual, teaching some subjects in a LOTE, others in English and others still in English and a community language. Lutheran schools, for instance, pursued policies like these, says Clyne: The Victorian Lutheran schools of the 1850s had a religion-oriented program taught in German. Reading, writing and language arts were taught separately in each language. However, no theoretical knowledge of English grammar was required. Arithmetic and singing, drawing, civilization and science were then German-medium subjects, while weights and measures were taught in English. Geometry, accounting and French for all pupils, and craft for girls, were later added to the curriculum. (1985b: 74)

Extensive language use could not be maintained into the 20th century. For most communities settlement patterns, the education laws and other factors made it hard for bilingual schools and the teaching of a home language to be maintained. International tensions such as the German-British competition in the Pacific and the dispute about Papua New Guinea in 1883 added further pressure on non-English communities. The 1891 census data, Clyne thinks, mirror "the xenophobia and nationalism leading up to World War I" (1996: 4). Map 3-1 from Cyne (1996; map 3) shows the result after the war. By 1922 there was a much weaker level of concentration of LOTEs. Language pockets of the former diversity did survive but were too small and not concentrated enough to show up statistically in the Censuses. 38

There are many studies on the history of migrations of particular groups. Douglas (1995), for instance, is a history of Italian migrations to Queensland, Vondra (1981) and 200 Jahre Geschichte der deutschprachigen Gemeinschaft in Australien (around 1989) on Germans, and Jones (1993) on Muslims.

160

Chapter 3 Languages of Australians of non-Anglophone background

Language code ( f ) German © Cooktown

Greek

( 3 ) Italien ( 4 ) Macedonian ( 5 ) Russian ( 6 ) Serbo-Croatian ( 7 ) Multilingual

Μ&ΛΪΡΪ Townaville

Γ ) English ( J ) Mixed language a r e a with predominant L.O.T.E.

Cloncurry Maokay

Strong concentration o) particular l a n g u a g e s

R Ockham pton • Gladstone Bundaberg

Li smom G'UftOn , Tamworth Broken Hill Port Augusta IMurray Fiate: Borrì, Loxtcm. Griffith Lobethai & Hahodort

Wirnrj?i|pi|jatlfTHiK. ; Murtea, Mínyip. fiainoaw

Wollongong

Wagga Wagga

Bendigo a Ballerai

OvertaVi

Mount Gambi f Tanington Tabtir, / Byaduc, Wanayure

Greenock.

Ndrioopta No-oopta

Marananga (Gnadarrtrei)i

y

Freshwater '^Seppdtafieldi

J ^ / j

Langmeil 4

l H [ASMANI

¿

Tangida

-,

»

Krondorf • (Kabminyel ¿ KaaeoluN

Map 3-1. LOTEs in Australia in 1922

¿

Light Pass

Grimberg · j Gnadenbarg

¿

Angaslon

3.2 Linguistic responses to contact

161

A comparison of Clyne's maps also highlights migrations that have taken place between States and which led to the attrition of concentrated settlements. He points to urbanization and the fact that old settlements such as the former German Walla Walla, Alburn, Hawthorne, Camberwell (formerly Booroondara) or Thomastown (formerly Neumecklenburg), became suburbs of the metropolitan cities or disappeared from the map altogether, such as Germantown, in Victoria. Re-emigration was a factor for the decline of the Chinese and the Kanaka as the White Australia policy made itself felt. The former diversity was eroded s reduced to the level of the family and private domains. But the reminiscences became a part of the public memory that could be re-activated after World War Π when there was a greater openness towards language diversity. The imple-mentation of language education policies in South Australia in the 1980s, for instance, was often based on the preference for German and of LOTEs that had been prominent during the 19th century (see Chapter Four). Despite the assimilationist policies that were pursued into the 1960s, the mass migrations after World War Π created a demographic base for a new level of self-esteem that made it hard, perhaps impossible in the long run, to enforce a shift to English. The following view expressed by an Australian of German background shows how reluctant migrants then were to shift to English and the respect that was ultimately gained from Australians: Well, when I arrived here, we were asked to speak English only. If you had spoken German, they would have said "Speak English, we can't understand you, it's your [unclear word]", it was more or less your duty, wasn't it? And we never put up with anything, really, well we were never, ... hum... outcasts, I mean we were never looked down upon as for example the Germans look down on the Turkish, (my interview, 1996)

Migrants defied expectations and, yet, were not looked down upon as the Germans of Turkish descent were, the speaker believes, in Germany. 3.2

Linguistic responses to contact

An interesting difference between the contact of migrant LOTEs with English and that of indigenous languages is that migrant LOTEs entered Australia, enriched the habitat, gained some space of their own, and yet disappeared eventually. There is, and has been, a cycle of maintenance, shift and loss. During the late 20th century LOTEs were seen as a building block in the cultural make-up of the nation with a potential for all. They were to

162

Chapter 3 Languages of Australians of non-Anglophone background

be maintained for as long as communities wanted that. And some space was provided in the public domain and especially in the business sector. But there has always been that other side to migration that is crucial to the living in a foreign country, one's new home, viz. the need to know English so that one can participate in public life. From a political angle, the level of proficiency has to be studied so that one has a knowledge base for policies that aim overcome problems. Sections 3.2.1-2 will look at the demographic base of some LOTEs and the level of English proficiency of these communities. I will correlate what is known about LOTE maintenance and proficiency in English so as to profile the population at large and provide a base for the survey of policies (Chapter Four). The linguistic modification of LOTEs will be dealt with in section 3.2.2 but I will not repeat what was said about the this topic above. As there never were any pidgins, creóles or ethnic varieties of English that were used by segments of non-Englishspeaking migrants and none were maintained that theme can be dealt with briefly. One must, of course, refer to the Chinese Pidgin English of the 19th century. But it counts as a transplanted contact language by all intents and purposes that was developed further in Australia. There is only one local Australian pidgin, i.e. that of Afghan camel drovers, who came to Australia towards the middle of the 19th century and had a lot of contact with Aboriginal Australians. They have been seen as 'carriers' of Aboriginal pidgin English (Simpson 2000). Section 3.2.4 will, therefore, only make passing remarks migrant pidgins and focus instead on English as a lingua franca and the transient ethnic forms of English.

3.2.1

Language maintenance and loss

Language shift can be a quick process. The first time I came to Australia, my older son was just over 4Vi years old. He went to pre-school and there was nothing but tears for some weeks until the special language teacher that looked after him for an hour per day discovered he liked cats. Within weeks his English grew and he became indistinguishable from an Aussie boy his age - for me at any rate. Once he rang and I called out "A boy's on the phone". I did not recognize my son. At home he spoke English now, though his German remined strong and he could act as an interpreter. Responses to migrant situations vary significantly between individuals and groups, and it is important to understand what people do in relation to their LOTE when they arrive in Australia and what their children do. Shift is probably an inevitable outcome over several generations, but it is a common experience

3.2

Linguistic responses to contact

163

that some groups give up their language more quickly than others do. So the question is what the factors are that slow down or speed up that process. There is a wide range of factors that have been investigated within various theoretical frameworks (cf. Clyne 1991; 2003; Thomason 2001; Myers-Scotton 2003; Fishman 2001b). I will tum to these studies when they become important but proceed on the basis of five hierarchically ordered steps that do not derive from any one particular theory: (a) The characteristics of LOTE speakers as a component of Australia's population and subgroup of non-English-speaking migrants in terms of location and size of LOTE groups (b) The composition of LOTE groups in terms of place of birth, age, gender, role of out-group marriages, period of residence, etc. (c) The uses and functions of LOTEs in terms of domains, interlocutors, and interactions types in which they may use a LOTE (d) The attitudes and beliefs associated with LOTEs in terms of the place of a LOTE in the value systems of communities, the perceived similarity or distance from the dominant language, etc. (e) The competency in reading, writing, speaking, listening. There are other factors that promote or hinder language maintenance. One might mention (i) experiences that groups have made with language maintenance prior to migration; (ii) periods of immigration that differed in the socio-political assessment of language diversity, such as the 19th century and the time from the second half of the 20th century; (iii) attitudes to the former home country and, one should add, (iv) attitudes to the new host country; (v) the region of origin in the former home country; (vi) the variety of a LOTE used; (vii) the linguistic and cultural similarity to the language shifted to; and (viii) the support institutions for LOTEs such as the church, clubs, media, shops that exist or are created. These factors are hard to place inside the categories set up above. One might propose a category 'socio-historical context' to accommodate (i) to (iv). (v) or 'region of origin' could be incorporated into category (a). Factor (vi) could be part of (d) since it is, after all not the objective but the perceived similarity of languages and cultures. Support institutions, i.e. (viii), are related to communicative domains and thus close to (c). The similarity of a LOTE to English might be a part of (c), since it is attitudes to the language that matter rather than objective linguistic criteria. But, as I said, I will largely be descriptive and non-theoretical below and will mention such factors only when they are necessary without considering the theoretical implications.

164

Chapter 3 Languages of Australians of non-Anglophone background

3.2.1.1

Demographic factors of LOTE communities

Censuses can only provide a crude picture on language maintenance, Clyne and Kipp argue: While the analysis of census material yields much valuable general information about language retentiveness in the home (which is generally regarded by researchers as the key domain for language maintenance or language shift) ... there are a number of things that it does not tell us. It does not, for example, tell us anything about language use outside the home of the informant (...) and almost certainly greatly underestimates the actual use of community languages in Australia. It does not tell us anything about the dynamics of language use within the home (who is using the community language to whom and how much?) and it tells us nothing about language preference as opposed to language use. Language preference may well be a better predictor than present use of the linguistic choices of the younger generation when they move out of the family home and set up establishments of their own. (1999: 51)

Census data permit one to profile the developments of those segments of the population that speak a LOTE in terms of numbers, setttlement in geopolitical entities like states, cities and Local Government Areas, or in terms of generations. Findings based on such data suggest some important trends. Over the period for which there are adequate data, i.e. 1976 to 2001, one will, for instance, be able to map the demographic shift to a more 'Asian' outlook of first generation migrants, while Australia clould be seen as more 'European' up to the 1970s. But, in passing, one should not overlook the fact that LOTE speakers in 1976 and for some time thereafter were not only migrants who had come in the 1950s and 60s, but included the groups that have been mentioned in section 3.1 and the small stream of migrants during the decades to the 1940s - many Jewish, (other) German and European migrants. Turning to the 25 years from 1976 to 2001, which are at the centre of this chapter, one cannot fail to observe a constant increase in absolute figures as the population rose from about 14 million in 1976 to some 19 million in 2001 and just above 20 million in 2004. .More than 3 million Australians used a LOTE 'at home' in 2001. The diagrams on the following pages are restricted to 'large' LOTEs, i.e. those with 70,000+ speakers (diagram 3-1) and those with between 30,000 and 70,000 speakers (diagram 3-2). Asian languages are shown in diagram 3-3. Italian has been and remains the most widely spoken language, even if the total number of speakers dropped by 20.5 per cent between 1996 and

3.2

Linguistic responses to contact

165

2001. Greek ranked in second place up to 1991; it was better maintained than Italian with a mere drop of 9.7 per cent, compared with 1976. German was the third most widely used language in 1976 but experienced a sharp drop of 37.4 per cent to 1986 and a anolther one of 55.2 per cent by 2001, if compared with 1976 and 1996, respectively. It was outranked by former Yugoslav languages, i.e. Serbo-Croatian, Arabic and Chinese languages in 1986. Vietnamese overtook it in 1991. Serbo-Croatian has remained relatively stable then, but has seen a sharp drop to 1996. In contrast to the decline of European languages, Vietnamese has increased by 165.6 per cent since 1986 and Chinese languages have increased by as much as 1.243 per cent. Note, in passing, the relative stability of Spanish, now mainly a South American language, Macedonian and Indonesian. 500.000 450.000 400.000 350.000 in 300.000 ¿S 250.000 200.000 150.000 100.000 50.000

lluiJ^i

0

-C

-I Ê

1976

• 1986

Diagram 3-1.

• 1996

• 2001

9 c o .SS -e « α> o ω ¿5

çn eTO α. W

oç

CL

cCO

ε1—

ω O CD

Ρro 5 S cti H

c co TD ω o«

Languages above 70,000 speakers

Diagram 3-2 has the 'medium-sized' languages and shows that in 1976 Dutch, French and Polish had roughly the same number of speakers between 63,000 and 65,000. Dutch and French had a similar drop to 1996, followed by relative stability, while Polish continued to increase to 1986 but declined thereafter. It is still at the top in this group. Other European

166

Chapter 3 Languages of Australians of non-Anglophone

background

languages have seen contrasting developments. Hungarian and Maltese have essentially been declining; Russian has increased, presumably as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Despite the decline, the level of language maintenance of Maltese is worth mentioning, given that its demographic base is so small. Again, some Asian languages such as Hindi and Korean have witnessed sharp rises, while Japanese was levelling out between 1996 and 2001. Overall, the middle-sized language group with 30,000 to 70,000 speakers still has a more European outlook.

Qnnn„

01976

«1986

Q1996

CJ2001

70.000 60.000 50.000 « 2 40.000 I30.000 20.000 10.000

0

Malay refers and Bahasa \

Diagram 3-2. Languages between 30,000 and 70,000 speakers

Diagram 3-3 looks at Asian languages and shows considerable growth even for smaller languages like Hindi, Bahasa Malay, Khmer and Tamil. Commenting on the growth of Asian languages for the 10-years 1986 to 1996, Clyne and Kipp said that apart from the emergence of sizeable new ethnolinguistic communities speaking languages quite different from those traditionally used in Australia there have been substantial increases in the number of home users of Chinese fang yan (especially Mandarin, which as experienced a 68.4%

3.2 Linguistic responses to contact

167

increase in the last five years), Vietnamese (with an increase of 122.1% between 1986 and 1996), and Macedonian (...), all of which are in the 'top 12 languages' category.... There is now a new group of languages of greatly increased and increasing importance in Australia, notably Tagalog (70,444), Indonesian (27,123) and closely related Malay (9599), Hindi (33,988) and closely related Urdu (7689), Korean (29,911) and Japanese (25,664).... The above group of languages, together with Mandarin (91,911), includes all the Asian languages prioritised in education for economic reasons.... (1997c: 455)

Diagram 3-3. Asian languages between 1986 and 2001

Asian languages with their relatively young and dyamic population are increasingly visible in the public domain (cf. Price 1997) and give Australia an "Asia competence", in other words, an edge over others (Chapter Four). The national data presented so far have revealed overall trends that are a baseline against which other characteristics can be measured. A more differentiated picture can be gained if figures are broken up by geo-political entities. To avoid unnecessary detail, I will continue with the languages with more than 70,000 speakers and those with between 30,000 to 70,000 in diagrams 3-4 to 3-6.1 will confine myself to New South Wales and Victoria, traditionally the most diverse states, and include Western Australia. The States selected share the same languages and show that Asian LOTEs have indeed grown in speaker numbers across the whole continent, if at a different pace. With Chinese languages and Arabic being the 'strongest' ones in diagram 3-4, New South Wales has a more 'Asian' and 'Middle East' texturte than the two other States. Western Australia (cf. diagram 3-5) still

168

Chapter 3 Languages of Australians of non-Anglophone

background

has a strong Italian base, but Chinese and Vietnamese are making heavy inroads. Victoria, finally, in diagram 3-6 is still 'Southern European', with Italian and Greek being in first and second place. German, which used to be well represented, has been overtaken by Tagalog and Vietnamese even in Victoria. Most speakers of Arabic and Chinese lived in New South Wales in 1976 and data for 2001 show that this pattern has become stronger still. As to the States not shown, Queensland has a heavy concentration of Chinese; South Australia resembles Victoria with a more European image. With the level of out-migration from New South Wales being high, the Asian language base in other states may easily be changing in the future.

250.000 200.000 150.000 100.000 50.000

0

jLL 11 υ Ω oí

ω ω cω Ο

cCO E ω (5

I 1976 m 1986 • 1996 • 2001

Φ ω

» ave

early pressure

reduction of status

mAusE-an ethnolects epicentre of English of AusF.

