Research Catalog

Title

Proto mirndi : a discontinuous language family in Northern Australia / Mark Harvey.

Author

Harvey, Mark David, 1958-

Publication

Canberra : Pacific Linguistics, 2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics

Description

ix, 172 p. : maps; 26 cm.

Summary

"The Mirndi language family is one of the very few discontinuous language families that have been proposed for Australia. This reconstruction shows that there is a sufficient evidentiary basis, according to the canons of standard historical linguistics, to show that the Mirndi languages constitute a distinct language family. The evidence comes from closed class morphemes, both grammatical and lexical. The evidence from open, lexical classes is negligible and would not suffice to establish the family. The reconstruction also considers the evidence as to the territorial associations of Proto-Mirndi. There are a number of strands of evidence, which though limited, all converge in indicating that the territorial associations of Proto-Mirndi were in the vicinity of the south-western Gulf of Carpentaria. As such, this implies shifts in territorial affiliations of the Mirndi varieties from east to west. In addition its linguistic aspects, the reconstruction also provides a detailed overview of the history of subsections. Subsections are a salient social construct across much of north-central and north-western Australia. The reconstruction shows that subsections are of considerable time depth, and also that the diffusion of subsections is of considerable time depth."--Provided by publisher.

Series Statement

Pacific linguistics ; 593

Uniform Title

Pacific linguistics 593.

Subject

• Mirindi language
• Australian languages > Australia, Northern
• Aboriginal Australians > Languages

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-172).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

ISBN

• 9780858835887 (pbk.)
• 0858835886 (pbk.)
• 9870858835887 (pbk.) (canceled/invalid)

OCLC

271864935

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library