Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching
Introduction
As well as making links with the languages we teach, for example by comparing
and contrasting Aboriginal languages with other languages, Aboriginal
Perspectives is about being mindful of relevant aspects of Aboriginal culture as it
affects everything that happens in the classroom. This is a sensitive area and it is
easy to fall into cultural stereotyping, but it is important not to stray in the
direction of Aboriginal people do not like to make direct eye contact-type
generalisations (see
http://aboriginalrights.suite101.com/article.cfm/falseprotocols) or slide into
sentimental/noble savage discourses about caring and sharing.
Ideally, it is advisable to have a whole of school approach to this, so that
everyone in the school is aware of and in contact with the local Aboriginal
community, if appropriate. This is a whole school responsibility, but in many
cases a languages teacher has taken the first step, for example to find out if
there is any interest in initiating an Aboriginal language program in the school or
inviting a local Elder to talk about language and culture. If your school does not
have an Aboriginal Education Officer, there are Aboriginal Education consultants
and Aboriginal Liaison Officers in each Regional Office who may be contacted for
advice.

1. How many Aboriginal languages are there?

Estimates about the number of Aboriginal languages vary but the National
Indigenous Languages Survey Report 2005 documents 145 languages which are
still being spoken (p. 68). Note that there are, in many cases, several dialects of
each language, each with its own name. Nationally, 67 of these languages have
fewer than ten speakers and only between three and five are described as safe
or strong. Recent research indicates that there were approximately 35
languages in NSW. Around ten of these are now taught in schools.
Discussion questions for teachers and students. How strong is the
language you are teaching/learning in your local area? In Australia?
Internationally? How many speakers does it have? Has it replaced minority
languages in the place/s where it is spoken?
2. Are they really languages, or are they dialects?
This is a tricky question, much debated by linguists and language speakers. We
all speak a dialect, even if our dialect is Standard Australian English. In some
cases, different languages may be so closely related that, objectively, we would
define them as dialects of one language but politically they indicate distinct

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching

social groups. Serbian and Croatian, which are very similar to each other though
they use different writing systems, are a well-known example of this.
In the case of Aboriginal languages, there are many quite distinct languages,
some which are related to others and which may share some vocabulary and
grammar. Within each language, there may be a number of dialects, each with
its own name. Details about dialects have often been lost in NSW but, for
example, in Arnhemland where there are several languages, we know that each
clan has its own dialect. People typically marry out of their clan so they will
speak several dialects, if not several languages.
A point to be aware of is that non-standard varieties of languages are often
referred to derogatorily as dialects. Because of this, uneducated people often
say that Aboriginal people speak dialects, in the mistaken belief that what they
speak is not really language at all but something primitive.
What different dialects of English are you aware of? What about dialects in the
language/s you teach/learn?
3. Are Aboriginal languages all similar to each other?
Most Aboriginal languages share some superficial characteristic similarities which
enable us to recognise them as distinctively Aboriginal. For example, the sound
systems are fairly similar which is why we recognise place names such as
Kirribilli and Wagga Wagga as being of Aboriginal origin. (For a good collection of
English words derived from Aboriginal languages look at Australian Aboriginal
Words in English: Their origin and meaning by Dixon et al. 2nd ed. 2006 OUP.)
Many English sounds do not occur in most Aboriginal languages, such as /s/,
/f/, /z/ and this accounts for the distinctive accent of Aboriginal language
speakers to the English-hearing ear. However, retroflex and laminal sounds are
common, and present a challenge to speakers of English who may not recognise
the differences between /ny/, /ng /and /n/ or between /l /and /rl/.
Yet most Aboriginal languages are not mutually intelligible. They are part of a
language family, just as English is part of the Indo-European language family
along with Spanish, Russian, Hindi, Yiddish and Armenian, among many others.
While Aboriginal languages share similarities, in contrast to English they are as
varied as the languages that make up the Indo-European group.
What are the characteristic sounds of the language you teach/learn? Are they
similar to other languages? What sort of difficulties does this present for
monolingual English speakers?
4. What are they like in form?
Grammatically they are like Latin, highly inflected, so that nouns have a suffix to
indicate their case (nominative, accusative, dative, etc.). Particularly notable is
the widespread use of the ergative case, the marking of the subject of a

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching

transitive sentence. This contrasts with English in which word order is important
to indicate such information. Look at this example from Gumbaynggirr.
Jumbaalu marlamgarl yiinyjang.