Diagram 5-2. Shared periods of habitat changes

LOTEs

References 200 Jahre Geschichte der deutschprachigen Gemeinschaft in Australien ar. 1988

Edited by Die Woche. Bankstown, New South Wales.

[AICS] Aboriginal Independent Community Schools n.y.

www.aics.wa.edu.au. 20 June 2004.

ACT Department of Education and Training and Children's Youth & Family Services Bureau 2001

English as a Second Language. ihttp://www.decs.act.gov.au/policies, March 2003]

Ager, Dennis 2001

Motivation in Language Planning and Language Policy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Aird, Michael 1996

"I Know a Few Words". Talking About Aboriginal Southport, Qld.: Keeaira Press.

Languages.

Amery, Rob [ar. 2002] Language Reclamation and the Formulaic Model, [http://www.ling. mq.edu.au/ali/indigenous/Amerv ALI.pdf. 13 August 2003] Amery, Rob (ed.) 1995

Warra Kauma. A Resource for Kaurna Language Programs. Kaurna Plains School, Elizabeth, South Australia.

Amery, Rob, and Peter Mühlhäusler 1996

Pidgin English in New South Wales. In Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vol. II, Stephen Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell Tryon (eds), 33-52. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Arthur, Jay M. 1996

Aboriginal English. A Cultural Study. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Asaoka, T. 1985

Communication Problems Between Japanese and Australians at a Dinner Party. Working Papers of the Japanese Studies Centre 3: 35 pp.

286

References

[ASAA] Asian Studies Association of Australia, Inc. 2002

Maximising Australia's Asian Knowledge — Repositioning and Renewal of a National Asset.· A Report by the Asian Studies Association of Australia. (ASAA 2002)

[ATSIC] Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission 2002

Broadcasting. Digital Dreaming: A National Review of Indigenous Media and Communications. [www.atsic.gov.auprograms/Social and Cultural/Broadcasting/Digital Dreaming/Part A Sect2.asp. 28 August 2002

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering 1988

Technology in Australia 1788-1988. A Condensed History of Australian Technological Innovation and Adaptation during the First Two Hundred Years. Compiled by Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. Melbourne, [online: http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/titlepage.htmll

Australian Alliance for Language Policy 2001

Statement of Needs and Priorities for Language Policy for Australia. [distributed by email; http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/als/aalp.html: 17 July 2004]

[ABS] Australian Bureau of Statistics 1995

Australia Now - A Statistical Profile. Culture and Recreation. Special Article - Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Australia (= Year Book Australia 1995). [Written by J. Jupp]. [http://www.abs.gov.au/ Ausstats/abs @ .nsf7LookuD/49F609C83CF34D69CA2569DE0025C 1 8 2 , 2 February 2004]

1999

Special Article - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians: A statistical profile from the 1996 census. [via http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/catalog.nsf/domainquerv7openform1

2001

Population. Indigenous Population, [via http://www.ausstats. abs.gov.au/catalog.nsf7domainquery7openform]

2002a

Indigenous Profile. 2001 Census. [= Community Profile Commonwealth of Australia. [Catalogue No. 2002.0]

2002b

Australian Historical Population Statistics. Sydney: Commonwealth of Australia. [Cat. No. 3105.0.65.001]

2003

2001 Census Ancestry - First and Second Generation Australians. Written by Chris Kunz. Commonwealth of Australia. [= Census Paper Nr. 03/0la]

Series],

[AEC] Australian Education Council 1994a

A Statement on English for Australian Schools. A Joint Project of the States, Territories and the Commonwealth of Australia Initiated by

References the Australian Melbourne.

Education

Council.

Curriculum

287

Corporation,

[AEC] Australian Education Council 1994b

English - a Curriculum Profile for Australian Schools. A Joint Project of the States, Territories and the Commonwealth of Australia Initiated by the Australian Education Council. Curriculum Corporation, Melbourne.

[Galbally Report] Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs 1982

Evaluation of Post-Arrival Programs and Services. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs.

[AND] Australian National Dictionary, The 1988

Edited by William S. Ramson. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Bader, Rudolf (ed.) 2002

Australien. Eine interdisziplinäre Einführung. Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier. [I st ed. 1996]

Trier:

Baker, Philip 1993

Autralian Influence on Melanesion Pidgin English. Te Reo 36: 3-67.

Baker, Philip, and Peter Mühlhäusler 1996

The Origins and Diffusion of Pidgin English in the Pacific. In Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vol. II, Stephen Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell Tryon (eds), 553-594. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Baldauf, Richard, Β., Jr. 1989

Language Planning: Corpus Planning. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 10: 3-12.

1990

Language Planning and Education. In Language Planning and Education in Australasia and the South Pacific, Richard B. Baldauf Jr. and A. Luke (eds), 14-24. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

1993/4

"Unplanned" Language Policy and Planning. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 14: 82-89.

Baldauf, Richard, B., Jr., and William Eggington 1989

Language Reform in Australian Languages. In Language Reform. History and Future, Vol. IV, Istvàn Fodor and Claude Hagège (eds), 13-29. Hamburg: Buske.

Baldauf, Richard, B., Jr., Peter Mühlhäusler, Jean Clayton, and Lisa Hill ar. 1995

Backing Australian Languages: Review of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages Initiatives Program. Canberra: National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia Limited.

288

References

Baldwin, J.P. 1989

Aspects of Intelligibility and the Interlanguage Phonology of Japanese English, Macquarie University. Working Papers of the Speech, Hearing and Language Research Centre: 33-69.

Béai, Christine 1992

Did You Have a Good Weekend? Or Why There Is No Such Thing as a Simple Question in Cross-Cultural Encounters. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 15(1): 23-52.

Bennett, Jane 1992

Language Maintenance in the Second Generation: The Dutch in Australia. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 15(1): 53-70.

Bentahila, Abdelali, and Eirlys Davies 1993

Language Revival: Restoration or Transformation? Journal Multilingual and Multicultural Development 24(5): 355-374.

of

Berndt, Ronald, and Catherine Bemdt 1996

The World of the First Australians. Aboriginal Traditional Life: Past and Present. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. [= 3rd edition; 1st edition 1964]

Birrell, Bob, and Lesleyanne Hawthorne 1996

Immigration and the Professions. People and Place 4(4). ihttp:// www.elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/pnpv4n4/birrhaw.htm. 29 September 2002]

1999

Australia's Skilled Migration Program Outcomes as of 1996. Commissioned Research for the Review of the Independent and Skilled-Australian Linked Categories. Canberra: Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.

Birrell, Bob, Siew-Ean Khoo, Peter McDonald, and Dimi Giorgas 2002

Second Generation Australians. Report for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. Commonwealth, Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.

Black, Paul 1983

Aboriginal Languages in the Northern Territory. Australian Linguistics, Darwin Community College.

School of

Black, Paul 1993

New Uses for Old Languages. In Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia, Michael Walsh and Colin Yallop (eds), 207223. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

References

289

Blake, Barry 1988

Redefining Pama-Nyungan. In Aboriginal Linguistics 1, Nick Evans and S. Johnson (eds), 1-90. Armidale: University of New South Wales Press. 1991 Australian Aboriginal Languages. A General Introduction. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press. [= 2nd edition; l sl ed. published in 1981 by Angus and Robertson, Sydney] Board of Studies. Key Learning Area Committee and Working Groups 1995 English Language. English. Curriculum and Standards Framework. Board of Studies, Carlton, Victoria. 1996 1999

ESL Companion to the English CSF. Board of Studies, Carlton, Victoria. Study Design. English Language. Board of Studies, Carlton, Victoria.

Borland, Helen 1990

Bilingual Professionals in the Workforce. ARAL 13(1): 23-39.

Borland, Helen, and Georffrey George 1990 Bilingual Professionals in Business: Their Role and Professional Education. In Cross-Cultural Communication and Professional Education, Claude Hedrick, and Robert Holton (eds), 187-197. Centre for Multicultural Studies, Flinders University, South Australia. Bot, Kees, de, and Michael Clyne 1994 A 16-Year Longitudinal Study of Language Attrition in Dutch Immigrants in Australia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 15(1): 17-28. Bourke, Collin F. 1990 Cross-Cultural Communication and Professional Education: An Aboriginal Perspective. In Cross-Cultural Communication and Professional Education, Claude Hedrick, and Robert Holton (eds), 38-48. Centre for Multicultural Studies, Flinders University, South Australia. Bourke, D.F. 1979 The History of the Catholic Church in Western Australia. Archdiocese of Perth. Brick, Jean 1991

China. A Handbook in Intercultural Communication. National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, Macquarie University, Sydney.

290

References

Brutt-Griffler, Janina 2002

World English. A Study of its Development. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Bucknall, Gwen 1997

Nyangumarta: Alive and Adapting. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 20(1): 43-56.

Buffet, Alice n.y.

Speak Norfolk Today. An Encyclopaedia of the Norfolk Island Language. Available through author [ISBN: 0-646-37359-5, http://www.nlk.nf/alicebuffett/. 18 February 2003]

Calvert, Albert F. Í894

The Aborigines of Western Australia. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Limited. fhttp://www.sacredtexts.com/aus/awa/awa.htm. 12 December 2002]

Camm, J.C.R., and J. McQuilton 1987

Australians: A Historical Atlas. Sydney: Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates.

Capell, A. 1956

A New Approach to Australian Linguistics, Oceania Monograph No. 1. The University of Sydney, Sydney.

Linguistic

1969

The Structure of Australian Languages. In Studies in Australian Linguistics, A.P. Elkin (ed.), 46-80. Australian Research Council, Sydney.

Cheedy, Ned, and Jane Cheedy 2001

Olive Python Dreaming. Roeburne Primary School, Roeburne, Western Australia.

Chiro, Giancarlo, and Jerzy J. Smolicz 1993

Is Italian Language a Core Value of Italian Culture? A Study of Second Generation Italian-Australians. Studi Emigrazione/Etudes Migrations 30(110): 311-340.

Christie, Frances 1982

English as a Mother Tongue: Teaching. Australian Applied Linguistics 5(2): 58-66.

Review of

Clyne, Michael 1970

Migrant English in Australia. In English Transported, William Ramson (ed.), 15-31. Canberra: Australian National University Press.

1982

Multilingual Australia. Melbourne: River Seine.

References

291

Clyne, Michael 1985a

The German Language in Victoria. In The German Connection. Sequicentenary Essays on German-Victorian Crosscurrents, 18351985. Leslie Bodi and Stephen Jeffries (eds), 7-18. Dept of German, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria.

1985b

Multilingual Melbourne Nineteenth-Century Style. Journal of Australian Studies 17: 69-81. Community Languages. The Australian Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Intercultural Communication at Work. Cultural Values in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1991 1994 1996

General Remarks on Australia and Maps on Distribution of LOTEs in Australia, 1861-71,1891, 1922,1976-86. In Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Stephen Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell Tryon (eds), Vol. II, 1-9; Vol. I, maps 1-4. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

1997a

Language Policy in Australia - Achievements, Disappointments, Prospects. Journal of Intercultural Studies 18(1): 63-71.

1997b

Some of the things trilinguals do. International Bilingualism 1(2): 95-116.

2001a

Micro Language Policy as a Barometer of Change. A University Language Policy as an Example. In New Perspectives and Issues in Educational Language Policy, A Festschrift for Bernard Dov Spolsky. Robert L Cooper, J. Walters and E. Shohany (eds), 211-234. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

2001b

Can the Shift from Immigrant Languages be Reversed in Australia? In Can Threatened Languages be Saved? Joshua Fishman (ed.), 364390. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

2003

The Dynamics of Contact Linguistics. University Press. Clyne, Michael (ed.)

Journal

of

Cambridge: Cambridge

1976

Australia Talks. Canberra: Australian National University Press.

1985c

Australia, Meeting Place of Languages. Department of Linguistics, The Australian National University, Canberra.

Clyne, Michael, and Sandra Kipp 1995

The Extent of Community Language Maintenance in Australia. People and Place 3(4): 4-8.

1997a

Linguistic Diversity in Australia. People and Place 5(3): fhttp:// elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/free/pnpv5n3/kipp.htm. 12 December

2002]

292

References 1997b

Language Maintenance and Language Shift: Community Languages in Australia. People and Place 5(4) [http://elecpress.monash. edu.au/pnp/free/pnpv5n4/clvne.htm. 22 January 2003]

1997c

Trends and Changes in Home Language Use and Shift in Australia, 1986-1996. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 18(6): 451-473.

1998

Language Concentrations in Metropolitan Areas. People and Place 6(2): [http://elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/free/pnpv6n2/clvne2.htm. 10 January 2003]

1999

Pluricentric Languages in an Immigrant Context: Arabic, Chinese, Spanish. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

2002

Australia's Changing Language Demography. People and Place 10(3): 29-35.

[Galbally Report] Commonwealth Government 1978

Migrant Services and Programs: Report of the Review of PostArrival Programs and Services for Migrants.

Complete Parallel Bible, The 1993

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cook, Leanne, and Kevin Buzzacott 1994

Yipirrinya School. In Aboriginal Languages in Education, Deborah Hartman and John Henderson (eds), 78-91. Alice Springs: Institute of Aboriginal Development Press.

Croft, Kerrie, R.J.S., and 'Mac' Macpherson 1991

The Evolution of Languages Administrative Policies in New South Wales: 1962-79. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 14(1): 3558.

Crowley, Terry 1993

Tasmanian Aboriginal Language: Old and New Identities. In Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia, Michael Walsh and Colin Yallop (eds), 51.71. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

1996

Early Language Contact in Tasmania. In Atlas of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, Stephen Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell T. Tryon, 25-32. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Crozet, Chantal 2000

Characteristics of Indigenous Languages and Cultures. Australian Language Matters 8(4): 3-5. [the second part is in Australian Language Matters 9(1): 3-5, 10,2001]

References

293

Crystal, David 1987

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Curriculum Corporation 1994

Statement on Languages Corporation, Melbourne.

Other

Than

English.

Curriculum

Davies, Diana 1989

National Policy on Languages. Is It More Than an Exercise in Running, Jumping and/or Standing Still? Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 12(1): 18-35.

[Green Paper] Dawkins, John 1990

Language of Australia, The. Discussion Paper on an Australian Literacy and Language Policy for the 1990s Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

[White Paper] Dawkins, John 1991

Australia's Language: The Australian Language and Literacy Policy. Canberra: Australian Government Printing Service.

Deadly Ways to Learn Consortium 2000

Deadly Ways to Learn Project. Two Books and Two Videos. Education Department of Western Australia, Catholic Education Office of Western Australia and Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.

[DIMA] Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs [Statistics Section] 1999a

Statistical Focus. 1996 Classification of Countries into English Proficiency Groups.

1999b

Statistical Focus. 1996 Classification of Countries into English Proficiency Groups. C96.1A Revised. Commonwealth of Australia. [April 1996]

2001a

English Proficiency by Migration Stream. Settlement Database. fhttp://www.immi. gov.au/settle/data/reports/english prfcncv by stre am.htm. 15 April 2003]

2001b

English Proficiency. 1996 Census. Statistical Commonwealth of Australia.

2002a

Viet Nam Born Community Profile, [http://www.immi. gov.au/ statistics/infosummarv/textversion/germanv.htm. 11 Dec 2002]

2002b

Germany Born Community Profile, [http://www.immi.gov.au/ statistics/infosummarv/textversion/germanv.htm. 11 Dec 20021

2003a

Statistical Focus. 2001 Classification of Countries into English Proficiency Groups. [Catalogue No. c01.2.0, July 2003]

Report No.

30.

294

References

[DIMA] Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs [Statistics Section] 2003b

Viet Nam-Bom Community Profile, [http://www.immi.gov.au/ statistics/infosummarv/textversion/vietnam.htm. updated version of August 2003; 17 September 2003]

Devlin, Brian n.y.

