Keeping a tongue alive (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Keeping a tongue alive

Presenter: Ngaire Ballard
Thursday, 11 November  2004
http://www.abc.net.au/goldfields/stories/s1240636.htm

[photo inset - Keeping a language alive.  Nadgu speakers (L to R):
Johnny Graham, William McKenzie and Sonny Graham]

It is estimated that half of all languages currently spoken will
disappear by the end of this century but there is an effort underway to
prevent that happening in our region.

The Wangkanyi Ngurra Tjurta language centre in Kalgoorlie-Boulder is
taking steps to record local indigenous languages. As consultant Mary
Chanda explains, "We were to record languages that had less than 20
speakers. That means the language is not being passed on to the younger
generation and when the older ones that can speak it are not there
anymore, there will be no more language being spoken in that dialect."

Currently the languages being recorded are the four dialects of the
Nadgu, "And one of them is the Norseman people," Mary points out.

The way it is being done is through transcribing audio archives from the
1970s and through "A collective effort of all these speakers of the
language, they could sit down and work out the meaning of the tapes,"
according to Mary.

Helping with the process is University of Melbourne research fellow Dr.
Nick Thieberger. He has "Developed some tools for working with
digitised sound. You can get archival recordings, tapes made along time
ago, and, if you digitise and work with them, you can present them to
people in a way that's much easier than with analogue cassettes."

If they lose their language they've lost themselves


But some may ask why we need to keep a language alive. Mary answers
that, "All languages have different ways of looking at the world, (the)
environment around them, and once you let a language die you actually
cut off different views of explaining things around us.

"(Also) people feel that language is their identity so if they lose
their language they've lost themselves. There's a connection (between)
people and the language so they have a feeling that they want to
continue with their language and we just support them to do that."

The importance of doing just that is not lost on the speakers
themselves. "For me it's (an) opportunity of a lifetime because a lot
of our old people have passed on and we want to try and record this
process so we can pass it on to our young people," Pastor Sonny Graham
says, "(It's) very important."

Mary, Nick and Sonny, as well as William McKenzie and Johnny Graham, all
spoke to Ngaire Ballard for the ABC Goldfields-Esperance breakfast
program.

...
Keeping Nadgu alive: Mary Chanda, Nick Teeberger, William McKenzie,
Johnny Graham and Sonny Graham

( Audio in RealMedia format ) |  Requires RealPlayer