The Loss of Australian Languages following the British Colonization - Essay Example

Provide an account for the many factors contributing to the massive loss of Australian languages following the British colonisation of Australia Summary The Aborigines and the Torres Strait Islanders were the original inhabitants of the Australian continent but they were displaced over time as European settlers were diverted to the Australian continent after the loss of the American continent. The settling Europeans were indifferent to the local customs, traditions and collective identities of the local Aborigines. The Aborigines were pushed into the margins of society and were ostracised most of the time as the mainstream society failed to intermix with them. The ostracised factions, clans and nations of Aborigines that remained on the Australian continent were unable to protect their languages, dialects and cultures in the face of incoming cultural invasion. There was a marked difference in the state of the Aboriginal people before the colonisation period and after the colonisation period. The Aboriginal population lost many things including their rich collection of languages and dialects because they were neglected over time. Mainly the languages were affected by socio economic backwardness, the lack of effective recording techniques for language preservation as well as the depletion of large numbers of Aborigines who were displaced from their lands. 2. Introduction The Australian continent was occupied by the aboriginal population before the arrival of the British. After arrival on the Australian continent, the British were prepared to use Australia as a penal colony as well as compensation for the loss of the American continent. Given that the British policies were aimed at subjugation of the locals and eventual occupation of land, there was little done to preserve the local culture and customs. The result was the depletion of population clusters in large amounts as well as the repletion of language, customs and traditions. The indigenous population was forced into a corner by the foreign settlers who were far more influential than the locals. The marginalisation of the aboriginal population caused irreparable damage to the local culture and customs such that certain parts of the culture and customs became extinct altogether. A number of differentiated factors were responsible for this loss of culture and customs and these are discussed in the following text. 2.1. Pre Colonisation Period 2.1.1. Cultural Circumstances A number of different estimates have placed the numbers of indigenous people before the British invasion between 250,000 people and 1 million people. There were little methods for estimating the actual population levels so these estimates are considered reliable. Some estimates have also placed the levels of population as high as 1.25 million people before the British invasion (Evans, 2007). The population levels of indigenous peoples were expected to have remained stable for thousands of years continuously. The largest population levels existed in the temperate coastal regions that run all along the Australian country. Small clusters of population existed within the interior of the Australian continent. The highest population densities were found within the southern regions and the eastern regions of the Australian continent. The Murray River valley was the most heavily populated region within these regions. The indigenous Australian communities were highly successful throughout the Australian continent. The aborigines existed successfully throughout the wet and cold highlands of Tasmania to the more arid parts of the interior of the continent. The particular traditions and customs of the population segments varied according to their geographical circumstances. 2.1.2. Lingual Circumstances Before the advent of the British into the Australian continent it is estimated that there were around 250 different indigenous languages that were spoken throughout Australia. However the use of these languages declined significantly after the advent of the Europeans. There are disputes as to the amount of languages being spoken in Australia which hail from their indigenous roots (Zuckermann, 2009) but only a handful of such languages remain anymore. The languages spoken on the Australian continent that hail from the indigenous roots are classified into one cluster which is better known as the Pama-Nyungan languages. The other languages spoken on the Australian continent are often classed together and are referred to as the non-Pama-Nyungan languages collectively. The Pama-Nyungan languages form the majority of languages spoken on the Australian continent and the constituent languages are all closely related together. The region stretching in the north from the Western Kimberly through to the Gulf of Carpentaria are all composed of a group of non-Pama-Nyungan language groups. It has been proven that these languages spoken in the aforementioned region are not in any form related to the Pama-Nyungan languages. There have been problems in trying to identify the relationships between various languages that are classified into the Pama-Nyungan and the non-Pama-Nyungan languages. Due to this reason it has proven difficult to identify various different languages and their familial connections in order to classify these languages into one language group or the other. However a majority of Australian linguists believe that there has been substantial success in trying to find familial connections and other common things between various different languages (Bowern & Koch, 2004). This in turn has helped to classify these languages into one language group or the other. In contrast to this notion, some Australian linguists such as R. M. W. Dixon have argued that the entire Australian linguistic area is more of a sprachbund rather than a genetic linguistic phylum. This indicates that the languages spoken on the Australian continent have always been in rather long and intimate contact over time. In contrast, other groups argue that the long presence of aboriginal languages in