LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.10.22 (01) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

===========================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 22 October 2009 - Volume 01
lowlands at lowlands-l.net - http://lowlands-l.net/
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-08)
Language Codes: lowlands-l.net/codes.php
===========================================

From: clarkedavid8 at aol.com
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.10.21 (03) [EN

You would surely expect there to be a high degree of similarity between the
indigenous languages of central Australia because the people were nomadic
and the land is generally flat. Apparently there is more dialectual
difference in Swiss German than in Russian (not counting separate languages
such as Ukrainian and Belorussian) because of the differences in the
topography of the two countries.

David Clarke

It has been mostly the desert languages of Australia that hung into the 20th
and 21th centuries. Compare them -- spread over vast and (to us)
inhospitable tracts of land -- and you'll find lots of similarities, even
where languages seem to be "unrelated". Most of all, there are phonological
similarities such as retroflexion, features that do not seem to be
conditioned by physiological features. This suggests contacts, even if we
assume, as is commonly done, that indigenous Australian ancestors arrived on
the continent in waves and that language classification ought to reflect
this.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

----------

From: Andrys Onsman <Andrys.Onsman at calt.monash.edu.au>
 Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.10.21 (03) [EN]

Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.10.21 (03)
From: Andrys Onsman (MEL)

Adding to Ron's comments


Well, Paul, this is where you can run into trouble, at least theoretically.
Whenever you are dealing with landmasses you are also dealing with the
possibility of contacts and "contamination."

Yes, due to European settlements it was mostly the coastal Australian
languages that first became threatened and eventually extinct, with the
exception of the northern coast. Furthermore, it seems to be true, by and
large, that after the demise of the theoretical land bridge, the languages
of Australia came to be cut off from the rest of the world -- "by and large"
because I have to add that apparently there were contacts between
precolonial Australians and Austronesian travelers from what are now parts
of Indonesia. (This seems to account for canoe building and non-percussive
musical instruments on Australia's northern coast.)

It has been mostly the desert languages of Australia that hung into the 20th
and 21th centuries. Compare them -- spread over vast and (to us)
inhospitable tracts of land -- and you'll find lots of similarities, even
where languages seem to be "unrelated". Most of all, there are phonological
similarities such as retroflexion, features that do not seem to be
conditioned by physiological features. This suggests contacts, even if we
assume, as is commonly done, that indigenous Australian ancestors arrived on
the continent in waves and that language classification ought to reflect
this.

Especially in Tasmania - where the land bridge disappeared much later and
the colonisation was more brutal and more nearly complete. Initially it was
thought the seven or eight languages spoken on the island were unrelated to
the mainland languages. Quite recently it has been shown that they were
actually a subgroup of SE Australian languages. The University of Tasmania
holds that thesis.

There are a few of the desert language still quite strong (Pintubi, Bardi
and Warlpiri spring to mind) though the government seems determined to wipe
them out by making community primary schools teach in English. But I would
argue, Ron, that nowadays it is the northern coastal languages that have
survived more strongly as functional languages - Yolgnu, (Check out Gurrumul
Yunupingu on Youtube for some beautiful music sung in that language, or the
only full length feature film in language with English subtitles, "Ten
Canoes") Larekea and Tiwi being still used as mother tongues. And in
Queeensland there is Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola, as well as the various
Torres Strait Islander languages (and pidgens).

Cheers
Andrys

----------

From: R. F. Hahn
<sassisch at yahoo.com<http://uk.mc264.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sassisch@yahoo.com>
>
Subject: Language varieties

Thanks, Andrys.

I didn't mean to imply that the north coast languages have suffered as badly
as have those of the other coastal areas. My hunch is that European
settlement in the north happened later and more sparsely due to the tropical
climate and often devastating storms (one of which, Cyclone Tracy,
practically wiped out the city of Darwin in 1974, which I remember well).

The desert languages tend to be spoken over large areas, due to migration,
as you said, David. Nonetheless, geographical spread must not be mistaken
for large numbers of speakers. What used to be considered related, though
separate languages have more recently been declared dialects or dialect
groups of a single language: Western Desert Language, spoken in Western
Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, which makes for a
vast geographical area. However, even the best known among them don't have
large speaker communities these days; e.g. Pitjantjatjara (2,500),
Ngaanyatjarra (1,200), Ngaatjatjarra (500), Yankunytjatjara (200-300), and
Titjikala (250). Happily, however, some communities, though small, put a lot
of effort into continuing their varieties. An example is the Kukatja variety
of the Western Desert Language, spoken by all in the Wirrumanu Aboriginal
Community of Balgo Hills in Northwestern Australia's Kimberley Region.
Furthermore, the community is creating language resources on CD and DVD,
offers adult education and fosters traditional arts and crafts in a type of
cooperative.

http://www.luurnpa.wa.edu.au/
http://www.adedbalgo.wa.edu.au/
http://www.balgoart.org.au/

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

==============================END===================================

 * Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.

 * Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.

 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.

 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l")

   are to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at

   http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.

*********************************************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20091022/9847e111/attachment.htm>