Pacific Linguistics: recent publications

Tue Aug 31 08:47:17 UTC 2004

PACIFIC LINGUISTICS is happy to announce the publication of:

The Non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia:   Comparative 
studies of the continent’s most linguistically complex region
Nicholas Evans (editor)
(A joint publication of the ANU Centre for Research on Language Change 
and Pacific Linguistics)

Nyangumarta:  A language of the Pilbara region of Western Australia
Janet Catherine Sharp

The Duugidjawu language of southeast Queensland:  Grammar, texts and 
vocabulary
Suzanne Kite and Stephen Wurm

The Bunganditj (Buwandik) language of the Mount Gambier Region
  Barry Blake

I’saka:  A sketch grammar of a language of north-central New Guinea
Mark Donohue and Lila San Roque

Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal: Manange and Sherpa
Carol Genetti (editor)

These works are described below.

Prices are in Australian dollars (one Australian dollar is currently
equivalent to about US$ 0.69).
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The Non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia:   Comparative 
studies of the continent’s most linguistically complex region
Nicholas Evans (editor)
(A joint publication of the ANU Centre for Research on Language Change 
and Pacific Linguistics)

  PL 552
  The present volume brings together detailed comparative work on a 
number of non-Pama-Nyungan languages of Northern Australia, and is the 
first book-length study to span this linguistically complex region, 
containing as it does perhaps 90% of Australiaís linguo-genetic 
diversity in an eighth of its land area. Many papers originated at a 
workshop held at the 1989 Australian Linguistics Society conference at 
Monash University, but several have been written specially for this 
volume. It has been said that no language changes faster than a 
proto-language, and in the intervening period a great deal of new 
descriptive data on non-Pama-Nyungan languages has accumulated, as well 
as careful sifting of complex data, which has led many of the authors 
to completely revise or develop their arguments since the original 
workshop. Hence, the delay in the appearance of the volume reflects 
some major shifts in position on the part of some authors.
        The introduction the main issues in comparative 
non-Pama-Nyungan studies, and forms a state-of-the-art survey of the 
classification of non-Pama-Nyungan languages, which have undergone 
substantial changes over recent decades. It also consider the main 
issues in their subgrouping, and their relation to the Pama-Nyungan 
languages. The second to fourth sections then looks at issues of 
subgrouping, reconstruction and areal influence that pertain to 
particular non-Pama-Nyungan families or subregions. The final sections 
returns to the issue of whether one can carry the process of 
reconstruction back to deeper levels than the families themselves, that 
is back to some level from which all or most non-Pama-Nyungan families 
are descended. Overall, the volume illustrates that - despite recent 
claims by some authors - the comparative method can be successfully 
applied to Australian languages. It also furnishes a number of detailed 
and intricate studies of morphological reconstruction applied to 
complex paradigms.
  2003    ISBN 0 85883 538 X      x + 513 pp
  Australia A$99.00 (inc. GST)		International A$90.00
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Nyangumarta:  A language of the Pilbara region of Western Australia
Janet Catherine Sharp
PL 556
  This book is a description of the Nyangumarta language spoken by 
several hundred marrngu 'people' in the north-west of Western 
Australia. The description is based on material which the author 
collected between 1983 and 1997. The book includes descriptions of the 
phonology, the morphology and word classes including the pronominal 
systems. It also includes detailed descriptions of Nyangumarta main and 
complex clauses.
  Nyangumarta is of general typological interest. There are many reasons 
for this. Firstly, the status of word which emerges necessarily in the 
description of Nyangumarta verbal morphology contributes to the notion 
of there being a mismatch between what is regarded as a phonological 
word and what is regarded as a grammatical word in some languages. In 
Nyangumarta the paradigms of verbal pronouns illustrate a division 
between morphemes which are phonologically bound and those which are 
phonologically free; although both sets are grammatically bound to the 
verb. To add to this there is a class of derivational verbs which 
appear to be divided according to their phonological/grammatical word 
status. The inchoative and stative verbs are analysed as having 
phonological word status whereas the monosyllabic derivational verbs 
such as the affective and causative and the semantically 'empty' -pi 
are analysed as bound verbalisers.
  The phonological system of Nyangumarta is of interest because its 
productive system of vowel assimilation within the verbal morphology is 
one of the most elaborate of all the Australian languages.
2003	ISBN 0 85883 558 4	xix + 262 pp
Australia A$119.90 (inc. GST)		International A$109.00
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The Duugidjawu language of southeast Queensland:  Grammar, texts and 
vocabulary
Suzanne Kite and Stephen Wurm
  PL  553
        In the late 1950s and early 1960s, before he began work on the 
languages of New Guinea, Stephen Wurm undertook considerable fieldwork 
on languages of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. His 
fullest materials were on Duugidjawu, spoken just to the northwest of 
Brisbane, and were recorded between 1955 and 1964.
  Wurm was generous in making his materials available to selected 
researchers, and in 1997, an arrangement was made with Wurm for Suzanne 
Kite to write an MA thesis analysing these materials. These consisted 
of tapes and transcriptions, with Wurm’s translations of these in his 
own shorthand, which only he could read. When he was in Canberra, Wurm 
would spend one or two afternoons each week going over these materials 
with Kite, explaining the shorthand and reviving his knowledge of the 
language. He had never written a draft grammar of Duugidjawu, but 
effectively had one in his head. It was hard to remember things exactly 
after a period of almost forty years and Kite sometimes mediated 
between what was on the tapes and Wurm’s explications during their 
collaboration.Stephen Wurm passed away in late 2001, after the thesis 
had been approved but before this work could be published.
  This is a slightly revised version of Kite's thesis. It comprises an 
invaluable record of the language of the Duuidjawu people, and through 
this of their traditions, customs and laws. It is the only substantial 
record of a language which differs in various respects from 
prototypical non-prefixing Australian languages.It has five vowels and 
a fair number of monosyllabic words. Pronouns and nouns referring to 
humans or to dogs have distinct case forms. Following the grammar 
sketch are all the texts recorded by Wurm and a full vocabulary and 
thesaurus. All Wurm's information was provided by Willie McKenzie, 
believed to be about eighty years old in October 1955.  He died in 
1965.
  2004            ISBN 0 85883 550 9              xiii + 298 pp
  Australia A$88.00 (inc. GST)		International A$88.00