Assisting Students to Read and Write in English: The 'Scaffolding Literacy' Approach. [ www.ntu.edu.au/education/ntier/newsletter/ scaffolding.html. 18 August 2003]

Dixon, Robert W.M. 1980

The Languages of Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1993

Australian Aboriginal Languages. In The Languages of Australia [= Occasional Paper No. 14], Gerhard Schulz (ed.), 71-82. Canberra: Academy of the Humanities.

1997

The Rise and Fall of Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2002

Australian Languages. Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dixon, Robert W.M (compiler) 1991

Words of our Country. Stories, Place Names and Vocabulary in Yidiny, the Aboriginal Language of the Cairns-Yarrabah Region. St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press.

Dixon, Robert M.W., and Barry Blake (eds) 1991

The Handbook of Australian Languages. Vol. IV. The Aboriginal Languages of Melbourne and Other Grammatical Sketches. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Dixon, Robert W.M., William Ramson, and Mandy Thomas 1990

Australian Aboriginal Words in English: Their Origin and Meaning. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Djité, Paulin G. 1994

From Language Policy to Language Planning. An Overview of Languages Other Than English in Australian Education. Deakin: National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia.

Donaldson, Tamsin 1994

Alphabet Books. In Aboriginal Languages in Education, Deborah Hartman and John Henderson (eds), 23.32. Alice Springs: Institute of Aboriginal Development Press.

References

295

Donnelly, Kevin 1992

The New Orthodoxy in English Teaching: A Critique. English in Australia 99: 62-72.

Douglas, William A. 1995

From Italy to Ingham. Italians in North Queensland. St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press.

Eades, Diana 1982

You Gotta Know How to Talk....: Information Seeking in South-East Queensland Aboriginal Society. Australian Journal of Linguistics 2: 61-82.

1984

Misunderstanding Aboriginal English: The Role of Socio-Cultural Context. In Further Applications of Linguistics to Australian Aboriginal Contexts (= Applied Linguistics Association of Australia, Occasional Paper 8), G.R. McKay, B.A. Sommer (eds), 24-33.

1988

Sociolinguistic Evidence Communication 14: 22-33.

1993

The Case for Condren: Aboriginal English, Pragmatics and the Law. Journal of Pragmatics 20(2): 141-162.

1996

Aboriginal English. In Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vol. II, Stephen Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell Tryon (eds), 133141. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

2000

I Don't Think it's an Answer to the Question: Silencing Aboriginal Witnesses in Court. Language in Society 29(2): 161-196.

in

Court.

Australian

Journal

of

Eades, Diana (ed.) 1995

Language in Evidence. Issues Confronting Aboriginal and Multicultural Australia. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.

Eagleson, Robert D. 1982

Variation in English Language. In English and the Aboriginal Child, Robert D. Eagleson, Susan Kaldor, and Ian G. Malcolm (eds), 11-30. Canberra: Curriculum Development Centre.

1991

Plain English: Some Sociolinguistic Revelations. In Language in Australia, Suzanne Romaine (ed.), 362-372. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Eagleson, Robert D., Susan Kaldor, and Ian G. Malcolm (eds) 1982

English and the Aboriginal Development Centre.

Child.

Canberra:

Curriculum

296

References

Eisikovits, Edna and Mark Garner 1982

English as a Mother Tongue. ARAL 5(2): 67-76.

Elkin, A.P. 1969

The Nature of Australian Languages. In Studies in Australian Linguistics, A.P. Elkin (ed.), 3-45. Australian Research Council, Sydney.

Erebus Consulting Partners 2002

Evaluation of the National Asian Language and Studies in Australian Schools Strategy. A Report to the Commonwealth Department of Science and Training. Commonwealth, Department of Science and Training, Canberra.

Evans, Nicholas 1992

Macassan Loanwords in Top End Languages. Australian Journal of Linguistics 12: 45-91.

FATSIL 2001 -

Newsletter (on-going publication)

2003

Strategic Plan 2003-2005. Targets Outlined, Voice of the Land. The FATSIL Newsletter 24: 4.

Fee, Margaret 1997

Writing Orality: Interpreting Literature in English by Aboriginal Writers in North America, Australia and New Zealand. Journal of Intercultural Studies 18(1): 23-39.

Fesl, Eve 1982

Australian Aboriginal Languages (and a National Language Policy), Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 5(2): 100-115.

1993

Conned. St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press.

2002

Languages and Boundaries. [http://www.fatsil.org/votl/Articles/14l.htm. article removed from web, 10 February 2003]

Finocchiaro, Carla 1995

Intergenerational Language Maintenance of Minority Groups in Australia in the 1990s: an Italian Case Study. Journal of Intercultural Studies 16(1/2): 41-45.

Fishman, Joshua 2001a

Why is it so Hard to Save a Threatened Language. In Can Threatened Languages be Saved? Reversing Language Shift Revisited, a 21s' Century Perspective, Joshua Foshman (ed.), 1-22. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

References

297

Fishman, Joshua (ed.) 2001b

Can Threatened Languages be Saved? Reversing Language Shift Revisited, a 21" Century Perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Flint, E.H. 1968

Aboriginal English. Linguistic Description as an Aid to Teaching, English in Australia 6: 3-22. Foster, Robert, Paul Monaghan, and Peter Mühlhäusler 1999

Early Forms of Aboriginal English in South Australia. 1840s to 1920s.

Foster, Robert, and Peter Mühlhäusler 1996

Native Tongue, Captive Voice. The Representation of the Aboriginal 'Voice' in Colonial South Australia. Language & Communication 16(1): 1-16.

Fowler, Roger 1991

The Language in the News. London: Routledge.

Fritz, Clemens 2000

The Irish in Australia: Aspects of Linguistic Accommodation. In The Celtic Englishes II, H. Tristram (ed.), 57-74. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.

Fryer-Smith, Stephanie 2002

Aboriginal Benchmark for Western Australian Courts. (AUA Model Indigenous Benchbook Project). Carlton, Vic.: Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Incorporated. fhttp://www.aija.orp.au/online/ ICABenchbook/Intro.pdf. 5 July 2004]

Gale, Fay 1964

A Study of Assimilation. Part-Aborigines Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia.

in South

Australia.

Gale, Mary-Anne 1990

A Review of Bilingual Education in Aboriginal Australia. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 13(1): 40-80.

Godfrey, John, Bernard Harslett, Gary Partington, and Kaye Richer 1999

Quality Schools for Aboriginal Students. Collaborative Research. Final Report. Edith-Cowan-University and Education Departmen of Western Australia. fhttp://www.eddept. wa.edu.au/Abled/qualitv /finalrep.htm. 27 September 2002]

298

References

Goodenough, Warwick 1992

The Politicising of English Teaching. English in Australia 100: 1015.

Green, Neville 1983

Desert School. South Fremantle, WA: Freemantle Arts Centre Press.

Groome, Howard 1994

Teaching Aboriginal Studies Effectively. Wentworth Falls, NSW: Social Science Press Australia.

Gwynne, Phillip 1998

Deadly, Unna? Camberwell, Vic.: Penguin.

Hale, Kenneth 1964

Classification of Northern Paman Languages. Cape York Peninsula, Australia: A Research Report. Oceanic Linguistics 3: 248-265.

Harkins, Jean 1990

Shame and Shyness in the Aboriginal Classroom: A Case for "Practical Semantics". Australian Journal of Linguistics 10: 293306.

1994

Bridging Two Worlds. Aboriginal English and Crosscultural Understanding. St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press.

Harris, John 1986

Northern Territory Pidgins and the Origin of Kriol. [= Pacific Linguistics, Series C, No. 89]. The Australian National University, Canberra.

1993

Losing and Gaining a Language: The Story of Kriol in the Northern Territory. In Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia, Michael Walsh, Colin Yallop (eds), 145-154. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

1994

One Blood. 200 Years of Aboriginal Encounter With Christianity. A Story of Hope. Sutherland, NSW: Albatross Books, [completely revised 2nd edition; I s ' edition 1990]

Harris, John, and John Sandefur 1985

Kriol and Multilingualism. In Australia - Meeting Place of Language, Michael Clyne (ed.), 241-255. Canberra: ANU Press.

Harris, Stephen 1990

Two-Way Aboriginal Schooling. Education and Cultural Survival. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

1994

Teaching Aboriginal Languages in Aboriginal Schools: Some Issues. In Aboriginal Languages in Education, Deborah Hartman, and John

References

299

Henderson (eds), 129-139. Alice Springs: Institute of Aboriginal Development Press. Hartman, Deborah, and John Henderson (eds) 1994

Aboriginal Languages in Education. Alice Springs: Institute of Aboriginal Development Press.

Hawthorne, Lesleyanne 1990

Migrant Engineers' Job Interview Performance: A Cross Cultural Analysis. ARAL 15(2): 90-119.

1997

The Political Dimension of Language Testing in Australia. Language Testing 14(3).

2002

Qualifications Recognition Reform for Skilled Migrants in Australia: Applying Competency-Based Assessment to Overseas-Qualified Nurses. International Migration Review 40(6).

Hawthorne, Lesleyanne, and Julie Toth 1996

The Impact of Language Testing on the Registration of Immigrant Doctors. People and Place 4(3). [internet version]

Heidenreich, Lien 2003

Multilingualism in Human Resource Management. Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Workplace: An Australian Experience. MA thesis, Institut für Englishe Philologie, Freie Universität Berlin.

Hedrick, Claude, and Robert Holton (eds) 1990

Cross-Cultural Communication and Professional Education. Centre for Multicultural Studies, Flinders University, South Australia.

Ho, Wah Kam n.y

English Language Teaching in Southeast Asia: Continuity and Change, [http://www.alc.co.jp/asian-e/ho.html, 7 August 2002]

Holleuffer, Henriette von 2001

Willkommen nur fernab der neuen Heimat? Die Beschäftigung von osteuropäischen Ärzten in Papua and Neu Guinea 1950-1970 [etc.]. GASt Newsletter 15: 42-51.

Horton, David 1994

The Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History, Society and Culture. 2 vols. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

1999

Aboriginal Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, [that map is also on http:// www.foundingdocs.gov.au/pathwavs/index.htm. 15 June 2004]

300

References

Horvath, Barbara M. 1985

Variation in Australian English. The Sociolects Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

of

Sydney.

House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs 1992

Language and Culture. A Matter of Survival. Report of the Inquiry into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Language Maintenance. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Hudson, Joyce 1983

Transitivity and Aspect in the Kriol Verb. Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 3: 161-176.

Hudson, Joyce, Therese Carr, and Margaret Reid 1996

Languages of the Kimberley Region. Broome: Catholic Education Office. Kimberley Region.

Imparja ar. 1998

About Imparja Television. [On the Occasion of the 10th Anniversary; www.imparia.com.au/compan.htm. 20 May 2003 ]

Jones, Mary Lucille (ed.) 1993

An Australian Pilgrimage. Muslims in Australia from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. Melbourne, Vic.: Victoria Press in association with the Museum of Victoria.

Jupp, James 1995

Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Australia. [= Special Article in Australia Now - a Statistical Profile, website of the ABS, August 1999; originally published in Year Book of Australia. 1995]

1998

Immigration. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Jupp, James (ed.) 1988

The Australian People. An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins. Sydney: Angus and Robertson Publishers. [2nd edition 2002]

Kaldor, Susan, Robert Eagleson, and Ian Malcolm 1982

English and the Aboriginal Development Centre.

Child.

Canberra:

Curriculum

Kaldor, Susan, and Ian G. Malcolm 1982

Aboriginal English in Country and Remote Areas: A Western Australian Perspective. In English and the Aboriginal Child, Susan Kaldor, Robert Eagleson, Ian Malcolm, 75-112. Canberra: Curriculum Development Centre.

References

301

Källgärd, Anders 1996

Present-Day Pitcairnese. English Worldwide 14(1): 71-114.

Keesing, Roger 1988

Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substrate. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Kenny, John 1995

Before the First Fleet. Europeans in Australia 1606-1777. Kenthurst, NSW: Kangaroo Press.

Keuneman, Katrine Pilcher, and Sylvia Sagona 1992

Why Study French?: The Importance of Various Factors Acknowledged by First Year Students at the University of Melbourne. ARAL 15(2): 63-89.

Khoo, Siew-Ean 1995

Language Maintenance amongst the Second Generation. People and Place 3(4): 9-12.

Khoo, Siew-Ean, and Charles A. Price 1996

Understanding Australia's Ethnic Composition. Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Commonwealth of Australia.

Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre 1996

Yirra. Land, Law and Language. Strong and Alive. Broome: Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre.

Kimberley Language Resource Centre (ed.) 1996

Moola Bulla: In the Shadow of the Mountain. Broome, Western Australia: Magabala Books.

Kipp, Sandra, Michael Clyne, and Anne Pauwels 1995

Immigration and Australia's Language Resources. Melbourne: Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research.

Koch, Harold 2000a

The Role of Australian Aboriginal Languages in the Formation of Australian Pidgin Grammar: Transitive Verbs and Adjectives. In Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, Jeff Siegel (ed.), 13-46. St Laurent, Canada: Fides.

2000b

Central Australian Aboriginal English: In Comparison with the Morphosyntactic Categories of Kaytete. Asian Englishes 2(1): 32-58.

Koenigsberg, Patricia, and Glenys Collard 2002

Ways of Being, Ways of Talk. Book and Four Videos. Education Department of Western Australia, Perth.

302

References

Laycock, D.C. 1989

The Status of Pitcairn-Norfolk: A Creole Dialect or Cant. In Status and Function of Language and Language Varieties, Ulrich Ammon (ed.), 608-629. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Leitner, Gerhard 1984

Australian English or English in Australia - Linguistic Identity or Dependence in Broadcast Language, English Worldwide 5(1): 55-85.

1989

BBC English und Englisch Langenscheidt.

2000

Australian Linguistics - a Module in Australian Studies, Part I. Australian Language Matters 8(4): 10-13.

2001a

Australian Linguistics - a Module in Australian Studies, Part II. Australian Language Matters 9(1): 11-12, 14.

2001b

Australian Linguistics - a Module in Australian Studies, Part III. Australian Language Matters 9(2): 13, 17.

2002a

Australiens Sprachökologie. In Australien. Eine interdisziplinäre Einführung, Rudolf Bader (ed.), 215-262. Trier: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.

2002b

Complex Language Situations. In Festschrift für Wolfgang Thiele, Christian Todenhagen (ed.), 93-115. Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag.

2003a

On the History of Australian English. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 51(2): 128-149.

2003b

'If You've Lost Your Language, You've Lost Everything'. In Sprache und Kultur der Aborigines, Ralph Frieling and Elisabeth Bähr (eds), 139-171. Iserlohn: Institut für Kirche und Gesellschaft.

2004a

Transforming Australia's Language Habitat. CALLR E-JOURNAL.

2004b

Australia's Many Voices. Australian Language. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

2004c

Beyond Alexander Mitchell's Views on the History of Australian English. Australian Journal of Linguistics 24(1): 99-126.

lernen mit der BBC.

English

-

München:

the

National

forthc. 2005 Australia's "Asia Competence" and the Uneasy Balance Between Asian Languages and English. Journal of Asian-Pacific Communication. Leitner, Gerhard (ed.) 1991

English Traditional Grammars: Amsterdam: Benjamins.

An International

Perspective.

Leitner, Gerhard, Brian Taylor and Clemens Fritz forthc. 2005 Language in Australia and New Zealand, A Bibliography 17882001. CD-ROM. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

References

303

[HRA] Library Committe of the Commonwealth Parliament, The 1914

Historical Records of Australia (Series I, Volume 1, 1788-1796, etc.)· Commonwealth of Australia.

Lo Bianco, Joseph 1987

The National Policy on Languages. Government Printing Service.

Canberra:

Australian

2001

From Policy to Anti-Policy: How Fear of Language Rights Took Policy-Making out of Community Hands. In Australian Policy Activism in Language & Literacy, Joseph Lo Bianco, Rosie Wickert, (eds), 13-44. Melbourne: Language Australia Ltd.