B. The python bit the dingo.

Jumbaal marlamgarlu yiinyjang.

A. The dingo bit the python.

Here we can see that one word has an ergative suffix, /u/, indicating which one is
the subject of the transitive sentence, and so word order is not so important.
Look at the following sentences. You can easily now work out who is doing the
action.
Marlamgarl jumbaalu yiinyjang.
Jumbaal marlamgarlu yiinyjang.
Marlamgarl yiinyjang jumbaalu.
Marlamgarlu jumbaal yiinyjang.
How important is word order in the language you are teaching/learning?
5. Are they written down?
Aboriginal languages have only been written down since settlement. This is not
unusual. Of the 7000 or so languages in the world only 108, have spontaneously
developed writing systems. Many Aboriginal languages now have a standard
spelling system based on the Roman alphabet.

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching

However, just because Aboriginal languages were not written down, it does not
mean that there were no ways to convey meaning symbolically. According to
Jane Simpson (see Transient Languages blog
(http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/elac/2006/10/sand_talk_and_how_to_record_it.html#mu
nn)
In Central Australia, you often see Aboriginal people sitting on the ground,
talking, and simultaneously drawing on the sand, smoothing it over when
they've finished a point, and starting again. They might be recounting
places along a journey, listing family members, drawing maps, or
describing the movement of characters in a story. I'll call this 'sand talk'.
As characters move and scenes change, the narrator rubs out the picture
in the sand and starts afresh....there is a clear relationship between the
iconicity of the sand drawings and the visual elements that are now used
in marketable art from the Central Australian region.
The following diagrams, retrieved on 17 February 2010 from
http://www.robertbartonart.com/default.asp?PageID=30, give some idea of how
this works in one region of Central Australia.

Campsite
This icon is the symbol for campsite. You will
find this symbol in common usage in central
desert art works. This can also mean special
place, sacred site or home depending on the
sequence and relationship (context) to other
symbols in the piece.

Four women sitting around a campfire

The meaning of this symbol changes depending
on the number of characters placed around the
central campfire symbol. One to two denotes
men around a campfire. This may be used
metaphorically in a work to convey women's
business.

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching
Kangaroo tracks
The Kangaroo is one of a handful of Australian
native animals which easily adapted to the
harsh extremes of the outback and could be
found from deserts to rainforests. This icon
shows the relief pattern left by the Kangaroo as
in bounds across the desert sands.
Travelling water
The jagged lines represent the water source
along which travellers would track in moving
from one camp to another. Water along with fire
is one of the most important life sustaining
resources on the land.
Man/hunter
By and of itself this symbols represents a man
or hunter. In numbers greater than two it can
also mean women. Often this symbol is
combined with other symbols in clusters of
meaning such as the spear, boomerang or
family symbol.
Does your language use the Roman alphabet? If so, think about the ways in
which symbols represent different sounds from those they represent in English
(for example, in Welsh dd is pronounced like the voiced th as in there, th is
pronounce as an unvoiced th, as in thin.) If you do not use an alphabet, does
your writing system show evidence of being iconic?
6. Why are so many Aboriginal languages no longer spoken?
Many Aboriginal languages are no longer spoken, or are spoken rarely by a few
older people. Those that are strongest are those spoken in the remotest areas of
Australia such as the Central Desert and North East Arnhemland. The languages
of the Sydney region were decimated within a year or two of the arrival of the
First Fleet because of the smallpox epidemic which wiped out most of the people.
Elsewhere, over time, languages have been and continue to be lost because of
educational policies prohibiting or discouraging the use of any language other
than English, the forcible removal of children from their parents (Stolen
Generation) and the relocation of people from their land. Each language is
intimately connected with a particular place and when people are moved from
their land they can no longer speak the language.