Australia has caused these languages to be classified into one group and thus these languages can be considered to be part of one sub group. On the other hand the position of the languages spoken in Tasmania is unknown and it is also disputed if these languages could be classified into one family group or not. 2.2. Post Colonisation Period 2.2.1. Cultural Circumstances The loss of the American continent left serious defects in the British colonial policy that needed to be dealt with in one way or the other. Britain also had possession of Australia which was thus chosen as the new penal colony in order to deal with the large numbers of convicts in the overcrowded prisons. The first movement towards Australia was carried out by the First Fleet in 1787. The fleet was composed of a total of 11 ships and around 1,350 people who were put under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip. The fleet landed at Sydney Cove on 26th January 1788 and is considered as the “Australia Day” by Caucasians while it is seen as the “Invasion Day” by most of the Aboriginal population. The landing party claimed the new colony as the Colony of New South Wales on the subsequent 7th of February. The colony continued to grow over time but the growth was gradual till 1815. After 1815, the growth of the colony was rather rapid because settlers from Britain and Ireland began flowing in as land was opened up for farming. Although the sea journey from Britain was rather arduous and dangerous but a large amount of people still undertook the journey because the Crown’s land was available for virtually free in Australia to inhabit. The prospect of new and free land in Australia was incentive enough for most people to come over to Australia. Throughout this entire process the largest segment to suffer were the Aboriginal Australians whose identities and cultures were being wiped out rather fast and mercilessly. Most of the new settlers of the Crown’s land occupied land with authority and became squatters in their own right. This particular class of people soon emerged into a powerful land owning class who were ready to go to any lengths in order to protect their emerging system that offered them unparalleled benefits. This class was also responsible for the displacement of the Aboriginal Australians and for the extinction of their culture, language and identity. However in due time the agitation placed by the free settlers on the Australian continent forced the government to stop the shipment of any new convicts to Australia. Eventually the movement of convicts to Sydney ended in 1840 though this practice was still in application in some of the smaller states such as Van Diemen’s Land, Moreton Bay and Perth. The displacement of the local population to this point in time was still rather limited but after the gold rush the displacement of the locals became far more rapid. Gold was discovered in Australia starting in 1851 in Bathurst located in New South Wales. In a short amount of time, gold was discovered in Victoria as well and this helped to intensify the gold rush. The onslaught of the gold rushes tended to transform the Australian continent economically, politically and socially as well as demographically. One of the largest drivers behind the gold rush of the 1850’s was a global economic depression that forced people to look around the globe for new opportunities. The movement to Australia was so rapid that within a few years around two percent of the entire population of Great Britain immigrated to Australia. The influx of the people immigrating to Australia was not just from Great Britain but from continental Europe, North America and China. To put things into perspective it must be considered that the population of Australia was some 437,655 people out of whom some 77,345 people were Victorians which made the Victorians around 18% of the total population. However only a decade later the total population had swelled to some 1,151,947 people out of whom some 538,628 people were Victorians which made the Victorians some 47% of the total population. This increase represents a seven fold increase which was largely attributed to the gold rush of the 1850’s (Caldwell, 1987). The latter half of the nineteenth century witnessed various colonies providing funding in order to attract new immigrants. Overall the colonies on continental Australia found out that immigrants were now more interested in immigrating to the United States and Canada because of the lower expense required for the sea journey. Therefore most colonies began to subsidise immigration in order to attract skilled workers that were required to promote economic activities in Australia. Probably the first instance of such help came in the form of the subsidy provided to the German vintners to Southern Australia. Soon enough the immigrants were subsidised more and more till the immigrant waves were filled with skilled workers from Europe. In order to deal with the numbers of immigrants required through various stages of the economic cycle, the amount of subsidy offered was varied by the government. Before the federation was created in 1901 the assisted migrants were provided with passage assistance from the colonial government funds as well as from the British government who paid largely for the passage of convicts, military and civil servants as well as paupers. In contrast to such large endowments for migration, there was little assistance offered to migrants before 1831 (Price, 1987). Throughout the entire migration episode it must be noticed that the policy of the Australian government favoured the movement of foreign people into Australia rather than the development of the local indigenous population. Moreover a “White Australia” immigration policy existed under which it was preferred to help white immigrants from Europe immigrate to Australia in preference to other ethnic groups. This policy existed well into the 1970’s so the larger segment of immigrants to Australia was white immigrants from Europe. The local population that was composed of Aborigines was neglected badly and the results of the neglect and segregation continue to this day. The Aboriginal Australians are the lowest group on the socio economic rung because of which they are backward and so they suffer from social and cultural degradation. During the wave of immigrants, little was done to preserve the local culture of the inhabitants and consequently the culture, identity and languages of the locals suffered beyond measure. 