After a beautiful welcome to country by Uncle Greg Simms, Rachel Nordlinger, from the University of Melbourne spoke about her research into Indigenous languages, here are some of the points...
Greg Simms
Alot of work in the community is required to be considered an elder
There are over 500 dialects in Australia, about 138 of which are in NSW
"Music sounds better when you use both the black and white keys"
There are 95 different dialects between Blacktown and Perth
Signing (sign language) was used to negotiate language group cross communication
Rachel Nordlinger
Language is generally viewed as utilitarian, not as art
Indiginous language is viewed as only for indigenous people
There are more than 300 distinct indiginous languages
More than 700 named language varieties
Only 15 of these are still currently being aquired as first languages
About 80 of these are still spoken by elders
Proto-European language is thought to have developed over 7000 years
Indigenous languages are thought to be over 60,000 years old and have developed in relative isolation
Apart from visual depictions, spoken languages have not been thought to be encoded as proto-european languages have
Indigenous languages are at risk of being lost if not recorded or passed on
These are important to communities because..
...they are like a museum of knowledge
...there are links between language and well-being
"Language is like a pearl inside a shell.."s
Indigenous languages are important to language science because...
...they improve insight into human cognition
...language is a an extrordinary "uniquely human" capacity
...being distinct from proto-european language history, they represent a different view from which the world is viewed.
"Languages differ essentially in what they must convey & not in what they may convey.." -Roman Jackobson
Some Examples (Murrinhpatha)
mi-wengi -> "edible cloud" -> red apple tree that fruits the same time as rain season (imbedded knowledge)
culture reflected in grammar of one lang group..
...kinship relations in pronouns for siblings (related, unrelated, group related, group unrelated..)
...generations encoded in pronouns (even, odd)
...16 pronouns used for "They" - must understand relationship to use this pronoun
(Wambaya) - uses case marker to determine subject / object - allows free word order
(Warlpiri) - uses additional case marker for who / where - clears up ambiguity in sentences like "one morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know." - Groucho Marx