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching

Imagine how you might feel if you were not allowed to speak your language any
more.
7. What is lost when languages are lost?
Losing a language is losing a way of thinking about the world. One way to
understand a little of how people conceptualise is to look at their systems of
classifying things. Murrinh-Patha, widely spoken in the west of the Northern
Territory, has ten noun classes, a prefix is attached to every noun, indicating its
class: kardu Aboriginal people and spirits; ku non-Aboriginal people and other
animals and their products such as meat; kura fresh water; mi food plants and
their products, including faeces; thamul spears; thu other weapons and things
that strike, like thunder and lightning and playing cards (when they hit the
ground); thungku fire, firewood, matches; da time and place including seasons;
murrinh speech and language; nanthi everything else. As in languages such as
French and German, where you need to indicate grammatical gender (a type of
noun class), so in Murrinh-Patha you may have to indicate noun class too,
although in this language, gender is not an aspect of the classes. It is interesting
that a thing can be a member of several classes, depending upon the way it is
viewed at the time. For example, a boomerang is an offensive weapon so will be
thu kuragadha. However, if it is used just as an ornament on your mantelpiece, it
would be nanthi kuragatha. Similarly, anything which is not normally a weapon,
but used as a weapon, would be preceded by thu. So, a bottle, kum, is in the
nanthi class but, used as a weapon, would be thu kum. Note that if something is
being used or behaving in its most usual way, the noun class marker is often
omitted. (For more information on Murrinh-Patha see Walsh 2005.)
In some Aboriginal languages the noun classes do include male-female
distinctions. In Dyirbal, women, fire and dangerous things comprise one noun
class!
Does your language have noun classes? English does not, but most European
languages have grammatical gender.

8. Aboriginal languages and ecology

Aboriginal ways for speaking about the material aspects of the modern world
tend to be limited but language for speaking about the natural world is
particularly rich. Ecological knowledge is often implicit in the language. The
spangled grunter is a fish which eats the fallen fruit of the native white apple and
so, in Kunwinjku, they share the same name, bokorn. This will help you to
remember that if you want to catch a spangled grunter you must go to where the
white apple tree hangs over the river and thrown your line in there. Similarly, the
names for the edible grubs that live in certain bushes are related to the name of

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching

the bush. So, in Arrente, spoken around Alice Springs, the tnyeme witchetty bush
is where you find tnyematye, the witchetty grub (Evans 2009 p. 21).
Ethnopharmacology is the name for the study of medicinal plants known to other
cultures. There is a recent PhD. thesis on the medicinal plants of Gamilaraay and
Murawari-speaking areas of NSW. Such knowledge is lost when languages are
lost.
Think about how the names of plants and animals in your language may suggest
information about their qualities. (English examples: cabbage white butterflies,
honeyeaters, woodpeckers, feverfew, deadly nightshade.)
The names for some animals for in Aboriginal languages, even when
incorporated into English, remain onomatopoeic, e.g. kookaburra, currawong.
The word for crow in many Aboriginal languages is wa, wak, wagan or similar.
How is onomatopoeia used in your language?
9. Language for use with particular people or in special situations
Typically there are some people who do not speak to each other in Aboriginal
communities due to traditional habits. Everyone in the community will belong to
a section, or sub-section, known as a skin group. Everyone will belong to one of
the groups and this will determine who you marry. Everyone in the same group is
a brother or sister, whether they are biologically related or not. So, for example,
if you look at this diagram:
Ngarritjan

