Research Catalog

Title

Encountering Aboriginal languages : studies in the history of Australian linguistics / edited by William B. McGregor.

Publication

Canberra, A.C.T. : Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the Australian National University, 2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• McGregor, William, 1952-
• Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics

Description

xiv, 526 p. : ill., 3 maps; 25 cm.

Summary

"This edited volume represents the first book-length study of the history of research on Australian Aboriginal languages, and collects together 18 original papers on a wide variety of topics, spanning the period from first settlement to the present day. The introduction sets the scene for the book by presenting an overview of the history of histories of research on the languages of Australia , and identifying some of the major issues in Aboriginal linguistic historiography as well as directions for future investigations. Part 1 presents three detailed investigations of the history of work on particular languages and regions.The eight papers of Part 2 study and re-evaluate the contributions of particular individuals, most of who are somewhat marginal or have been marginalised in Aboriginal linguistics. Part 3 consists of six studies specific linguistic topics: sign language research, language revival, pidgins and creoles, fieldwork, Fr. Schmidt's work on personal pronouns, and the discovery that Australia was a multilingual continent. Overall, the volume presents two major challenges to Australianist orthodoxy. First, the papers challenge the typically anachronistic approaches to the history of Aboriginal linguistics, and reveal the need to examine previous research in the context of their times - and the advantages of doing so to contemporary understanding and language documentation. Second, the widespread presumption that the period 1910-1960 represented the 'dark ages' of Aboriginal linguistics, characterised by virtually no linguistic work, is refuted by a number of studies in the present volume."

Series Statement

Pacific linguistics ; 591

Uniform Title

Pacific linguistics 591.

Subject

• Australian languages > Historiography
• Aboriginal Australians > Languages > Research

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction / William B. McGregor -- Pt i: Investigations of particular languages and regions. 2. The Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi) language, northern New South Wales -- a brief history of research / Peter Austin -- 3. History of research on Bardi and Jawi / Claire Bowern -- 4. I could have saved you linguists a lot of time and trouble: 180 years of research and documentation of South Australia's indigenous languages, 1826-2006 / Jane Simpson, Rob Amery and Mary-Anne Gale -- Pt 2: Investigations of the contributions of particular individuals. 5. Contextualising Yngve Laurell's Australian collections, 1910-1911 / Mathias Boström -- 6. Listening to the last speakers / Luise Hercus -- 7. R.H. Mathews' schema for the description of Australian languages / Harold Koch -- 8. Nils M. Holmer's research on Australian languages / William B. McGregor and Matti Miestamo -- 9. Norman B. Tindale and Pitjantjatjara language / Paul Monaghan -- 10. T.G.H. Strehlow and the linguistic landscape of Australia 1930-1960 / David Campbell Moore -- 11. A history of the 1842 Descriptive vocabulary / David Campbell Moore -- 12. Language is like a carpet. Carl Georg von Brandenstein and Australian languages / Nick Thieberger -- Pt 3: Investigations of particular topics. 13. But our language was just asleep: a history of language revival in Australia / Rob Amery and Mary-Anne Gale -- 14. A history of the study of Australian Aboriginal sign languages / Adam Kendon -- 15. HIstory of fieldwork on KImberley languages / William B. McGregor -- 16. History of research into Australian pdgins and creoles / Peter Mühlhäusler -- 17. William Schmidt's Die Personalpronomina in den australishcen Sprachen revisited / Fritz Schweiger -- 18. The European 'discovery' of a multilingual Australia: the linguistic and ethnographic successes of a failed expedition / David P. Wilkins and David Nash.

ISBN

• 9780858835832
• 9780858835825 (pbk.)
• 0858835827 (pbk.)
• 9780858835832 (p. 4 of cover) (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

^^2008411550

OCLC

• 232156074
• SCSB-10943813

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library