Australian languages: Issues and Debates - Annotated Bibliography Example

Abley, M. 2003. Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages. New York, NY: First Mariner Books. p. 277. This highly detailed account of Abley’s travels offer personal views of the socio-cultural factors affecting the state of the world’s endangered languages. Abley’s unique language stories offer rare insights into the ongoing effect of colonialism and its latter-day manifestations. The book’s “travelogue” approach makes the fate of native languages from Europe to Southeast Asia all the more poignant and alarming. Abley offers a number of reasons for preserving endangered languages, ranging from the study of different grammatical systems and phonologies to the simple pleasure of new and interesting idiomatic expressions that have no equivalent in English. He cites also more commonplace, but no less pressing, reasons, such as the need for Aborigines to prove their historic right to lands and natural resources. They are hampered in their efforts to do so because they have historically been unable to communicate such matters in English. His consideration of whether or not it’s necessary to be fanatical in maintaining an endangered language is instructive as well. Crawford, J. and Tantiprasut, L. 2003. Australian Aboriginal Culture. Geraldton, Australia: R.I.C. Publications. p. 42. A first-hand account of the major events that have conditioned modern Aboriginal life. The book focuses on Aboriginal value systems, behaviors and examines how language impacted the radical change in native Australian’s cultural folkways. The book is notable in that it was written to be an aid for those who teach Aboriginal culture and languages. As an R.I.C. publication, it is aimed at providing those who wish to teach others methodology for the recording of native languages as well as their preservation. R.I.C. is a publishing house dedicated to works that have a practical, hands-on use in the field of language. As such, this work is a useful synthesis of Aboriginal values, beliefs and customs, set against the backdrop of the seminal events in native Australian history. It offers a new perspective on the study of endangered languages as a cultural phenomenon uniquely prone to the vagaries of history and the social effects of an intruding culture. Curr, E. M. 1886. The Australian Race. Vol. 1. London, UK: Trubner and Company. p 4. This Victorian-era work is a broad stroke examination of the cultural history and practices of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. It provides a quite detailed look at native languages and details specific phonological and grammatical aspects that have challenged English speakers. This venerable book presents an interesting overview of factors that aggravated the racist impulses of the ruling Anglo-Australian society. Curr’s work is somewhat dated, originating in a time when the anthropological study of native cultures was seen routinely through the prism of white, European perspectives. At the same time, it is an interesting scientific observation of Aboriginal languages and customs in the same vein that Darwin, for instance, studied and wrote about new zoological discoveries. Curr’s detailed examination of the intricacies of Aboriginal tongues, particularly in contrast to English, is interesting and one of the few such “mechanical” considerations. As such, it is a useful, practical academic exercise in the study of foreign language and culture. Leitner, G. and Malcolm, I. G. 2007. The Habitat of Australia’s Aboriginal Languages: Past, Present and Future. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmBh. p. 86. This work utilizes the work of linguists and anthropologists from around the world who have studied the demise of native languages in Australia. It pays special attention to the particular social contexts in which Aboriginal languages have been used and are used today. Languages are examined from a largely functional standpoint and from the perspective that government policies have damaged the vast majority past the point of reclamation. Its examination of the force and change that external cultural and political factors impress upon the Aborigines is compared to the impact of government policy on other indigenous populations. The book’s linguistic considerations of the matter takes an interesting view of the specific, phonological effect of English upon specific words in the Aboriginal languages and how it has helped to create “pidgin” or “creoles” that are becoming more and more widespread. Though useful, the impact of such linguistic hybridization is deleterious to Aboriginal culture and traditions. McConvell, P. and Thieberger, N. 2000. AIATSIS State of Indigenous Languages Project 2000. Contract 1 – Data (ms). This seminal report is one of the most comprehensive compilations of the latest data concerning the state of Aboriginal languages. It presents a chronological account of the erosion of Aboriginal lifestyles and cultural traditions. It paints a bleak picture of the state of native languages in Australia, though it doesn’t waver from a strictly fact-based recitation. It is unique in the sense that relatively few such exhaustive views of the state of Aboriginal languages, in relation to English, are available. The statistical breakdown, over a 200-year period, traces the downward arc that appears to be carrying the Aboriginal languages into extinction. Other data from AIATSIS have been used by government agencies to determine the state of native languages and to help determine what should (and could) be done to try to reverse the trend toward extinction. There is no appreciable anecdotal evidence but instead an extensive statistical look at the current language status in Australia. Nettle, D. and Romaine, S. 2000. Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World’s Languages. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Co-written by an anthropologist and linguist, this book focuses on the close relation between the environment, culture and language. This highly academic work makes a convincing case for the preservation of native languages, explaining what is at stake in a world where more languages are at risk than ever before. The authors make the interesting point that losing native languages is wasteful in that rich scientific knowledge is lost forever. It is somewhat unique in that it is slanted toward a scientific view of the effect language loss has on the “health” and development of existing languages, which stand to benefit from the unique knowledge that springs from ancient tongues. It is comparable, in some ways, to the effect of the loss of ecological resources and the implications of such loss for the long-term well-being of the human race. As such, language itself is seen as a precious natural resource. Schmidt, A. 1990. The Loss of Australia’s Aboriginal Language Heritage. Canberra, Australia: Aboriginal Studies Press. pp. 88-89, 121-122. Schmidt’s disciplined academic approach to the subject includes an analysis of efforts to preserve and revive Aboriginal languages. One of the book’s most useful features is the social models Schmidt posits as a means of explaining how cultural bias undermines a challenged language and affects the ways in which its native speakers come to regard it in relation to a more successful competing language tradition. One of the more interesting approaches of this study is in the modeling Schmidt uses to trace the effect of marginalization and linguistic oppression on native Aboriginal languages. She posits a vicious cycle in which a native language is seen as superfluous, causing a reactive effect among its speakers who begin to harbor similar feelings toward their own language and cultural traditions. This represents one of the most insidious and dangerous threats to the existence of Aboriginal tongues. It is a pattern that has played out in many other parts of the world. Tsunoda, T. 2005. Language Endangerment and Language Revitalization: An Introduction. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmBh. p. 62. Tsunoda’s book considers the factors that touch on language endangerment in all parts of the world. It also deals with attempts to recover extinct languages and looks at how negative public perceptions affect efforts to bring such languages back into general use. Tsunoda also illustrates recent changes in the field of linguistics in light of the growing awareness of language endangerment throughout the world. As such, the book offers a glimmer of hope in that old ways of looking at language and the factors that affect its use appear to be evolving as studies in this area have yielded new findings in recent years. This includes, among other things, the establishment of language “schools” in countries whose native languages are threatened and dedicated initiatives among scholars to teach native children in their own tongues. One such practice is the teaching of native customs and traditions to young people in their own languages. Walsh, M. and Yallop, C. 1993. Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia. Canberra, Australia: Aboriginal Studies Press. p. 79. This locally focused study investigates details concerning how Aboriginal languages are passed on to the young and looks at what resources are available to young learners. This book is also quite successful in placing the subject in its native landscape, reviewing the inextricable link between Aboriginals and their ancient lands. Their languages are seen as tangible manifestations of this symbiotic relationship, which may have much to teach us about the nature of language and secrets for its preservation. A product of Aboriginal Studies Press, it is slanted toward an “in-the-field” look at preservation efforts. This publisher is largely dedicated to furthering preservation efforts and seeks to enlighten the public through works that explain the situation and chronicle efforts to stem the tide of language extinction in Australia. Setting the battle for language preservation among the natural setting of Aboriginal lands and history makes a compelling case for the preservation of these ancient customs. Wheeler, R. 1999. The Workings of Language: From Prescriptions to Perspectives. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 160. The essays in this work make several interesting points about the growing gulf between the results of linguistic research and widely held views about the importance of “minority” languages. The book uses specific, contemporary examples to illustrate how previously disregarded or trivialized elements of native languages are not only important to their long-term survival but also to the cultural well-being of all societies. Language loss is considered in an international vein, as a cultural phenomenon with symptoms, and remedies, that have similarities that transcend national boundaries. Its essays focus on the particularities of English, and ways in which it splinters amid cultural influencers. Several important points are made as to the need for effective public policies that protect native languages systems based in newly developed theories and understandings of the relationship between threatened and culturally dominant languages. The book offers an interesting look at ways in which world English has mutated and the implications of such a trend for other languages. . Read More