ngarritj

Beliny

Gamany

balang

Banginy

gamarrang

bangardi
bulanyjan

Bulany

Galijan

gela

wamutjan

Wamut

Gotjan

gotjok

Able to marry
In the boxes above, women are bold, men are bold italic. People in the same
box are brother and sister. The children of the women will be of the skin group of
the box below (it is your mothers skin group that determines what your skin will
be). The husbands of the women will be those indicated by reciprocal arrows.
Men do not speak to their mothers-in-law and brothers and sisters do not speak
to each other after puberty. So, for example, in the diagram above, which shows
the skin groups in the Jawoyn/Ngalkbon/Rembarrnga regions of the Northern
Territory, if I am bulantjan and married to balang, my children will be wamut
or wamutjan. Even if I were married to gela, my children would still be wamut
or wamutjan. I can talk and joke with my husband and also all men in the
category of husband, balang or gela, however I cannot talk to anyone in the

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching

category of my brothers who are bulany. My husband cannot talk to anyone in

the category of his mother-in-law who is gamany.
In some areas there were special languages learned by young men undergoing
initiation. During the time of their initiation they would only be allowed to
communicate using this very restricted language and at ceremonial gatherings
initiated men would speak it to each other (thus ensuring no one else could
understand what they were saying.) Quoting from the book Spoken Here by Mark
Abley:
The languages lexicon was small: just a couple of hundred basic words.
But by ingeniously manipulating those words, initiated men could express
almost anything they needed to say. Suppose a Damin speaker saw a
sandpiper in flight. Sandpiper was not in Damins lexicon. But the
watcher could evoke the bird by saying ngaajpu wiiwi-n wuujpu: literally,
person-burning creature. The phrase harks back to a creation story in
which Sandpiper starts a lethal fire a familiar tale to all speakers of
Damin. Likewise an axe was honey-affecting wood: a wooden object used
to obtain wild honey. Because it imposed this rigorous, semi-abstract
vocabulary on the familiar syntax of Lardil, Damin could be learned in a
few days. Initiated men would speak it at ceremonial gatherings, but also
while searching for food or just sitting around gossiping. Extreme suffering
had brought a gift of sacred knowledge.
Does your language have restrictions on who speaks to whom, or how certain
people must speak to each other? Are these permanent restrictions or do they
change with time?
10. Spirituality and identity
According to Nick Evans, in Dying Words, in Australian Aboriginal languages,
using the appropriate local language is like a passport marking you to locals and
spirits, as someone known and familiar. This is evidently the case in NSW, even
now. When Poppy Harry, a Bundjalung Elder, was filmed for the Campfire
resource, he spoke in Bundjalung to the large kangaroo who came to look when
he and the interviewer entered the significant site where the recording took
place. He also addressed the nearby grave sites. Later, on film, he reiterated and
translated his remarks (see Poppy Harry clip, Respect, in Campfire).
How important is your language to your sense of who you are? Do you speak the
language of your parents and grandparents?
11. Aboriginal English and Creoles
Since the early days of settlement, speakers of English and speakers of
Aboriginal languages have had to find ways to communicate with each other.
Gradually a pidgin English developed, a simplified version of English mixed with

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching

Aboriginal language, and this spread through Australia with the cattle trains. A
pidgin is not a complete language but it does not need to be, it is spoken by
people who already speak at least one other language. In some areas of
Australia, children from various language groups were separated from their
parents on missions and communicated with each other in the pidgin English
spoken to them by the missionaries. Since this was the only language they used,
it became more regular and complex than pidgin, eventually becoming a creole.
Across the north of Australia many people now speak a creole, called Kriol.
Kriol is interesting because, while many of the words come from English, many
grammatical features come from Aboriginal languages. For example, look at the
pronouns:
mi

yu

you (sing.)