2004

A Site for Debate, Negotiation and Contest of National Identity: Language Policy in Australia, Guide for the Development of Language Education Policies in Europe: From Linguistic Diversity to Plurilingual Education. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

Lo Bianco, Joseph, and Mari Rhydwen 2001

Is the Extinction of Australia's Indigenous Languages Inevitable? In Can Threatened Languages be Saved,? Joshua Fishman (ed.), 391422. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Lo Bianco, Joseph, and Rosie Wickert (eds) 2001

Australian Policy Activism in Language & Literacy. Melbourne: Language Australia Ltd.

Lockwood, Kim 1995

Big John. The Extraordinary Adventures of John McKinlay. 18191972. Melbourne: State Library of Victoria.

Lowe, Kevin 2002

The Need for Community Consultation to Assist in the Development of Aboriginal Language Programs in Schools: A Discussion Paper. fhttp://www.fatsil.org/papers/research/lowe-1 .htm. 12 December 2002; originally in Voice of the Land, n.y., no pages]

Luchtenberg, Sigrid 1997

Sprachunterricht in Australien: Aspekte der Heterogenität und Mehrsprachigkeit. Zeitschrift für Fremdsprachenforschung 8(1): 6578.

Ludwig, Wendy 1988

The Education Needs of Urban Aboriginal Children. In Ethnicity and Cognitive Assessment. Australian Perspectives, Graham Davidson (ed.), 108-112. Darwin Institute of Technology, Darwin, Northern Territory.

304

References

Macquarie Dictionary, The 1998

Edited by Arthur Delbridge et al., Sydney: The Macquarie Library. [3rd updated and revised CD-ROM edition; 1st ed. 1981]

Malcolm, Ian G. 1994a

Aboriginal English Inside and Outside the Classroom. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 17(2): 147-180.

1994b

Discourse and Discourse Strategies in Australian Aboriginal English, World Englishes 13(3): 289-306.

1995a

Applied Linguistics in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Contexts 1975-1995. [draft]

1995b

Language and Communication Enhancement for Communications. Report. Edith-Cowan-University, Perth.

Two-way

1995c

Language and Prejudice 'Both Ways': Implications for [conference paper]

Education.

1996

Observations on Variability in the Verb Phrase in Aboriginal English. Australian Journal of Linguistics 16: 145-165.

1997a

Two Hundred Years of Pragmatic Contrast: Aboriginal-European Communication Since Contact, [conference paper]

1997b

Aboriginality and English. Report to the Australian Research Council November 1997. Centre for Applied Language Research, Edith-Cowan-University, Perth, WA.

1998

"You Gotta Talk the Proper Way": Language and Education. In Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education, Gary Partington (ed.), 117-146. Tuggerah, NSW: Social Science Press.

1999a

Event and Story Schemas in Australian Discourse, [conference paper]

1999b

The Narrativization of Experience with Yamatji Children: Evidence from two Boys. Edith-Cowan-University, Perth.

1999c

Aboriginal English: From Contact Variety to Social Dialect. In Processes of Language Contact. Case Studies from Australia and the Pacific, Jeff Siegel (ed.), 123-144. Montreal: Fides.

2000a

Aboriginal English Genres in the City. Paper presented to the Annual Conference of the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia, The University of Melbourne.

2000b

Aboriginal English Research: An Overview. Asian English 2(1): 931.

2000c

Event and Story Schemas in Australian Aboriginal discourse. English World-Wide 21(2): 261-289.

Aboriginal

English

English

References

305

Malcolm, Ian G. 2001a

Aboriginal English: Adopted Code of a Surviving Culture. In English in Australia, David Blair and Peter Collins (eds), 201-222. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

2001b

Aboriginal English: From Contact Variety to Social Dialect. In Processes of Language Contact: Case Studies from Australia and the Pacific, Jeff Siegel (ed.), 123-144. Montreal: Fides.

2001c

Aboriginal English Research: An Overview. Asian Englishes 3(2): 931.

2002a

Coming to Terms with Diversity: Educational Responses to Linguistic Plurality in Australia. GASt Newsletter 16: 17-30.

2002b

Aboriginal Genres in Perth. Centre for Applied Language and Literacy Research, Edith-Cowan-University, Mount Lawley, WA.

Malcolm, Ian G., et al. 1999

Two-way English. Towards More User-friendly Education for Speakers of Aboriginal English. East Perth: Education Department of Western Australia.

Malcolm, Ian G., and Marek Koscielscky 1997

Aboriginality and English. Report to the Australian Research Council. November 1997. Centre for Applied Language Research, Edith-Cowan-University, Perth.

Malcolm, Ian G., and Alastair McGregor 1993

Cross-Cultural Interaction in the Australian Public Service. An Investigation of the Relationship between Language and Culture in the Australian Public Service and Implications for Training. Prepared for the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Prime Minister's Department, Canberra. Edith-Cowan-University, Perth, Western Australia.

Malcolm, Ian G., and J. Rochecouste 2000

Event and Story Schemas in Australian Aboriginal Discourse. English World-Wide 21(2): 261-289.

English

Malcolm, Ian G., and Farzad Sharifian 2002

Aspects of Aboriginal English Oral Discourse: An Application of Cultural Schema Theory. Discourse Studies 4(2): 169-181.

Marchant, Leslie R. 1998

France Australe. The French in Search for the Southland and Subsequent Explorations and Plans to Found a Penal Colony and Strategic Base in South Western Australia 1503-1826. Perth: Scott Four Colour Print.

306

References

Marshall, Paul (ed.) 1989

Raparapa Kularr Martuwarra. All Right, nNow We Go 'Side the River, Along that Sundown Way. Stories from the Fitzroy Drovers. Broome: Magabala Books.

Martin, Shirley 2002

New Life, New Language. The History of the Adult Migration English Program. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, Macquarie University.

Massola, Aldo 1997

Aboriginal Mission Stations in Victoria. Yelta, Ebenezer, Ramahuyck, Lake Condah. Melbourne: The Hawthorn Press.

Matter, Nicole 2002

Indigenous Media Australia. Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association. Γ www.bmm.qut.edu.au/commentarv.php7Commentarv ID=73.20 May 2003]

Mattingley, Christobel, and Ken Hampton (eds) 1992

Survival in Our Own Land. Aboriginal' Experiences in 'South Australia' Since 1836, Told by Nungas and Others. Sydney: Hoddon and Stoughton.

Mawer, Giselle, and Laurie Field 1995

One Size Fits Some! Competency-Based Training and Non-EnglishSpeaking Background People. Department of Employment, Education and Training, Canberra.

McConvell, Patrick 1994

Two-Way Exchange and Language Maintenance in Aboriginal Schools. In Aboriginal Languages in Education, Deborah Hartman, and John Henderson (eds), 235-256. Alice Springs: Institute of Aboriginal Development Press.

McConvell, Patrick, and Nicholas Thieberger 2001

State of Indigenous Languages in Australia - 2001. Second Technical Paper Series No. 2 (Natural and Cultural Heritage). Department of the Environment and Heritage, Canberra. rhttp://www.deh.gov.au/soe/techpapers/languages/. 23 June 2004]

McKay, Graham 1996

The Land Still Speaks. Review of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Language Maintenance and Development Needs and Activities. [= Report Commissioned by the Australian Language and Literacy Council] Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

References

307

McLean, Kathy, and Helen Campagna-Wildash 1994

Using the English Profile. Melbourne: Curriculum Corporation.

Merlino, Frank 1988

The Victorian School of Languages. 1935-1988, a Brief History. Ailanto 1: 9-20.

Milliken, E.P. 1976

Aboriginal Language Distribution in the Northern Territory. In Tribes and Boundaries in Australia, N. Peterson (ed.), 239-242. Canberra: Australian Insttitute of Aboriginal Studies.

Milner, Anthony n.y.

Has Australia Lost Interest in Asia? Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, rwww.anu.edu.au/asian studies/interest.html. August 2002; written ar. 1998],

Ministerial Advisory Council on the Quality of Teaching n.y.

Raising the Standing of Teachers and Teaching. Department of Education and Training, NSW. fhttp://www.det.nsw.edu.au/reviews/ macqt/standa.htm, 17 September 2003]

Missionsstunden aus der Brüdergemeine n.y.

On-going series of short pamphlets [issue 7, 38,45; late 19th century]

Mitchell, Alexander 2001

The Story of Australian English. [= edited draft by Colin Yallop from the original manuscript. Macquarie University, Sydney].

Moore, Helen 2000

Language Policies as Virtual Realities: Two Australian Examples. In Ideology, Politics and Language Policies, Thomas Ricento (ed.), 2547. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Mudrooroo, Narogin [pseudonym for Colin Johnson] 1988

Doin Wildcat. South Yarra, Vic.: Hyland House.

1995

Us Mob. History, Culture, Struggle: An Introduction to Indigenous Australia. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.

Muecke, Stephen 1983

Gullarabulu. Fremantle, WA.: Fremantle Arts Centre Press, [in collaboration with Paddy Roe]

Mühlhäusler, Peter 1985

Remnants of Kanaka English in Queensland. In Australia - Meeting Place of Languages, Michael Clyne (ed.), 241-255. Canberra: ANU Press.

308

References

Mühlhäusler, Peter 1996a

Linguistic Ecology. Language Change and Linguistic Imperialism in the Pacific Region. London: Routledge.

1996b

Post Contact Languages in Mainland Australia After 1788. In Atlas of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Stephen Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell Tryon (eds), 11-16. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Vol. II.

1996c

A Fellow's Adventures in South Australia. In Changing Meanings, Changing Functions. Papers Relating to Grammaticalization in Contact Languages, Philip Baker, and Anand Syea (eds), 259-268. London: Battlebridge.

1997

Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. London: University of Westminster Press.

Mühlhäusler, Peter, and Rob Amery 1996

Koines and Indigenous Lingue Franche in Australia. In Atlas of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vol. II, Stephen Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell Tryon (eds), 17-23. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Mühlhäusler, Peter, Tom Dutton, Darrell Tryon, and Stephen Wurm 1996

Post-Contact Pidgins, Creoles and Lingue Franche, Based on NonEuropean and Indigenous Languages. In Atlas of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vol. II, Stephen Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell Tryon (eds), 439470. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Mühlhäusler, Peter, Tom Dutton, E. Hovdhaugen, J. Williams, and Stephen Wurm 1996

Precolonial Patterns of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific Islands. In Atlas of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vol. II, Stephen Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell Tryon (eds), 401-437. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Mühlhäusler, Peter, and Elaine Stratford 1999

Speaking of Norfolk Island: From Dystopia to Utopia? In Small Worlds, Global Lives. Islands and Migration, Russel King and John Connell (eds), 213-234. London: Pinter.

Mulder, Jean, Kate Burridge, and Caroline Thomas 2001

Macmillan English Language. VCE Units I&2. South Yarra, Vic.: Macmillan.

Mulder, Jean, Michael Clyne, Caroline Thomas, Kate Burridge and Anne Isaac [2002?]

Macmillan English Language. VCE Units 3&4 [plus a student CDROM]. South Yarra, Vic.: Macmillan.

References

309

Munro, Jennifer 2000

Kriol on the Move: A Case of Language Spread and Shift in Northern Australia. In Processes of Language Contact. Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, Jeff Siegel (ed.), 245-270. SaintLaurent: Fides.

Myers-Scotton, Carol 2002

Contact Linguistics. Bilingual Encounters Outcomes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

and

Grammatical

Nangala Wellard, Chris 1995

Yurrampi Crafts. Junga Yimi 2: 2.

Nathan, David (ed.) 2004

Aboriginal Languages of Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages. http://www.dnathan.comATJaustLang.htm. latest update, April 2004.

[Rudd Report] National Asian Languages and Culture Working Group 1994

Asian Languages and Australia's Queensland Government Printer.

Economic

Future.

Brisbane:

Century:

Towards

National Multicultural Advisory Council 1999

Australian Multiculturalism for a New Inclusiveness. Commonwealth of Australia.

Nicholls, Christine 2002

Speaking out for an Indigenous Australian Languages Act: The Case for Legislative Activism for the Maintenance of Australia's Indigenous Languages, [asc.uq.edu.au/crossings/7_l/page_2.htm, 13 August 2003]

O'Grady, John 1966

Aussie English. An Explanation of the Australian Idiom. London: Nicholas Vane.

Onsman, Andrys 2002

Cape Barren English, [http://www.lowlands-l.net/talk/eng/english barren.htm. 4 February 2003]

Ozolins, Uldis 1993

The Politics of Language in Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ozolins, Uldis, and Michael Clyne 2001

Immigration and Language Policy. In The Other Languages of Europe: Demographic, Sociolinguistic and Educational

310 References Perspectives, G. Extra and D. Goiter (eds), 371-390. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Page, David 2002 Changing Expectations of the Role of the AMEP. Conference Paper on "Settling in Australia. Adult Migration Education Program". [www.dima.gov.au/amep/reports/pubs/paers/page.htm. 17 September 2002] Partington, Gary 1998a No Simple Solutions Exist: Perspectives on Education as a Key to Change. In Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education, Gary Partington (ed.), 2-26. Tuggerah, NSW: Social Science Press. 1998b 'In Those Days It Was Rough' Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History and Education. In Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education, Gary Partington (ed.), 26-54. Tuggerah, NSW: Social Science Press. Partington, Gary (ed.) 1998c Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education. Tuggerah, NSW: Social Science Press. Paton, Frank, H. 1913 Bilder von Mapoon und seinen Schwesterstationen in NordQueensland. Herrnhut: Verlag der Missionsstation. Pauwels, Ann F. 1988 Diglossie Communities in Transition: The Cases of the Limburgs and Swabian Speech Communities in Australia. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 72: 85-99. 1991 Non-Discriminatory Language. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. 1995 Cross-Cultural Communication in the Health Sciences. Communicating with Migrant Patients. South Melbourne: Macmillan Education. Price, Charles A. 1997 The Asian Element in Australia: 1996. People and Place 5(4). [http://elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/firee/pnpv5n4/cprice.htm. 12 December 2002] Pringle, John Douglas 1958 Australian Accent. London: Chatto and Windus.

References

311

Pütz, Martin 1991

Language Maintenance and Language Shift in the Speech Behaviour of German-Australian Migrants in Canberra. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 12(6): 477-492.

Quality Programs Division, Directorate of School Education (compiler) 1994

Language Other Than English. Curriculum Materials. Directorate of School Education, Victoria.

Rado, Maria, and Lois Foster 1995

Implementing Language Policy at the University Level: Innovations in Victoria. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 18(2): 160-174.

Rando, Gaetano, and Franco Leoni 1992

The Italian Language in Australia: Sociolinguistic Aspects. In Australia's Italians. Culture and Community in a Changing Society., Stephen Castles, Caroline Alcorso, Gaetano Rando, and Ellie Vasta (eds), 169-183. North Sydney: Allen and Unwin.

Reed, A.W. 1967

Aboriginal Reed.

Placenames and their Meanings.

Chatswood, NSW:

Rhydwen, Mari 1996

Writing on the Backs of the Blacks. Voice, Literary and Community in Kriol Fieldwork. St. Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press.

Richardson, Sue, Frances Richardson, and Diana Isley 2001

Report Prepared for DIMA. The Labour Force Experience of New Migrants. National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University, Adelaide. ihttp://www.immi.gov.au/research/publications/labour force/nilsreport.pdf. 17 July 2004]

Richardson, Sue, Lauren Miller-Lewis, Phong Ngo, and Diana Ilsely 2002

Life in a New Land: The Experience of Migrants in Wave 1 ofLSIA 1 and LSIA 2. Report to the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. DIMIA, Canberra, [http:// www.dimia.gov.au/research/publications/lsia/. 17 July 2004]

Ridgeway, Aden, Senator 2001

Interview. The Fatsil Newsletter 18

Rigney, Lester Irabinna 2002

Intervention Title: Building Stronger Communities: Indigenous Australian Rights in Education and Language, ihttp://www.fatsil.org/ papers/research/rienev-1 .htm. 12 Dec 2002; orig. Voice of the Land 21,n.y.]

312

References

Ronowicz, Edmund 1995

Aussies are Friendly and Poles aren't Rude. Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics 30: 31-44.

