[RNLD] Language Help for the NCE

Sat Jan 11 20:18:55 UTC 2014

Dear all, Greg Wilson brought to my attention that my email below could be misinterpreted as implicitely stating that Dalabon people are adverse to change in general. That is not what I meant. I meant that linguistically, several Dalabon words meaning 'change' also mean rather negative feelings and attitudes. Emotional connotations  of 'change' seemed relevant to the issue at stake, and thus worth flagging. Some food for thought: Another naming option that comes to mind would be words for pairs of people, for instance husband and wife pair, mother and father pair... It seems to me that such same-generation pairs are not the ones which get lexicalised most often, and I cannot think of anything appropriate in the languages I know. But some Australian languages might have them? Cheers, Maïa
From: maia.ponsonnet at hotmail.com
To: sid.de at bmf.com.au
CC: r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2014 17:56:17 +1100
Subject: RE: [RNLD] Language Help for the NCE

Hi, Regarding words for change and transformation. Having worked on linguistic descriptions of knowledge and emotions in the Dalabon language (south-western Arnhem Land), I have observed that change has poor semantic associations such as tantrum and being capricious, arguments and breaking off emotionally from relatives. It may not be the same in other Austrlaian languages though...Cheers, Maïa

Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2014 16:52:48 +1100
From: msharpe3 at une.edu.au
To: sid.de at bmf.com.au
CC: r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au
Subject: Re: [RNLD] Language Help for the NCE

Re: [RNLD] Language Help for the NCE

Dear Sid, This is a curly one to work on. I am prepared to be corrected by some other linguists, but abstract words are somewhat rare in languages of fisher-hunter-gatherer communities. The examples you have found illustrate this. I’ve wrestled with this for  people in the Lismroe NSW area trying to choose a name for a similar local organisation. It comes down to choosing a suitable phrase about teaching or learning  (verbs or processes). You could choose a phrase like ‘Don’t bash/hurt women and children’, or ‘we want to stop people hurting women and children’. But you can imagine this is rather long, whatever langauge you choose.

A possible idea to explore would be an Aboriginal English phrase or a Kriol phrase. The first would cover much of Australia and if carefully chosen would fit in the various variations of Aboriginal English enough for most to understand. With a little tweeking a vrief phrase in Kriol would also be comprehensible to many Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. 

Your words pinarri and binarri are (as you’d probably know or guess) just the variant spellings for the same word ( pronounced much the same) in different Western Desert (and closely related languages) in the west of Australia. Very few Australian languages make a contrast between p and b, or t and d, etc.

Regards,

Margaret Sharpe

On 10/01/14 1:54 PM, "Sid De" <sid.de at bmf.com.au> wrote:

Hi Felicity,

These come from a combination of the dictionaries and suggestions from people in the community we've been speaking to, but we would not proceed with any name unless we had permission from the relevant groups first. 

It's very important to us that we have this permission, and in fact our original forerunner (a Gooniyandi word) was discarded because our contacts at the KALACC informed us that the were certain sensitivities around the word.

At the moment, we just wanted to ensure that these words didn't have connotations or possibly offensive meanings in other languages, to narrow it down and then our next step will be to reach out to the relevant groups.

That being said, I have already started talking to the Gamilaraay community (through a contact provided by Coonabarabran Visitor Information Centre) , but was wary of bothering other  communities  at this point in time, when we may not proceed with their language in the end.

Regards,

Sid De  |  Account Manager 

t 02 8985 7273  |  m 0422 370 094 |  f 02 9552 7060 

Level 2, 63 Miller Street Pyrmont, NSW 2009 Australia

 <http://www.bmf.com.au/>  <https://twitter.com/BMFAustralia>  <http://blog.bmfapps.com.au/> 

Please consider the environment before printing this email. 

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From: Felicity Meakins <f.meakins at uq.edu.au>

Date: Friday, 10 January 2014 1:39 PM

To: Sid <sid.de at bmf.com.au>, "r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au" <r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au>

Subject: Re: [RNLD] Language Help for the NCE

Dear Sid,

I notice that the words you have suggested are from online dictionaries hosted by SIL. Have these words been suggested by the relevant Indigenous groups themselves or derived from the online dictionaries? If the latter, it is common practice to consult with relevant groups about the use of their words. For example, please note the intellectual property statements on the Gurindji and Bilinarra dictionary websites.

Regards, Felicity

From: Sid De <sid.de at bmf.com.au>

Date: Friday, 10 January 2014 11:42 AM

To: "r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au" <r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au>

Subject: [RNLD] Language Help for the NCE

Hi all,

I've been working with National Centre for Excellence to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children (NCE) to develop a new organisation name, and we were hoping that you might be able to help us with some questions we had.

To give you some background on the NCE first, they are a not-for-profit NGO funded by the Commonwealth and every Australian State and Territory Government. The NCE is tasked with undertaking research that will provide a better evidence base to help policy makers and those delivering services to reduce all forms of violence against women and their children.  

As the NCE's work has a national focus including regional and remote Australia, one of the avenues we were investigating was to give the NCE a name inspired by our indigenous languages. To that end, Felicity at the Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity was kind enough to allow me access to this mailing list to ask for your aid. We had some ideas for names which we wanted to sense-check and see if any of you anticipated any problems, as we know that sometimes words can have very different meanings or connotations across languages. We want to ensure that our approach to this project is appropriate and that we do not offend anyone. Our shortlist as it stands currently is:

Mirii – star (in Gamilaraay)

Binarri – knowledgeable (in Bilinarra)

Pinarri – knowledgeable, clever person (in Gurindji, Walmajarri and Warlpiri)

Pinangurru – one who is learned, wise (in Walmajarri)

Kiyarri – sun ray (in Gurindji)

But we were also hoping you might like to be a part of this process, and possibly suggest an option as well. We have been trying to find indigenous words for 'change', 'transformation' and 'knowledge' that could work as well, which are words that capture the NCE's mandate. Before we settle on any word, we will of course be seeking permission from the relevant peoples first. 

Any help you might be able to offer would be greatly appreciated, and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me via email or on either of the phone numbers below.

Regards,

Sid De  |  Account Manager 

t 02 8985 7273  |  m 0422 370 094 |  f 02 9552 7060 

Level 2, 63 Miller Street Pyrmont, NSW 2009 Australia

 <http://www.bmf.com.au/>  <https://twitter.com/BMFAustralia>  <http://blog.bmfapps.com.au/> 

Please consider the environment before printing this email. 

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conclusions and other information in this message are those of the individual sender and may 

not necessarily reflect the views of BMF. 

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