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The Bunganditj (Buwandik) language of the Mount Gambier Region
  Barry Blake
PL 549
  A single language appears to have been spoken in a triangle that 
stretched from somewhere north of Lacepede Bay on the coast of South 
Australia across to Bordertown on the Victorian border and south to the 
coast where the mouth of the Glenelg in far western Victoria formed the 
south-eastern corner. A consideration of various references indicates 
clearly that the territory of the Buwandik, alternatively Bunganditj, 
extended to the mouth of the Glenelg and further north it extended to 
Coleraine and perhaps Balmoral.

  Practically all our data comes from old sources. There are twelve 
sources of vocabulary for the language and two direct sources of 
grammatical information on the dialect spoken by the Booandik or 
Bunganditj. One source for the grammar is a sketch of three pages by 
D.S. Stewart; the other is a slightly longer sketch by R.H. Mathews, 
which exists in two forms, manuscript and published. Some further 
grammatical information can be obtained from the 'Mount Gambier' 
sentences in William Thomas' Dialogues in six dialects (details below), 
and a few further scraps can be gleaned from the word lists, specially 
from the one by Stewart which accompanies his grammatical sketch.

  PL 549, ISBN (Paperback): ISBN 0 85883 495 2
Australia A$39.60 (inc. GST), Overseas A$36.00
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I’saka:  A sketch grammar of a language of north-central New Guinea
Mark Donohue and Lila San Roque
  PL 554
  I'saka, the language of 600-plus residents of Krisa village in 
north-central New Guinea, is a previously undescribed language of the 
Macro-Skou family, which spreads across the north coast of New Guinea 
from the Skou villages in the west to Sissano lagoon in the east. 
I'saka represents the earliest split from the protofamily, and so 
represents a valuable source of data for comparative work in northern 
New Guinea. The language is endangered, with many of the younger 
generation switching to Tok Pisin as their language of everyday 
communication, but I'saka remains the language of ethnic identity and 
is seen as emblematic of the uniqueness of the I'saka people.
  The grammar of I'saka is interesting for the general linguist as well 
as for the New Guinea specialist, since it displays many features, some 
possibly unique, which will prove challenging for modern theoretical 
and typological linguistics. Two independent suprasegmental tiers for 
tone and nasality, and a lack of contrastive segmental nasals, are rare 
phonological phenomena.  Morphologically, the language displays a 
paradigm of agreement morphemes that agree with non-core arguments, 
while leaving, in most cases, the object of a transitive clause 
unmarked on the verb.  Special agreement marking for questioned 
subjects is also an unusual feature of I'saka.
  This sketch includes discussion of the historical relationship between 
I'saka and other languages in the Macro-Skou family, as well as issues 
of language endangerment, language maintenance, and spheres of language 
use.  There is also a word list and a selection of short texts 
illustrating many of the points covered in the grammatical description.
  2004            ISBN 0 85883 554 4              xvii + 131 pp
Australia A$39.60 (inc. GST)		International A$36.00
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Tibeto-Burman languages of Nepal: Manange and Sherpa
Carol Genetti (editor)
  PL 557
        The country of Nepal is home to over one hundred distinct 
languages from four language families. The current volume provides 
grammars, glossaries and texts for two of these languages: Manange, of 
the Tamangic branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family, and Sherpa, 
of the Tibetan (Bodish) branch. Each grammar provides a full 
description of the phonology, morphology and syntax of the language, 
covering both the structural and functional properties of each. The 
glossaries contain lists of basic vocabulary, alternate forms, and 
comparisons with forms given in previous literature. The short texts 
provide insights into how speakers weave linguistic structures to 
produce fluent discourse.
  2004            ISBN 0 85883 535 5              xiv + 324 pp
In  Australia $99.00 (inc. GST)     International $90.00
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Orders may be placed by mail, e-mail or telephone with:

Publishing, Imaging and Cartographic Services (PICS)
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia

Tel: +61 (0)2 6125 3269 Fax:    +61 (0)2 6125 9975

mailto://Thelma.Sims@anu.edu.au

Credit card orders are accepted.

For our catalogue and other materials, see:

http://pacling.anu.edu.au (under construction)

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Other enquiries (but not orders) should go to:

The Publications Administrator
Pacific Linguistics
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia

Tel: +61 (0)2 6125 2742 Fax: +61 (0)2 6125 4896

mailto://jmanley@coombs.anu.edu.au 

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