Rose, Michael (ed.) 1996

For the Record. 160 Years of Aboriginal Print Journalism. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Rubino, Antonia, and Camilla Bettoni 1991

The Use of English among Italo-Australians in Sydney. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 14(1): 59-89.

Rumsey, Alan 1983

On some Syntactic-Semantic Consequences of Homophony in North-West Australian Pidgin/Creole English. Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 3: 177-189.

1993

Language and Territoriality in Aboriginal Australia. In Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia, Michael Walsh, Colin Yallop (eds), 191-206. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

Sandefur, John 1985

Dynamics of an Australian Creole System. Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 4: 195-214.

1991a

A Sketch of the Structure of Kriol. In Language in Australia, Suzanne Romaine (ed.), 204-212. Cambridge: CUP.

1991b

The Problem of Transparency in Kriol. In Linguistics in the Service of Society: Essays in Honour of Susan Kaldor, Ian Malcolm (ed.), 115-129. Perth: Edith Cowan University.

Schmidt, Annette 1985

Young People's Dijirbal: An Example of Language Death from Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1990

The Loss of Australia's Aboriginal Language Heritage. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

Schmidt, Wilhelm 1919

Die Gliederung der australischen Sprachen. Wien.

Schneider, H.G. 1882

Missionsarbeit der Brüdergemeine in Australien. Gnadau: Verlag der Unitäts-Buchhandlung.

Schools and Community Centre 2002

Key Elements of Scaffolding Literacy. Pedagogy and Teacher Support. rwww.ce.canberra.edu.au/scaffolding lieracv/

References

313

RESOURCES/Related%20Articles/scaffold key elements.pdf. 18 August 2003; not found 21 June 2004; via www.ce.canbcrra.edu.au] Sebba, Mark 1997

Contact Languages. Pidgins and Creoles. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press.

Secombe, Margaret, and Joseph Zajda (eds) 1999

J.J. Smolicz on Education and Culture. Albert Park, Vic.: James Nicholas Publishers.

[SSABSA] Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia 1996a

Australia's Indigenous Languages. Commonwealth of Australia.

1996b

Australia's Indigenous Languages. Commonwealth of Australia.

1996c

Australia's Aboriginal Australia.

Languages.

Framework. In

Practice.

Canberra: Canberra:

Canberra: Commonwealth of

Sharifian, Farzad 2001

Schema-Based Processing in Australian Speakers of Aboriginal English. Language and Intercultural Communication 1(2): 120-134.

Sharpe, Margaret 1985

Kriol - an Australian Language Resource. Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 4: 177-194.

1993

Bundjalung: Teaching a Disappearing Language. In Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia, Michael Walsh and Colin Yallop (eds), 71-84. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

Sharpe, Margaret, and John Sandefur 1976

The Creole Language of the Katherine and Roper River Areas, Northern Territory. In Australia Talks, Michael Clyne (ed.), 63-77. Canberra: ANU Press.

Shnukal, Anna 1985a

Variation in Torres Strait Creole. Papers in Pidgin and Creole Linguistics 4: 155-175.

1985b

Multilingualism in the Eastern Torres Strait Islands. In Australia Meeting Place of Languages, Michael Clyne, (ed.), 265-279. Canberra: ANU Press..

1991a

Torres Strait Creole. In Language in Australia, Suzanne Romaine (ed.), 180-194. Cambridge: CUP.

1991b

Official and Unofficial Language Planning in Torres Strait. In Linguistics in the Service of Society: Essays in Honour of Susan Kaldor, Ian Malcolm (ed.), 95-114. Perth: Edith Cowan University.

314

References

Simpson, Jane 1996

Early Language Contact Varieties in South Australia. Australian Journal of Linguistics 16: 169-207.

2000

Camels as Pidgin-Carriers: Afghan Cameleers as a Vector in the Spread of Features of Australian Aboriginal Pidgins and Creoles. In Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific, Jeff Siegel (ed.), 195-244. St Laurent, Canada: Fides.

Single, John 1979

The Torres Strait. People and History. St. Lucia, Qld.: Queensland University Press.

Smith, W. Ramsay [ar. 1911] The Aborigines of Australia. Year Book Australia. 1910. [fr. ABS website, March 2001] Smolicz, Jerzy J. 1992

Minority Languages as Core Values of Ethnic Cultures: A Study of Maintenance and Erosion of Polish, Welsh, and Chinese Language.: In Maintenance and Loss of Minority Languages, W. Fase, Κ. Jaspaert, and S. Kroon (eds), 277-307. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

1999

Postscript: Overview of Humanistic Sociology. In J.J. Smolicz on Education and Culture, Margaret Secombe, Joseph Zajda (eds), 283-308. Albert Park, Vic.: James Nicholas Publishers.

Smolicz, Jerzy J., and Margaret Secombe 1989

Types of Language Activation and Evaluation in an Ethnically Plural Society. In Status and Function of Languages and Language Varieties, Ulrich Ammon (ed.), 478-511. Berlin: de Gruyter.

1999

Italian Language and Culture in South Australia: A Memoir Approach. In J.J. Smolicz on Education and Culture, Margaret Secombe, Joseph Zajda (eds), 161-191. Albert Park, Vic.: James Nicholas Publishers.

Some

Words in Pitcairn / Norfolk Language, [http://www.webpros.co.nz/ bountv/words-lang.htm. 13 February 2003]

Senate Standing Committee on Education and the Arts 1984

Report on a National Language Government Publishing Service.

Policy. Canberra: Australian

Steffensen, Margaret S. 1979

Reduplication in Bamyili Linguistics 2: 119-133.

Creole. Pidgin

Papers

&

Creole

References

315

Strehlow, Theodor 1992

Tagebuch III. February 18 to September 5, 1922. Transcribed and translated into English by Lisa Wendlandt. [transcript available at the Strehlow Museum, Alice Springs, N.T., Australia]

Strong, Rowan 1995

A Report on the Research Potential of the Archives of New Norcia Abbey for The Archives, Research and Publications Committee. New Norcia, WA. fhttp://www.newnorcia.wa.educ.au/archives report-htm 18 August 2003]

Sutton, Peter 1975

Cape Barren English. Linguistic Communications. (= Working Papers of the Linguistic Society of Australia) 13, 61-97.

2003

Native Title in Australia. An Ethnographic Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge Unitversity Press.

Taylor, Brian 1994-95 Unseemly Language and the Law in New South Wales. Arts. The Journal of the Sydney University Arts Association 17: 23-46. 1995

Offensive Language: A Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Perspective. In Language in Evidence. Issues Confronting Aboriginal and Multicultural Australia, Diana Eades (ed.), 219-258. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.

2003

Englishes in Sydney around 1850. Australian Journal of Linguistics 23(2): 163-183.

Teichelmann, Christian G., and Clamor W. Schürmann 1840

Outlines of a Grammar, Vocabulary, and Phraseology of the Aboriginal Language of South Australia, Spoken by the Natives in and for some Distance around Adelaide. Adelaide, published by the authors.

Thieberger, Nick, and William McGregor 1994

Macquarie Aboriginal Words. The Macquarie Library, Macquarie University.

Thomason, Sarah 2001

Language Contact. An Introduction. University Press.

Washington: Georgetown

Tindale, Norman B. 1974a

Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.

316

References

Tindale, Norman B. 1974b

Tribal Boundaries Map. [http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindale/ boundaries intro.htm. 26 May 2004]

Troy, Jakelin 1990

Australian Aboriginal Contact with the English Language in New South Wales: 1788 to 1845 (= Pacific Linguistics, Series B-103) Department of Linguistics, Australian National University, Canberra.

1993a

Language Contact in Early Colonial New South Wales 1788 to 1791. In Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia, Michael Walsh and Colin Yallop (eds), 33-50. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

1993b

The Sydney Language. Australian National University, Canberra.

Tryon, Darrell, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Philip Baker 1996

English-Derived Contact Languages in the Pacific in the 19th century (Excluding Australia). In Atlas of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, Vol. II, Stephen Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell Tryon (eds), 471-496. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Tulloch, Graham 1997

Scots as a Literary Language in Australia. In Englishes Around the World. 2 Vols. Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Australasia. Studies in Honour of Manfred Görlach, Edgar Schneider (ed.), 319-334. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Varcoe, Nelson 1994

Nunga Languages at Kaurna Plains School. In Aboriginal Languages in Education, Deborah Hartman and John Henderson (eds), 33-39. Alice Springs: Institute of Aboriginal Development.

Vardon, Cheryl, and Colin Mackerras 1998

Factors Influencing the Uptake of Modern Standard Chinese, Korean, Modern Greek and German at Primary and Secondary Level in Australian Schools. Department of Education of Western Australia, Perth, and Commonwealth Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Canberra.

Veit, Walter 2002

Labourers in the Vineyard or the Uneducated Missionary. Aspects of the Non-Theological Education of Missionaries. fhttp://www.dcdsca. nt.gov.au/dcdsca/intranet.nsf/Files/CA StrehlowDocs/Sfile/WalterV eit.pdf, 11 September 2003]

References

317

[ VSL] Victorian School of Languages 1995a

Czech Course Outlines. Years 7-10. VCE. Victorian School of Languages, Albert Park, Victoria.

1995b

German Course Outlines. Years 1-6. Years 7-10. VCE. Victorian School of Languages, Albert Park, Victoria.

1995c

VCE LOTE Teachers Manual. Victorian School of Languages, Albert Park, Victoria. [5th edition 1996]

1996

VSL Leaflet.

Viviani, Nancy 1997

Vietnamese in Sydney and Melbourne in 1996: Some Preliminary Results from the Census. People and Place 5(3): 1-5.

Vondra, Josef 1981

German Speaking Settlers in Australia. Melbourne: Cavalier Press.

Walsh, Michael 1993a

Languages and Their Status in Aboriginal Australia. In Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia, Michael Walsh, Colin Yallop (eds), 1-13. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

1993b

Classifying the World in an Aboriginal Language. In Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia, Michael Walsh and Colin Yallop (eds), 107-122. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

Wangkanyi Ngurra Tjurta Aboriginal Corporation Language Centre 1996a

Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Course. Wangkanyi Ngurra Tjurta Aboriginal Corporation Language Centre, Kalgoorlie, WA

1996b

Wangkatha Language Course. Wangkanyi Ngurra Tjurta Aboriginal Corporation Language Centre, Kalgoorlie, WA

1996c

Learn to Read and to Write Wangkatha. Wangkanyi Ngurra Tjurta Aboriginal Corporation Language Centre, Kalgoorlie, WA

1996d

Short Songs in Wangkatha. Wangkanyi Ngurra Tjurta Aboriginal Corporation Language Centre, Kalgoorlie, WA

Ward, Glenyse 1991

Unna You Fullas. Broome: Magabala Books.

Welsch, Alexandra 1999

Sprachkontakt in Australien: der Einfluss des Englischen auf die Sprachen der Aborigines, besonders auf das Warlpiri (NT). Staatsexamensarbeit, Institut für englische Philologie, Freie Universität Berlin.

318

References

Wignell, Peter 1997

The Influence of Aboriginal English. Australian Style. A National Bulletin 5(2): 1 and 3-4.

Winter, Joanne 1992

Discourse as a Resource: Methods of Collecting Language Attitudes. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 15(1): 1-22.

Wu, Siew Mei 1995

Maintenance of the Chinese Language in Australia. ARAL 18(2): 105-136.

Wurm, Stephen Α., Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell T. Tryon (eds) 1996

Atlas of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas. 3 vols. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Wyndham, H.S. 1957

Report of the Committee Appointed to Survey Secondary Education in New South Wales. Department of Education, New South Wales, [so-called Wyndham Report]

Yallop, Colin 1993

The Structure of Australian Aboriginal Languages. In Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia, Michael Walsh and Colin Yallop (eds), 15-32. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

Yunupingu, Mandawuy 1994

National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Summary and Recommendations. Commonwealth of Australia, Australian Government Publishing Service. Zammit, Susan A. 1992

Australian Second Language Learning Program (ASLIP). The Challenge: Choosing to Study a Language Other Than English through High School. Draft. Project No. 2.2/102. Council of Educational Research, Melbourne.

ar. 1995

Motivation, Test Results, Gender Differences Languages: How Do they Connect? Ms

and

Foreign

Name Index Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) 222 Aboriginal Independent Community Schools (AICS) 241,254 Aboriginal or Flinders Island Chronicle, The 46, 118 Advertizer, The 252 Age, The 62,211,272 Ager, Denis 219,221,269-270 Aird, Michael 62-63,131 Al Grassby (Minister of Immigration in Gough Whitlam 's Labor government) 222,224 Allan, Douglas 62 Amery, Rob 65,67-68,77, 83, 114, 251 Anderson, William 42 see also Captain Cook Anglican Church 98, 108 see also Church of England Arabano (one of the Aboriginal kidnappees) 44 Archbishopry of Perth 50 see also Catholic Church, New Norcia Arthur, Jay M. 10,40,143-144, 206 Asaoka, T. 210 Australian Abo Call: the Voice of the Aborigines 118 Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering 86,98 280 Australian Agricultural Company 82 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) 67-68,96,142,149,222, 270 see also Radio National, Radio

Australia; broadcasting, radio, TV (in Subject Index) Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 56-57, 60, 106,117,156, 171,201 Australian Education Council 236 Australian Jewish News 221 Australian, The 56,132, 155, 176, 227,249,275 Australian Language and Literacy Council 57 ses also language policy and planning, acquisition planning (in Subject Index) Australische Christenbote für die Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Australien, Der 158 Bader, Rudolf 2 Baldauf, Richard 22, 65,68,217218,220 Baldwin, J.P. 210 Bank, Sir Joseph 40 Béai, Crhistine 210 Beazley, Kim, Senior (Labor politician) 223 Bennelong (one of the Aboriginal kidnappees) 44, 80-81,114 Bennett, George 207 Bennett, Jane 172 Bentahila, Abdelali 56 Berndt, Ronald and Catherine 1517, 19-20, 22,42 Birdsell 15 Birrell, Bob 205,245 Black Knight (Aboriginal newspaper) 119 Black Liberation (Aboriginal newspaper) 119

320 Name Index Black, Paul 58,65,94, 119 Blake, Barry 15,22,24,30-31 Bligh, William, Captain 207 Board of Studies 236,242, 260 Board, Peter 48,236,242,256,260 Bot, Kees,de 259 Bounty, H.M.S. 207 Bourke, D.F. 21, 50, 158,205 Bowdler 15 see Tindale, Norman Boyle, Robert 40 Broadcasting for Remote Aboriginal Communities (BRACS) 222 see also CAAMA, Imparja, radio, TV, broadcasting (in Subject Index) Brutt-Griffler, Janina 47,115 Bucknall, Gwen 78-79, 185 Buffet, Alice 208 Burke, Robert O'Hara, explorer 87 Burridge, Kate 273 Buzzacott, Kevin 241 Calvert, Albert F. 25,43,98 Camm, J.C.R. 13, 15, 39 Campagna-Wildash, Helen 237 Capell. A. 10 Carr, Bob (Premier of NSW) 10 Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) 222 see also broadcasting, radio, TV (in Subject Index) Challenger, H.M.S. 43 Cheedy, Ned and Jane 251,254 Chiro, Giancarlo 190 Christie, Frances 235,237 Church of England 20,53 see also Church of England Mission Society Yelta mission (in Subject Index) Churinga (Aboriginal newspaper) 119 Clyne, Michael 3, 69,75,155, 157159,161, 163-164,166,169-176,