im

he/she/it

wi

we (inclusive)

mibala

we, including the addressee

we (exclusive)

we, but not the addressee

yunmi

we two (inclusive) we two, including the addressee

mindubala

we two (exclusive)

yundubala

dual

yumob
olabat

we two, but not the addressee

you two

you (plural)
they

You can see that there are far more personal pronouns than in English. Most of
these occur in all Aboriginal languages. Another aspect of typical Aboriginal
grammar in Kriol is that transitivity has to be marked on verbs. This is done by
the suffix, im. So, Dei bin gitim im translates as: They got it. The im suffix on the
verb git, indicates that git (get) is a transitive verb.
Aboriginal English is a dialect of English that shares some characteristics of
Aboriginal languages, but not to the same extent as Kriol does. However, an
understanding of Kriol and ancestral Aboriginal languages can help explain some
characteristics of Aboriginal English. For example, in Aboriginal English it is
common for to find sentences such as I saw him, that man. In English, the him
is redundant, but this is a remnant of the Aboriginal pattern of indicating if a verb
is transitive by adding a suffix to the verb itself.
In almost all languages it is possible to find evidence of contact with other
languages. English has evidence of the influence of Latin, French and Germanic

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching

languages. How has contact with other languages influenced the language you
teach/learn?

12 Aboriginal languages in literature

Within a couple of years of the arrival of the First Fleet, the Aboriginal people and
hence Aboriginal languages of the Sydney region were decimated by a smallpox
epidemic. Much of what we now know about the Sydney language is because of
the notebooks kept by William Dawes (see http://www.williamdawes.org/), the
astronomer who came to Australia on the First Fleet. The Lieutenant by Kate
Grenville is a work of fiction based on the life of Dawes. Rooke, the main
protagonist in the book, is portrayed as a man fascinated by language, as this
extract indicates:
Do you know, Silk, he exclaimed, hearing his voice a little wild, I have
found that they use the dual plural, like Greek. Dual pronouns too, I think,
though am not sure, but have collected some examples...You and me, or
all of us, or me and these others but not you, all embedded in the
pronoun! While English makes only the crudest of distinctions! Imagine,
Silk, a race of people using a language as supple as that of Sophocles and
Homer!
(Extract from The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville, p. 245. Silk is based on another
First Fleeter, Watkin Tench.)
In the Book Show on Radio National on 19 January 2009, Kate Grenville answered
Romona Kovals question about her reference to a language as supple as
Sophocles or Homer. Kate Grenville responded:
When I was doing the research...I don't know anything about languages
really, but a person who does know mentioned to me that Dawes has
actually written down in his notebooks that the language was inflected
and that it used (and I may not have the right term) the dual plural. In
other words, they didn't just say...inflected, first of all, like Latin so that in
the one word you've got all things that the verb might be, but the dual
plural is something that we don't have in English, though I think we used
to back in Old English.
It means that when you say 'we' you may mean just yourself and the
person standing next to you or by using another word you can say 'myself
and everybody on this side of the fence' sort of thing. In other words, you
can be very discriminating in just exactly which groups of people you
mean by 'we'. It's a very closely calibrated little pronoun which we don't
have.

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching

And apparently, I've been told (and I don't know if this is true) ancient
Greek has the same incredibly sophisticated thing. As an educated man of
the late 18th century, Rooke would certainly have known ancient Greek
and Latin very well, so it gave me a chance to reveal his innocent
excitement, and also to say what in fact linguists do feel about many
Aboriginal languages, that they are extraordinarily sophisticated
grammatically.

The fictional work The Lieutentant is one way to help us to understand

something about the history and culture of Australia and Australias languages.
What novels or films provide a way to learn more about the language and
culture of the language you are teaching/learning?