178-182,184-185, 192, 194-195, 197,199-200,210-215,217-219, 221,225,228,242,255,259, 262,264,269-270,272-273,278279,281,283 Collard, Glenys 253 Collins, David 81 Commonwealth Department of Education 226 Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council 181 Commonwealth Office of Education 243 Cook, James (Captain) 10,40,42 Cook, Leanne 241 Cook, Thomas 40-41 Cook-Gumperz, Jenny 132 Coulmas, Florian 217 Council of Australian Governments (COAG) 231 see also Rudd Report Croft, Kerrie 256-259 Crowley, Terry 94-96 Crozet, Chantal 22 Crystal, David 217 Curriculum Corporation (Victoria) 250 Dampier, William 39-42,47 Dante Alighieri Society 261 Davies, Diana 56, 226 Dawkins, John 224,226-227,229, 231,235,244, 266,270 see also White Paper (in Subject Index) Deadly Ways to Learn Project, The 253 Department of Education (ACT) 108,201,258,261 Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) 184,201-205 Deutsche Bank 155 Deutsche Zeitung, Die 158

Name Index Devlin, Pauline 66,241 Dixon, Robert W.M. 3,11,14-15, 22-24, 26, 31, 35-37, 70-71, 87 Djité, Paulin G. 219 Donaldson, Tamsin 63 Douglas, Allan 62 Douglas, William A. 159 Dovey Report (into English needs of migrant children by Justice Dovey, 1960) 242 Dresden (city in Germany) 68 see also Schürmann, Teichelmann Dundas, Fort (Melville Island) 91 Eades, Diana 110, 122,133,154 Eagleson, Robert D. 129, 131,247, 253,273 East African Cold Storage Company 97 Edith-Cowan-University 110,132, 242 Eggington, William 65,68,217 Eggington, Robert 119 Eisikovits, Edina 235 Elkin, A.P. 30-31,34 European Economic Community 226,284 Ethnic Communities Council (ECC) 222 Evans, Nicholas 69-70 Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages (FATSIL) 64,250-251 Fee, Margaret 132 Fesl, Eve 12,48-51,64 Field, Laurie 245,273 Finocchiaro, Carla 187 Fisher, Jacky 62-63 Fishman, Joshua 56, 163, 189 Flint, E.H. 239-240,253 Foley, Gary 47,61-62,119 Foster, Robert 80, 82-83, 86,112 Foster, Lois 270

321

Fowler, Roger 70 Franklin, Richard (film-maker) 12, 51 Fraser, Malcolm (former Prime Minister) 224-225 Fritz, Clemens 7,224 Frost, Alan 40 Fryer-Smith, Stephanie 271 Galbally Report 244 Gale, Fay 37-38,51 Gale, Mary-Anne 248 Gallagher, Gill 64 Garner, Mark 235 German Club 182 German Welfare Association 182 Germania (German newspaper) 158 Gilbert, Kevin 153 Goldman, Paul (film producer) 142 Goodenough 238-239 Grassby, Al 223, 225, 245 Green, Neville 153,241 Grey, George 23 Groome, Howard 251 Gumperz, John J. 132 Hagenauer, Moravian pastor 47-48 Hale, Kenneth 23 Hampton, Ken 45, 117-118,120122,140-141 Harkins, Jean 21, 123-126, 152,241 Harris, John 13, 19,22, 39,42,47, 64,91,97-98,106,152 Harris, Stephen 240 Hartman, Deborah 64,241,249 Hawthorne, Lesleyanne 161, 205, 245 Heidenreich, Lien 228, 270 Hella Australia (Germany company) 155 Henderson, John 64,241,249 Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine (also Moravians) 47-49,51,53,115116,195,220

322 Name Index Hey (German missionary) 49 Hill 20,53 Historical Records of Australia CHRA) 43-44, 206 Ho, Wah Kam 268 Hobart Town Courier 19 Holleuffer, Henriette von 205 Horton, David 17,50,117 Horvath, Barbara M. 206,274 House of Representatives 60 Howard, John, Prime Minister 155, 208,232,269,272 Hudson, Joyce 10, 102,105 Hunter, John (Governor) 44 Ilsley, Diana 245 Imparja (Aboriginal TV company) 222 Institute of Aboriginal Development (IAD) 251 Jansz, William 39 Jones, Mary Lucille 159 Junga Yimi 13-74 Jupp, James 3, 155-157,183,273, 278 Kaldor, Susan 123, 125-126,129131,247,253 Källgärd, Anders (also Källgard) 207-209 Kaurna Plains School 66 Keating, Paul (former Prime Minister) 232,269 Keesing, Roger 85-86 Kenny, John 39-42 Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre 58 Kimberley Language Resource Centre (KLRC) 58, 145 King, Governor and Lieutenant 81 Kipp, Sandra 3,155,164, 166, 170, 173-175,178-181, 184-185,228, 264,269,271

Klosé (German missionary) 45 Knibbs Turner Report 256 Koch, Harold 86-91,102, 113,125 Koch, Wilhelm (Germany missionary) 52 Koenigsberg, Patricia 199, 253 Koorakookoo (Aboriginal newspaper) 119 Koorier (Aboriginal newspaper) 119 Koscielscky, Marek 42 La Trobe, Charles 220 La Trobe, Joseph 51,280 Lake, Joshua 47,49-52,115 Lauterer, Joseph Dr. 71 Laycock, D.C. 207 League of Nations 274 Leichhardt, Ludwig 83, 87 Leitner, Gerhard 2-4, 7, 34, 37-38, 43,55, 73, 75-76, 87, 95, 100, 106,120-123, 125,138,143, 146, 148, 152, 154, 156-157,197,201, 206,209-210, 218,224,231-232, 234-235, 238, 243,246,256,261262,267,270,273,276-280 Leoni, Franco 158, 194 Lo Bianco, Joseph 56,66, 142,219220,222,224-229,231,233,235, 244, 249,263,267, 269,271-272 Lockwood, Kim 71,87 Lodewyckx, Anna 261 London Missionary Society 53, 108 see also Anglican Church, Threlkeld, mission (in Subject Index) Lowe, Kevin 11,13 Ludwig, Wendy 247 Lumholz (a scientist) 30 see also Elkin (1969) Lutheran Church 117,183 Lynch, Phillip 223 MacArthur, Michael 208

Name Index Mace, Hazel 62 Mackerras, Colin 264 Mackerras, Lindsay 267-268 Macpherson, 'Mac' 256-259 Malcolm, Ian 42, 110-112,117, 122141,144-145, 150,153,213,222225,240-241,247,249,251,253254,273,278 Macquarie Dictionary, The 87, 111, 115, 143,217 Maquarie (Governor) 115 Marchant, Lesley 50 Massola, Aldo 20,51,53 Matter, Nicole 222 Mattingley, Christobel 45, 117-118, 120-122,140-141 Mawer, Giselle 245, 273 McArthur, Tom 98 McCarthy 15 see Berndt and Berndt McConvell, Patrick 56-57, 60,96, 249-250,252 McGregor, R.L. 31, 142,273 McKay, Graham 22,56-57,65-66 McKinley, John (explorer) 71,87 McLean, Kathy 236 McQuilton, J. 13,15,39 Merlino, Frank 261-262,265 Meyer, H.E.A. 248 Ministerial Advisory Council on the Quality of Teaching of New South Wales 274 Mirdinan (Aboriginal narrative in Muecke) 147 Missionsstunden (a pamphlet) 51 see also Moravians, Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine Mitchell, Alexander 278,280 Mitchell, Sir Thomas Livingstone, surveyor and explorer 70 Monaghan, Paul 82-83,86,112 Moore, Bruce 224, 227, 229,270 Moravians see Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine

323

Morris, E.E. 267 Morton, Lord (President of the Royal Society of London) 40 Mudrooroo (pseudonym for John Collins) 110, 123, 129, 143, 150, 154 Muecke, Stephen 133, 146-147 Mühlhäusler, Peter 11,42,54-55, 61,75-79, 81-86,91,93-94, 112, 114,141,206-208,211 Mulder, Jean 273 Murray 9,45, 52, 67 Myers-Scotton, Carol 69, 163 National Asian Languages and Culture Working Group 229231, 267-269, 272 National Multicultural Advisory Council 223-224 Native Institution in Parramatta 114 Netherlands Indies Commission 262 Nicholls, Chrstine 270 Noyce, Phillip (film producer) 39, 142 Observer 83 Onsman; Andrys 95 Ozolins, Uldis 181,219,221-222, 242,280 Page, David 244 Palmer, Harold 261 Partington, Gary 238,250,274 Paton, Frank H. 48-49, 116, 195 Pauwels, Anne 175, 179, 192,213, 228,267,273 Phillip, Arthur (governor) 10, 3940,43-44, 80, 142,206,223 Port Essington (early settlement in the Northern Territory) 91 Preston, Lieutenant 43 Price, Charles A. 167 Pringle, John Douglas 275

324 Name Index Queenslander, The 71 Radia Australia 270 see also Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National 265 see also Australian Broadcasting Corporation Rado, Maria 273 Ramson, William S. 70-71, 87 Rando, Gaetano 158, 194 Reed, A.W. 142 Report of the Committee Appointed to Survey Secondary Education in New South Wales 256 see also acquisition planning, language planning Reuther Collection (at State Museum of Adelaide) 52 Reuther, J.C. (German missionary) 52 Rhydwen. Mari 56, 66,99,252 Richardson, Frances and Sue 245 Ridgeway, Senator 12 Rigney, Lester-Irabinna 56, 65 Robinson, G.A. (Chief Protector of Aborigines on Flinder Is.) 118 Roe, Paddy 133,146-147 see also Muecke, Stephen Ronowicz, Edmund 210 Rose, Michael 46, 118-120,141 Royal Society of London 40 Royal Society of Queensland 71 Rubino, Antonia 194 Rudd, K.M. 230 Rudd Report 230 Rumsey, Alan 13, 16, 19,101, 106 Sandefur, John 64,99-102, 105-107, 152 Saturday School of Modern Languages (SSML) 262 see also Victorian School of Languages, acquisition planning

Saunders, Hilary 153 Schmidt, Annette 56-58, 60-61, 64, 67,252 Schmidt, Wilhelm 23 Schneider, H.G. 47-48,53,115-116, 195,199 Schools and Community Centre 241,254 Schurmann, Clamor (also Schiirmann, Schuermann) 52,6768,247-248 Sebba, Mark 82,95,209 Secombe, Margaret 184,186-187, 189-191,269 Seitz, A. J. (Chief Inspector of Secondary Schools, Victoria) 261 Senate Standing Committee on Education and the Arts 225-226 Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia (SSABSA) 12,17, 19,21,24,27, 32, 33, 3537, 64,73-74, 250 Sharifian, Farzad 133, 137 Sharpe, Margaret 30,64, 74, 100101,104-105, 185 Shaw, Mr. (Church of England) 53 Shnukal, Anna 108-109, 252 Sieber, Otto (German missionary) 52 Siegel, Jeff 22 Single, John 108 Smith, R. 117 Smithies (Weslyan missionary) 48 Smoke Signal (Aboriginal newspaper) 119 Smolicz, Jerzy J. 184-187,189-192, 194,204,269,282 South Australian Government Gazette 45 Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) 181,222,273 see also broadcasting, radio, TV (in Subject Index)

Name Index Spencer 13 see Harris, John Spieseke, F.W. (Moravian missionary) 51 Steffensen, Margaret 107 Stone, Louis (author) 103 Stratford, Elaine 208 Strehlow, Carl 52 Strehlow Research Centre (Alice Springs) 52 Strehlow, Theodor 52, 196 Strong, Rowan 50,118 Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) 252 Sutton, Peter 10,94-95 Sydney Morning Herald, The 131, 149,231-232,266 Sydney, Lord 6, 10,44,60,69,7172,75-76, 80-84, 87-88,90, 118, 129,131,134,141,149,158, 169-170, 174, 187,231-232,255, 268 Traeger, Rev. (also Träger, Moravian missionary) 51-52 Taylor, Brian 6-7,154, 210,224 Teichelmann, Christian 67-68,247 Tench, Alan 40,44,80,114 Thieberger, Nick 31,56-57,60,96, 142,250,252 Thomas, Caroline 271 Thomas, Mandy 70-71, 87 Thomason, Sarah 75, 163,196 Threlkeld, L.E. 53 see also London Missionary Society Tindale, Norman 15-19 Toth, Julie 205 Troy, Jakelin 10,22,31,42-44,64, 80-81, 114,116 Trudgill, Peter 209 Tryon, Darrell T. 42,75,78,82, 8485,91

325

Uhlenbruch, Dr. Walter (former director of Hella Australia) 155 University of Melbourne 261-262 Varcoe, Nelson 64 Vardon, Cheryl 264 Veit, Walter 47,51 Victoria Deutsche Presse, Die 158 Victorian School of Languages (VSL) 230, 260-263 Viviani, Nancy 170 Vondra, Josef 159 Walsh, Michael 29, 33, 64,252 Ward, Russel 143 Wellard, Nangala Chris 73 Wells, John 95 Western Australian Department of Native Welfare 145 Westralian Aborigine, The 118 White, S.A. 83 Whitlam, Gough (former Prime Minister) 222,224 Whitton, Douglas 230 Wickert, Rosie 219 Wiebusch, C.A. (German missionary) 117 Wignell, Peter 142 Winter, Joanne 184 Wu, Siew Mei 172,183,192 Wurm, Stephen A 42,75,78, 82, 84,91 Wycliffe Bible Translators 252 see also Summer Institute of Linguistics Wyndham Report (also Wyndham Scheme) 257-259 Wyndham, H.S. 29,256-259 Yallop, Colin 22,26-29,42 Yipirinya School (Alice Springs) 132, 152-153, 241

Subject Index Aboriginal English (AborE) 6, 10, 29, 55, 61, 77, 82, 84, 91, 94,95, 99, 107-154, 156, 190,233-234, 237, 239-241, 246-248,253-254, 263, 269, 277-278, 279 see also language contact, contact language, ethnic variety, EngE Aboriginal Independent Community Schools (AICS) 242, 255 Aboriginal language (also indigenous, traditional language, but not Kriol, Torres Strait creole, AborE, Cape Barren English) 24, 6, 9-37,44-45,51,53-59,6162, 64-67, 69-73, 75, 77,81,83, 86, 88, 90-92, 95-96, 99-102, 106-108, 110-113, 123, 125, 127, 131-132, 137, 140, 142, 144-155, 161, 179, 197, 205,217, 220, 222-223,232-233, 238-239, 241, 246-254,259, 268, 270,274, 276280 Aboriginal pidgin 83-86, 88,162 see also Kriol, Torres Strait creole, NSW, Northern Territory, South Australian pidgin, etc. Aboriginal Studies 251 accredited subjects (languages taught as school subjects) 250 acquisition planning 218,221,232233, 261, 278 see also communication or language planning and policy Adnyamanthanha 56 see also Aboriginal language Adult Migration Education Program (AMEP) 243-246 see also AMES, English Proficiency; Home Tutor Scheme

Adult Migration Education Service (AMES) 244 see also AMEP, English Proficiency Afghan camel drovers 75-76,162, 273 Alawa 99 see also Aboriginal language Alchuringa (Aboriginal newspaper) 119 Albanian (language) 172 Alyawarra 27,58,73 see also Aboriginal language Afro-American English 140,152 see also American English American English (AmE) 43, 75, 209-209, 281 see also Afro-American English, American Indian (English) American Indian (English) 133 see also American English Americanism 43 Amurdak 69 see also Aboriginal language Anglicization 55 Anglo-Celtic (heritage) 156,279 Anindilyakwa 58, 152 see also Aboriginal language Anmatyirra 58 see also Aboriginal language Annual Report of the Minister of Education (of NSW) 257 Antikirinya 251-252 see also Aboriginal language Arabana 52, 56, 252 see also Aboriginal language Arabic (language) 165, 167-168, 170-171, 184, 229-231, 259-260

Subject Index Arrernte 52,58, 86,125,222 see also Aboriginal language Asian language see Asian LOTE and individual language names Asian LOTE 4, 7,156, 164,166170, 175, 178, 189, 194,219,227233,255, 258-259,261-270 Association of Common Schools 116 attitudes (to language) 14, 163,179180,184-187, 190-192,213,217,

266 attrition 55, 60-61,66,187, 195, 216-217 see also language loss, language contact Australian accent (in mAusE) 138 see also Australianization Australian base 277-278 see also AusE, mAusE, Australianization Australian English (AusE; includes varieties of English) 2 , 6 , 5 4 , 7 7 , 94,96, 110-112, 119-120,126, 132, 137-139, 141,143,150-151, 153-154, 156, 162, 197,201,206207,209-211, 213-215,236-237, 241,274-278, 280 see also mAusE, Broad, General, Australian base, Australianization, AborE, migrant English, etc. Australian Language and Literacy Policy 226-227 see also language policy and planning Australian National Dictionary, The (AND) 19,106 Australian Pidgin (AP) 83-87,9091, 124,139,162 see also Kriol, NSW and NT or Queensland pidgin (English) Australian Rules (film by Paul Goldman) 143

327

Australian Sign Language (ASL) 226 Australianism 282 Australianization of Aboriginal languages) 55, 141,275 (of migrant languages) 192, 195, 201,235-236 (of the language habitat) 275-276 avoidance style (also language) (in traditional Aboriginal languages) 35-37, 153 see also everyday style, joking style, kinship style Awaba 53 see also Aboriginal language Bahasa see Bahasa Malay, Bahasa Indonesia Bahasa Malay 1, 70,75,148,167168,190,232 see also Asian or migrant language or LOTE Bamyili 99 see also Kriol, Roper River Creole, Aboriginal pidgin, etcBanyjima 27 see also Aboriginal language Bararri]u 20 see also Aboriginal language Barunga (formerly called Bamyili, now Ngukurr ; place of the creolization of Kriol) 99,107 Bengali (language) 189 see also Asian orAsian migrant language, migrant language Bethesda (Lutheran mission) 52 see also mission Bichelamar (pidgin on New Hebrides) 93 see also Melanesian pidgin, South Sea Jargon (english), pidgin, etc. bi-dialectal teaching (method) 239241,253-254

328 Subject Index see also scaffolding and two-way or both way teaching, acquisition and language planning bilingualism 7,61,65,180-181, 186,188,217,220,228,233, 241-242,249 see also multilingualism bilingually mixed language 75,78, 95,206-208 see also contact language, pidgin, creole Bislama (Melanesian pidgin) 86 see also Bichelamar, Melanesian pidgin, etc. Board of Common Schools 48 borrowing 37,79, 196,199 see also modification, transfer, transference language contact both way (approach to teaching in Aboriginal contexts) 249 see also two-way(s), bi-dialectal and scaffolding Bratauoluq 52 see also Aboriginal language British English (BrE) 126,210,278 Broad (accent in mAusE) 211, 277 see also AusE, mAusE, General, Australian base broadcasting 6,222,251-252,269 see also radio, TV; SBS, ABC, Radio National, Radio Australia, CAAMS, BRACS, Imparja (in Name Index) broken English (of early Aboriginal Australians) 80,115,207 see also Aboriginal pidgin Bundjalung 30,64,71-72,74 see also Aboriginal language Burarra 70 see also Aboriginal language Cantonese 155, 169-170,180, 185, 187,192,263

see also Mandarin, Asian LOTE and languages, Chinese languages Cape Barren English (see section 2.4.3.3) 6,94-96,141,246,268, 275-276 see also Norfolk, language contact, EngE Catholic mission 50,118 see also New Norcia, missions Chinese (language) 1, 157,161, 163,165-168, 170,180,183, 185, 187-188,192,230-231,259,262, 264,279 see also Mandarin, Cantonese, Asian LOTE, migrant LOTE Chinese Pidgin English 77,84,9193, 162,206,210,277 see also migrant language, pidgin Church of England Mission Society 20, 53 see also Church of England (in Name Index), Yelta Mission church schools (for migrant communities in 19th century) 221 clan (social unit of traditional Aboriginal Australia) 12, 14,19 see also local descent group, tribe, moiety Cobourg Peninsula (location of early Aboriginal pidgin English) 91 code-switching (of Aboriginal Australians) 22, 146-147, 152 (of migrant Australians) 194195,210,215-216 codification 8, 143-144,237,277 see also standardization, localization, Australianization Cold War 262 communicative norm see norm/rule of communication communication planning 218-219, 232 see also acquisition planning,

Subject Index language planning, language policy Community Languages Other Than English (CLOTE) see Language Other Than English Complete Parallel Bible, The 14 Condah mission (Lutheran) 49 see also Lutheran Church, mission contact language 2-4, 6,10,24,29, 31,49-51,54-55,61,69,74-78, 80-82, 84,94,96,110-112,132, 138,144,162, 197,206,248, 252,268-269,274-276,277-280 contact language base (i.e. early outcome of language contact with Aboriginal Australians) 77,81, 112-114,138, 144,239 see also pidgin, creole, Kriol, AborE, Torres Strait creole, Cape Barren English convict (also convictism) 43, 82,94, 220 Coranderrk mission (and government reserve) 49, 52 see also mission core value 185-187,190 see also ethno-cultural value, value system, language maintenance Cornish (language) 217 see also European and migrant language or LOTE corpus planning 65,219,269,270 see also language planning, status planning creation stories (Aboriginal) 13 creole 2,54-55,61,75,77, 82, 8687, 94, 96, 99-100,108, 113,125, 148,150-151, 162,206-209, 252, 268,274,277 see also pidgin, contact language, Kriol, Torres Strait creole, etc.

329

creolization (also decreolization) 89,99-100,113,128,209,221 see also language contact, pidgin, creole, (de-) pidginization Croatian (language) (includes SerboCroatian) 170, 186,189,200,

262 see also Serbo-Croatian; European or migrant language or LOTE Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF) 236,256,260 Czech (language) 262 see also migrant LOTE and language, European language Danish (language) 158 see also migrant LOTE and language, European language Darwin Pidgin English 97 see also contact language, pidgin, creole, Northern Territory pidgin, Kriol Dätiwuy 20 see also Aboriginal language decreolization see creolization demography (also demographic base, etc.) - (generally) 4 - (of Aboriginal Australians) 39, 55,57, 1,68 - (of migrant Australians) 156, 161-162, 164, 166,170-171, 173, 187,213, - (in relation to language policy) 217, 224,246,266,273,276 see also natural increase Dhalwanqu 20 see also Aboriginal language Dharuk 10,22,31,81,87 see also Aboriginal language Dhuwala 20 see also Aboriginal language

330 Subject Index Dhuwal-Dhuwala dialects (Yolngu) 58 see also Aboriginal language Dhuwaya 77-78 see also Aboriginal language dialect (of English English) 3-4,95-96, 106,138,209,275 (of Scottish English) 95 (of Australian English) 87,94, 96,138,143-144,151,209-210, 212,274,277 (of Aboriginal English) 111-112,128-129, 138 (of Aboriginal languages) 10-11,15-17, 19-20,24, 37,45, 52,57-58, 67, 74,77-78, 81,107, 240 (of migrant languages) 159,183, 187-188,190,192-194 see also inidividual language names) dialectalism (in mAusE) 277 see also mAusE Dieri 52 see also Aboriginal language diffusion (of Aboriginal Australians) 15-16 (of words and languages) 22, 37,76, 138,186 discriminatory (discrimination, etc., regarding language use) 271 see also mAusE, language and corpus planning Djadala 52 see also Aboriginal language Djaqu 20 see also Aboriginal language Djapu 20-21 see also Aboriginal language Djarrwark 20 see also Aboriginal language

Djinba 20 see also Aboriginal language Doin wildcat (novel by Mudrooroo) 143 see also Mudrooro (in Subject Index) domains 65, 68, 142,161,163, 172, 179,181-182, 184,190,193-194, 197-198,235, 249,252,269,271, 275 Dreamtime 13 see also creation stories Dutch (language) 70, 75,165, 170171,175, 192-194, 198,200,258, 261-262 see also Limburg, European or European migrant languages or LOTE Dutch Indies 261-262 see also Victorian School of Languages Dyirbal 15,26,36,67 see also Aboriginal language Education Act 221,256 see also (migrant) language maintenance, shift, education law, church school education law 159, 179,280 see also Education Act, church school endo-normative (in migrant language teaching) 192,269 see also exo-normative, codification English as a Foreign Language (EEL) 234 English as a National Language (ENL) 234 English as a Second Language (ESL) 234-235,236,240,242, 253-254 English English (EngE) 95-96, 106, 138,209

Subject Index English Proficiency (EP) (also scales, EP1-4) (migrants' proficiency in English) 202-205 see also AMEP, AMES Englishes (in Australia) 2, 6 see also AusE, mAusE, AborE, migrant English, indigenous English, lingua franca (English) epi-centre (of English) 3,274 see also mAusE ergative system, language 26, 67,90 see also Aboriginal language ethnic varieties 6,54-55,77,156, 162,206,213, 234-235,237,269, 274 see also migrant English, AborE, Kriol ethno-cultural value 191 see also core value, language maintenance and loss, etc. ethnolect 152,156,212-213,237, 274 European languages 24,28, 30, 3233,42, 165,170,230,255,263, 269 everyday style (in traditional Aboriginal languages) 36 see also avoidance style, joking style, kinship style exo-normative (in migrant language teaching) 192 see also endo-normative, codification eye contact (Aboriginal communicative pattern) 132 Federation (of Australian colonies in 1901) 39, 179,221,277-278, 280,282 Finke River Mission 52 see also Hermansburg, Lutheran mission, mission; Strehlow, Carl and Tehodor (in Name Index9,

331

Flinders Island Tasmanian 78 see also Aboriginal pidgin, Cape Barren English, contact language, foreigner English 211 see also migrant English Framlingham Mission 49-50 see also mission French (language) 25, 70, 159,165, 170-171, 176, 199,208,217,220, 233,252,256-257,259-260, 262, 278 Gaelic (both Irish and Scottish Gaelic) 49, 157-158,279 Gälpu 20-21 see also Aboriginal language Ganai 52 see also Aboriginal language Garig 69 Ganai General (Australian accent) 277 see also AusE, mAusE, Broad, Australian base genre (in AborE and Aboriginal languages) 111,122,132-134, 137,213 see also story-telling, narrative German (language) 4 , 7 , 2 5 , 155, 157-159, 161-162, 165,168, 170175, 180-181, 183, 192-193, 196200,212-213, 221,259,261-262, 278-279 see also Hochdeutsch, Swabian, migrant language, LOTE, European LOTE Gold Rushes 38, 157-158 Golpa 20 see also Aboriginal language Golumala 20 see also Aboriginal language Goombajeri 63 see also Aboriginal language Gorryindi 20 see also Aboriginal language

332 Subject Index Greek (language) 1,25,166,169, 171, 174,175,178,180,182, 185,187,191,201,214,260, 261,263,275 see also migrant and European LOTE or language Guapuyqu 20 see also Aboriginal language Gumatji 20-21 see also Aboriginal language Gungganyji 14-15 see also Aboriginal language Gupapuyngu 24 see also Aboriginal language Gupapuyungu 58 see also Aboriginal language Gurrutu 33 see also Aboriginal language Guugu YimidhiiT 26-28, 36,58 see also Aboriginal language habitat transformation see language habitat Hebrew 262 see also Euopean or Euopean migrant language or LOTE Hermansburg (also Herrmansburg) (Lutheran) mission 52, 125 see also Finke River Mission, Lutheran Church, mission; Strehlow, Carl and Theodor (in Name Index) High Rising Tone (HRT) 123 see also habitat transformation Hindi (language) 166-167,170,190, 231 see also migrant and Asian LOTE or language historicity (of AborE) 122,142 see also codification, standardization Hochdeutsch (High German) 192193 see also German, Swabian

Home Tutor Scheme 244 see also AMEP Honoratiorenschwäbisch 193 see also German, Hochdeutsch Hungarian (language) 166, 175,262 see also migrant and European LOTE or language immigration (also migration) (of Aboriginal Australians) (also diffusion) 15-16, 38 (of non-Aboriginal Australians) 162-163,170, 172-175, 178, 180181,195,201,203-204,214-215, 220,222-223,244-246, 276, 278 see also out-migration Immigration (Restriction) Act 243 immigration program (for free settlement) 38 Imperial Settlement Period (of Australia) 278 Indigenous Language Policies 251 see also language policy, language planning indigenous language see Aboriginal language Indo-Aryan languages 29 informality (of traditional Aboriginal languages) 35 (ofmAusE) 196 information seeking (Aboriginal communicative pattern) 132 initiation style 35-36 see also avoidance style, everyday, joking and kinship style internet (web) 17,181,251-252 see also broadcasting, radio, TV Iona see Dharuk Irish English (IrE) 140 Italian (language) 1,4, 7,158,164165,168,170-171,173-175, 179, 181,183-184, 186-188,190-192, 194,198-200, 213,220,252,256,

Subject Index 258-262,274 see also Veneto Iwaidja 69 see also Aboriginal language Japanese (language) 1, 166-167, 230-231,259,261-262 see also Asian or Asian migrant language or LOTE joking style (also talk, language) (in traditional Aboriginal languages) 35, 153 see also avoidance and everyday, joking or kinship style Jota Jota 52 see also Aboriginal language Jotajotic 52 see also Aboriginal language Kala(w) Lagaw Ya (Torres Strait language) 27,58, 108,110 Kalkatunga 32 see also Aboriginal language Kamilaroi 21,53 see also Aboriginal language Kanaka English (contact language in Queensland) 84 see also migrant English, Melanesian pidgin, pidgin Kartujarra 78 see also Aboriginal language Kaurna 35, 52, 64-68,72-73, 83, 87, 152,247,251-252 see also Aboriginal language kinship style (in traditional Aboriginal languages) 36 see also avoidance, everyday and joking style Kirrea 52 see also Aboriginal language koiné (Aboriginal contact language) 54, 61, 77-78 see also contact language, pidgin, creole

333

Koonibba (Lutheran mission) 117, 121 see also Lutheran Church, Wiebusch, C.A. (in Name Index) Koori (also Koorie, Kooriness) 9, 48, 61-62, 149,250 Korean (language) 155,166-167, 170,173,230-231 see also Asian and Asian migrant language or LOTE Kriol 6,10,58,65,75,91-92,9697,99-107,110,112, 122,128, 132,137,145-148, 150-152,154, 156,234,239,246,248,252-254, 268,276 see also Northern Territory and Darwin pidgin, pidgin, creole Kropinyeriy 120 see also Aboriginal language Kukatha 56 see also Aboriginal language Kulinic 52 see also Aboriginal language Kunwinjku 58 see also Aboriginal language Kurnic 52 see also Aboriginal language Labor Party (Australian) 222 laisser-faire (name for period on language policy) 219-222 see also language policy, language planning Lake Boga (Moravian) mission 47, 115 see also Moravian, Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, mission Lake Tyers (Anglian) mission 49-52 see also Anglican Church, Church of England (in Name Index) language areal (patterns of Aboriginal languages) 10,69,281 language change 57, 143,217

334 Subject Index language choice (in Aboriginal communities) 21, 152,184 language ecology 54, 173 language habitat (of Aboriginal Australians; see Chapter Two) 2-3,7,9-10,55, 108,110,144-145, 154-155, 268, 271,274-278 (of migrant Australians; see Chapter Three) 2-3, 7, 55, 155156,216,218-219,268,274-277, 279-280 (in general) 2-3,7,9-10,280, 282 language loss (of Aboriginal languages) 1, 10, 51, 54-57,60-62, 65, 68, 70, 186, 250 (of migrant languages) 161 -162, 211,215-216,274 language maintenance (of Aboriginal languages) 4, 50,55,58, 60,6566 (of migrant languages) 4,156, 158,162-164, 166,176, 179, 182, 184,186-187, 192,194,213,220 Language Other Than English (migrant LOTE(s)) 4, 156-157, 159-164,167-171, 173-176,179-186, 188-189, 191192,194-195, 197,200,204-205, 212-213,215-217, 220,224, 228229,231-233,238,255,259-263, 268-269,270-271,273-274,276 see also individual language names see also Aboriginal language, individual language name language planning 6-7, 217, 246248,270 see also language policy, acquisition or communication, status and corpus planning

language policy 55, 57, 60, 108, 142,145,217-219,225-227, 235, 235,267-268, 270-272,278 see also language planning language politics see language planning, language policy language revival 12,52,55-56,66, 68,172,175,217,247,250-251 language rights (regarding migrant LOTEs) 222 language shift (from Aboriginal languages) 1516, 39,51,53-54,61,63,66, 84, 94,99,108,112-113,239,241, 268,274,279-280 (from migrant languages) 4, 156, 161-164,169, 171-178, 180,182, 185,187-189, 192-195, 197-198, 204,213,215-216,219-222,252, 274,279-280 language transmission (of Aboriginal languages) 50,56, 61, 66-67,74, 248,279 languages of wider communication (Aboriginal or migrant languages) 75,229 see also language planning) Latin 25, 234,257,260-261 see also acqusition planning Latvian (language) 176,187,191, 263 Limburg 187, 192-194 lingo (name used for mAusE) 2 see also mAusE lingua franca (amongst indigenous Australians) 3,61,77-79, 82, 108, 152,162, 213 (amongst migrant Australians) 55,192,206,214-215, 274,213 see also contact language, koiné, migrant English