Annotated Reading List

Books
Australian Aboriginal Words in English: their origin and meaning R.M.W.
Dixon et al. 2006 OUP.
This book is a reliable source of information about the origins of Aboriginal
language words in English. In addition, it provides a very readable short
introduction to Australian languages by Bob Dixon, formerly professor of
Linguistics at the Australian National University and author of the most
comprehensive general book on Aboriginal languages, The Languages of
Australia 1980 CUP.
Dying Words: Endangered Languages and What They Have to Tell Us
Nicholas Evans 2010 Wiley-Blackwell
This book is an eloquent explanation of why languages are important to us as a
species. The American-born author is a professor at the Australian National
University and has worked with Aboriginal languages continuously for almost
thirty years. This book draws heavily on examples from Aboriginal languages to
show how extraordinarily limited our knowledge of language is. The author shows
that Kayardild, a severely endangered Queensland language spoken by only
eight people, is so different from other languages that it challenges many of the
theories of what human languages are like. Nick Evans is able to show that,
without understanding the complexity of the thousands of the worlds languages

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching

that are currently endangered and often barely documented, we cannot

understand the rich diversity of the human mind and we all lose a part of our
collective humanity. The book is aimed at the general reader and not professional
linguists, but it assumes the reader is not allergic to some discussion of
grammar.
A handbook of Aboriginal languages of New South Wales and the
Australian Capital Territory 2008 Jim Wafer and Amanda Lissarrague 2008
Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Cooperative
This is an essential reference book for anyone professionally involved with
Aboriginal language in NSW. It brings together details about, and references to,
all the available published information about NSW languages. If you want to
know the name of the language of the place where you live or work, this where
you look. It will tell you where languages are or were spoken and list the various
spelling and tell you where you can find out more.
Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia (2005) Michael Walsh and
Colin Yallop (eds) Reprinted 2005 Aboriginal Studies Press.
Originally published in 1993, this remains one of the best introductions to a
range of topics relating to Aboriginal languages and culture. Intended as an
introduction to the topic for first year university students, it includes discussion
questions at the end of each chapter. It would be the place to direct interested
senior high school students.
The Lieutentant Kate Grenville 2008 Text Publishing.
This is a novel loosely based on events in the life of William Dawes, whose
notebooks provide the most comprehensive description of the language/s spoken
in and around Sydney at the time of the arrival of the First Fleet. It is particularly
interesting to read this in conjunction with Jakelin Troys Language Contact in
Early Colonial New South Wales 1788-1791 in Language and Culture in
Aboriginal Australia (see above).
Spoken Here: Travels among threatened Languages Mark Abley 2005
Mariner Books
Spoken Here is a mixture of travel book and book about languages, a vicarious
voyage around the areas of the world where small languages are still spoken.
Like Dying Words, this is not solely about Aboriginal languages but it does start
with them.
Websites
Campfire
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/secondary/languag
es/languages/aboriginal/campfire/index.htm

Aboriginal Perspectives in Languages

Teaching

This is a web-based resource designed to support Aboriginal languages at Stage

4. It can be found under Aboriginal Languages on the Curriculum Support
website. Parts of it may be useful to support other stages or Aboriginal Studies.
For Languages teachers, it is a way to find out more about Aboriginal languages
in NSW.
The notebooks of William Dawes
http://www.williamdawes.org/
The notebooks of Lieutenant William Dawes at the SOAS Library Special
Collections are the major source of information about the Aboriginal language of
Sydney. They contain information of significance to Aboriginal communities of
New South Wales, to linguists, historians, residents of Sydney, and many others.
It is interesting to look at this in conjunction with reading The Lieutenant.
Transient Languages and Cultures
http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/elac/
Based at the Linguistics Department at Sydney University, this is a good place to
find the latest reliable news and opinion on Aboriginal languages.
National Indigenous Languages Survey Report
http://www.arts.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/35637/nils-report2005.pdf
You can read or download the most recent national survey of Australias
Indigenous Languages here. This is where you can find comprehensive facts and
figures.
8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning
http://8ways.wikispaces.com/
This Wiki, is a wonderful resource developed by Tyson Yunkaporta, one of our
Aboriginal Education consultants who currently runs the Aboriginal Knowledge
Centre in Dubbo. There is a wealth of material here, developed by Tyson and
other Aboriginal people involved in education. Tyson is currently working on his
PhD on Aboriginal pedagogy.