Subject Index linguistic repertoire (general) 152,154,208 (amongst indigenous Australians) 17,66,99,106-107,144, 151 (amongst migrant Australians) 214-216 Lithuanian (language) 175,262 see also European or migrant language or LOTE, Liyagalawumirr 20 see also Aboriginal language loan translations 71-72, 196- 198 see also modification loanwords 43, 69, 70-73, 77,79, 146, 196-200 see also modification local descent group (social unit of traditional Aborigines) 19 see also clan, moiety, tribe Local Government Areas (LGA) 164,169 localization (of Aboriginal languages and pidgins) 16,86 see also diffusion, re-lexification Loyalty Island jargon 84 see also pidgin, Melanesian pidgin Luritja 52,58,125,222 see also Aboriginal language Lygon Street (Italian area in Melbourne) 158,182 Mabo Judgement (relating to Native Title) 13 Macassan Pidgin 73-75,77 see also contact language, pidgin MacRobertson Girls'School 261, 263 see also Victorian School of Languages Madarrpa 20 see also Aboriginal language Main English Speaking (Countries) (MES) 202

335

mainstream Australian English (mAusE) 2,4, 6, 37, 39,42, 55, 70,73,79, 84, 87,95, 100-107, 109-113,121-129, 131,138, 141142, 144-151, 155, 157,191,196, 198,200,202, 209-210,212-213, 215-216,218-219, 235-240, 242243,247-250,253,269,272,275278,280-282 see also AusE, Broad, General, Australian base, Australianization Malayalam 190 see also Asian or migrant LOTE or language Maltese 166, 170-175 see also European or European migrant language or LOTE Mamyjiljarra 78 see also Aboriginal language Mandarin (language) 166-167,170, 180, 187-189, 192,230-231, 258, 263,269,273 see also Cantonese, Chinese languages, Taiwanese, Asian or migrant LOTE or language Mandata 20 see also Aboriginal language Maqgalili 20 see also Aboriginal language Mangarayi 99 see also Aboriginal language Maori (language) 42 Mapoon (Moravian mission in Cape York) 116 see also Moravian missions, mission, Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine (in Name Index) Mara 99 see also Aboriginal language maritime pidgin 82, 85,209,277 see also Pacific Nautical pidgin, creole, Kriol, Aboriginal pidgin Marowra 21, 53 see also Aboriginal language

336 Subject Index Marrakulu 20 see also Aboriginal language Marranqu 20 see also Aboriginal language Masters (Indigenous soap opera on ABC TV) 142,149 Maung (also Mawng, Aboriginal language) 58, 69 see also Aboriginal language Melanesian Pidgin (English) 85-87 see also pidgin, creole, Kriol, Aboriginal pidgin Meriam Mir (Torres Strait language) 107, 109 see also Aboriginal language migrant English (also migrant varieties of English) 210-211,215, 234 see also contact language, foreigner talk, etc migrant language see migrant LOTE migration see immigration, out-migration Mildjiqi 20 see also Aboriginal language mixed language see bilingually mixed language, pidgin, creole, contact language modification 54,67,68-70,74, 7677, 162,194-195, 197,199,274, 276 see also borrowing, transfer, transference, language habitat moiety (Aboriginal social unit) 19 see also clan, tribe, local descent group Moravian (mission, missionaries, etc.) 47-49,51,53,115-116,195,

220 see also Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, mission multiculturalism 6, 175,202,219, 222-225, 238, 244,262,270,280281

multilingualism 4,10,14,21,53-55, 76,152,156,228 270 see also bilingualism Murrinh-Patha 29,33,58 see also Aboriginal language Murrurjun 20 see also Aboriginal language Muruwari 64 see also Aboriginal language narrative (in AborE and Aboriginal languages) 132,135, 137, 147 see also genre, story-telling Narrunga 21,64,86,252 see also Aboriginal language National Indigenous Languages Policy 251 see also language policy and planning National Policy on Languages 191, 224,227,249 see also language policy and planning, Lo Bianco (in Name Index) language planning native title 10,99 Naturalization Act 243 see also immigration, language maintenance, etc. Nautical English 95 see also martime pidgin, pidgin, etc. Netherlands Indies Commission of Australia and New Zealand 262 see also language planning, Victorian School of Languages New Italies 158, 194 see also Italian (language) New Norcia (WA) 50, 118 see also Catholic mission, mission New South Wales Pidgin (also referred to as New South Wales Pidgin English, NSWPE) 80-83, 87,89,91, 113, 139

Subject Index see also Aboriginal pidgin, contact language Ngalakan 99 see also Aboriginal language Ngandi 99 see also Aboriginal language Ngarinjin 27 see also Aboriginal language Ngarkat 52 see also Aboriginal language Ngarla 78 see also Aboriginal language Ngarrindjeri 21, 65, 86 Ngung(g)ubuyu 99 see also Aboriginal language Ngyinampaa 64 see also Aboriginal language Njarigu 52 see also Aboriginal language Non-English-Speaking-Background (NES) 202,212,215,222,263, 269,276 see also immigration, language policy, acquisition planning non-biased language 281 see also habitat transformation non-Pama-Nyungan (an Aboriginal language type) 23,27,29 see also Pama-Nyungan Norfolk (also Norfolk pidgin, etc.; see section 3.2.4.2) 6, 141,206210,275-226, 276-277 see also contact language, pidgin, creole, dialect, English English (EngE) norm of communication - (in Aboriginal languages) 55, 131,214,219, 282 - (in migrant languages) 213, 218,281 see also communicative norm, rule of communication

337

Northern Territory Bilingual Education Program 106, 108, 223 see also acquisition and language planning Northern Territory Pidgin (English, NTPE) 91-92,99-100 see also Darwin pidgin, Kriol, Barangu, Roper River (creole), contact language Nyangumarta (also Nyangumarti) 27, 33, 58,73-74, 78-79 see also Aboriginal language Nyungar (also Nyoongar) 63,92, 118 see also Aboriginal language , contact language, etc. Nyungar Pidgin 92 see also Nyungar, Aboriginal pidgin or language onomasiology (also onomasiological) 70, 142-143, 197 orthography (in Kriol) 57, 107 see also Kriol, language planning out-migration (between Australian States and Territories) 168 see also (im)migration Paakantji 64 see also Aboriginal language Pacific Nautical Pidgin 85 see also Pacific Pidgin, maritime pidgin, contact language, etc. Pacific pidgin 85-86, 108 see also Melanesian pidgin, Pacific Nautical Pidgin, etc. Pama-Nyungan (Aboriginal language type) 23,27, 108 see also see also non-PamaNyungan, Aboriginal language Papuan Institute (on Meriam Mer, Torres Strait islands) 108

338 Subject Index Papuan languages (language type on Papua New Guinea) 107,208 Papuan Pidgin English 93 see also pidgin, contact language Papunya Luritja 78 see also Aboriginal language Parnkalla 248 see also Aboriginal language Pastoral Frontier Pidgin (English) 91-92,97 see also Kriol, Aboriginal pidgin, etc. pidgin 2, 6, 15, 39,45,53-55,61, 65,67, 69-71,75-77,79-97,99100,102, 105, 108, 112-118, 120, 122, 124-125,128,131-132, 141144,148,150, 162,206,208-211, 239,246, 252, 268,274,277,279 see also creole, Aboriginal pidgin, NSW Pidgin, Krio, etc. Pidgin Kaurna 79 see also Kaurna, Aboriginal language , contact language, etc. pidginization (also de-pidginization) 139 see also language contact, pidgin, creole, (de-) creolization Pitcairnese (creole, also Pitkern) 6, 207,209 see also Norfolk, Cape Barren English, EngE, migrant language Pitjantjatjara 27, 32,56,58,60, 222,251-252 see also Aboriginal language placenames (Aboriginal placenames) (also place-names, place names) 142 plain English 281 see also standardization, habitat transformation pluralism (linguistic / cultural) 3, 221,224,267,273

pluricentric (language) 263 see also Mandarin, Spanish, migrant languages and LOTE Polish (language) 166,171,173, 174,187,191, 192,263 Port Jackson dialect 81 see also NSW pidgin, Aboriginal pidgin, etc. proto-Australian 22-23 see also Aboriginal language, (non-) Pama-Nyungan, etc. Queensland Plantation Pidgin 93 see also Aboriginal pidgin, NSW and NT pidgin, Kriol, etc. Rabbit-Proof Fence (film by Phillip Noyce) 39 radio 142,181,222,244 see also broadcasting TV; ABC, Radio Australia, Radio National, SBS, CAAMA, BRACS, Imparja (in Name Index) Rainmaker Story 107,127,147-148 Ramahuyck (Moravian) mission 4849,116 Ramindjeri 248 see also Aboriginal language Rastafari (Caribbean creole style) 37 re-lexification 83 see also localization, pidgin, creole Rembarrnga 99 see also Aboriginal language revitalization 11-12,250 see also (Aboriginal) language maintenane, language revival, language planning Rirratjiqu 20-21 see also Aboriginal language Ritharrngu 99 see also Aboriginal language

Subject Index rules of communication 70 see also norm of communication, communicative norms Russian (language) 25, 167,201, 213,231,259,263 Sanskrit 25 scaffolding (approach to teaching Aboriginal languages) 241,254, 269 see also bi-dialectal and two-way or both way teaching, acquisition and language planning Scottish English (ScotE) 95 self-control (in language development) 38, 142 semantic shift 71-72, 197 Serbo-Croatian (language) 165,200, see also Croatian, migrant or European language Sinhalese (language) 189 see also Asian or Asian migrant language Solomon Island Pijin 86 see also Melanesian pidgin, pidgin South African War 221,280 South Australian Pidgin English (SAPE) 83 see also Aboriginal pidgin, NSW and NT pidgin, etc. South Pacific Jargon (also pidgin) 75,84-86,91, 108 see also Melanesian pidgin, pidgin, etc South Sea Jargon see South Pacific Jargon Spanish (language) 118, 165,170, 173,180-181, 184-185,192,258259,269 see also European or European migrant language or LOTE

339

standardization 8, 142-143,218, 277 see also codification Stolen Generation 39,64 story-telling (in AboE and Aboriginal languages) 132,147 see also narrative, genre stratification (social) 3,75,100, 278-179 substrate 86,90, 109-110 see also pidginization, pidgin Swabian (German dialect) 192-193 see also Hochdeutsch, High German, German Swan River mission 118 see also Church of England, mission swearing (by Aboriginal and migrant communities) 154,210,281 Swedish (language) 158 taboo (in Aboriginal languages) 3637,63 Tagalog 168-169, 170 see also Asian languages or LOTEs, migrant languages Tahitian language 206 see also Norfolk, Pitkern Taiwanese 180 see also Chinese language, Asian or migrant language or LOTE Tamil 166,189,204 see also Asian languages or LOTEs, migrant languages Taungurong 52 see also Aboriginal language Telephone Interpreter Service (TIS) 222 see also language planning or policy television (TV) 134, 142,144, 149, 174, 181,193,222, 270 see also broadcasting, radio; ABC, Radio National, Radio

340 Subject Index Australia, CAAMA, BRACS, SBS (in Name Index) tertiary hybridization (of an Aboriginal pidgin) 82, 95 see also pidginization, Aboriginal pidgins Tetum (Indonesian language) 56 see also Asian language and LOTE, migrant language Thai (language) 230 see also Asian language and LOTE, migrant language Tiwi (Torres Strait language) 58, 65-66,69 see also Aboriginal language Tjiliwiri 37 see also Aboriginal language TokPisin 8 6 , 9 3 , 2 5 2 see also Melanesian pidgin, contact language, etc. Torres Strait creole 10,75, 86, 96, 109-110,122, 128,246,252,268 see also Torres Straits pidgin English, creole, pidgin Torres Straits Pidgin (English) 93 see also Torres Strait creole, pidgin, creole traditional languages see Aboriginal languages transfer 34,90, 109,125,196,198, 199,200,279 see also modification, borrowing, transfer, transference transference 197,211 see also modification, borrowing, transfer, transference transitive verb marker 86-87 see also Aboriginal pidgin, Kriol, Melanesian pidgin, etc. tribe (social unit of traditional Aboriginal Australia) 10, 12-16, 18-21,24,45,49,53,60, 62,98, 111, 117,221,280

see also local descent group, clan, moiety Turkish (language) 170,174,262 two-way (approach to teaching in Aboriginal contexts) 228,239241.251 see also two-way(s), bi-dialectal and scaffolding Ukrainian (language) 175,186,190 useful knowledge (educational objective) 46 value system 162, 184,188 see also core value, ethno-cultural value, language maintenance and loss, etc. varieties of English (from outside Australia) 132 (for varieties inside Australia see Australian English) variety formation 75,77, 111, 122, 138,197,209,275 Veneto (Italian dialect) 188,190 see also Italian Victorian Certificate of Education VCE) 236 Vietnamese (language) 165,167168,170,183, 192,230,259,263 see also Asian languages and Asian LOTE, migrant LOTE Walamaqu 20 see also Aboriginal Wangkamana 52 see also Aboriginal Wangkangurru 52 see also Aboriginal Wangkatha 251 see also Aboriginal Wangkumara 64 see also Aboriginal Wangurri 20 see also Aboriginal

language language language language language language

Subject Index Warlpiri 27,29,58,60, 78,222, 273 see also Aboriginal language Warndarang 99 see also Aboriginal language Warnuman 78 see also Aboriginal language Warramiri 20 see also Aboriginal language Watjarri 27 see also Aboriginal language Weipa school 48,116 see also Moravian mission, mission Welsh (language) 157,186 see also see also European languages and European LOTE WembaWemba 27,35 see also Aboriginal language Wergaia 52 see also Aboriginal language West Australian Aboriginal children's English (WAACE) 130 see also Aboriginal English Western Desert language 78 see also Aboriginal language White Australia policy 179,221, 230,243,273,280 White Paper 265 see also language policy, Dawkins, John (in Name Index) Wik-Mungkan 24,58 see also Aboriginal language Wiradjuri 64,82 see also Aboriginal language Woiwuru 52 see also Aboriginal language

341

World War I (and II) 99,159, 161, 181,221,238, 255,276,280,282 Worldwide Nautical Pidgin English 85 see also maritime and Melanesian pidgin, Aboriginal pidgin, etc. Wubulkarra 20 see also Aboriginal language Wudjubalg 52 see also Aboriginal language Wulagi 20 see also Aboriginal language Wurundjeri 52 see also Aboriginal language Yagara 87 see also Aboriginal language Yankunytjatjara 56 see also Aboriginal language Yanyuwa 35 see also Aboriginal language Yelta (Church of England) Mission 20-21,53 see also Church of England Yiddish 171 see also European or migrant language Yidiny 14-15 see also Aboriginal language Yindjibarndi 35,58,72,254 see also Aboriginal language Yolngu (also Yolqu, Yolqgu) 20, 24,78,251 see also Aboriginal language Yuin-Kuric (Yuin) 52 see also Aboriginal language Yunupingu 249,253 see also Aboriginal language