2.2.2. Lingual Circumstances It has been estimated that before the European contact the population of the Aboriginals on the Australian continent was some 315,000 though recently discovered archaeological evidence suggests that the population levels were somewhere around 750,000. This evidence also indicates that the sustenance of such a population level was actually possible even with the basic farming, hunting and gathering activities being carried out by the Aboriginals (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002). On the other hand some academics have suggested that the population of Australia before the 1788 contact with Europeans was around a million people or even more (Thomson, 2001). Though there is some controversy to the number of Aboriginal Australians living on the continent but there is broad consensus to the presence of some 250 different nations on the continent. Most of these nations were in alliances with each other and each nation was further composed of smaller clans. The amount of clans could be as few as five to six and could be as large as between thirty and forty. It has been shown that each differing nations possessed a different language with a few nations possessing more than one language depending generally on the size of the nation involved. This indicates that in lingual terms Australia was fertile and rich given the large number of languages actively being practices before the British arrival. Investigations have concluded that at the time of the European drive for settlement roughly 250 to 300 languages were spoken by the aboriginal Australians with some 600 different dialects actively in use. However, currently only some 200 dialects are in use anymore (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1999) out of the original 600 dialects. Out of these 200 dialects only 20 dialects are considered out of the danger of extinction (Nathan, 2008). Currently most Aboriginals speak English which indicates the far and wide adoption of the foreign language in Aboriginal circles. A large amount of words and phrases from the Aboriginal vocabulary have been added to the English language as well. The subsequent European drive to settle in Australia eventually caused major damage to the language and customs of the clans and nations as some were driven to extinction at the hands of the settlers. The few clans who managed to resist were able to provide some shelter and cover to their traditions, customs and languages. 3. Current State of Lingual Crisis The current set of Australian Aboriginal languages are composed of various language families that are native to the Australian Aborigines that lived on the Australian continent as well as a few islands around it. However this classification does not include any language included from the Tasmanian region or from the Torres Strait Island groups. The relationship between these language groups is identified at the present though its dimensions are not highly clear. Recent research and investigation into lingual issues has shed further light on these issues and offers promising prospects for connections between these languages (Dixon, 1989). There is some consensus to the fact that there were between 350 and 750 distinct Aboriginal groups and such a number of languages and dialects as well (Walsh, 1991) but in comparison there are less than 150 indigenous languages that are spoken in Australia anymore (Dalby, 1998) with only 20 out of the list of endangered languages. The languages that have survived only have a rate of some 10% of being learned by children in isolated areas where these languages were originally spoken or are being spoken in. As an example, out of the five endangered languages in Western Australia around four languages belong to the Ngaanyatjarra group of the Central and Great Victoria Desert. Bilingual education is being used in some communities successfully in order to educate children. The more pervasively spoken languages in Australia such as Tiwi and Warlpiri have some 1,000 to 3,000 speakers (UNESCO, 2011). A few Aboriginal communities and linguists have shown support for the idea that indigenous languages should be taught through learning programs for language revival or for “post vernacular maintenance” which indicates that teaching of some words and concepts of the related languages to indigenous Australians (Zuckermann, 2009). As far as the question of the Tasmanian people and their languages goes, the Tasmanian people were eliminated early on during the Australian colonial period. The language of the Tasmanian people was lost along with them and there are little records from that period to piece together a complete language. The Tasmanian people survived in isolation from the rest of the mainland for 10,000 years due to the Ice Age so little was known to the outside Aboriginal world of their language. The onslaught of the Europeans destroyed what little was known of the language although it is speculated that the Tasmanian language had phonological similarities to the languages of the mainland. 4. Causations behind Loss of Language A number of factors can be attributed for the loss of language of the Australian Aboriginal population including ethnic cleansing, marginalisation, socio economic backwardness, lack of recording methods amongst others. These factors are discussed below in greater detail. 4.1. Depletion of Numbers A large number of Aboriginal nations and clans were wiped out altogether due to the onslaught of the European settlers throughout the centuries following the first landing at Sydney Cove. The expansionist attitude of the invading Europeans was bent upon capturing land in order to increase their fortune. With the discovery of gold, the dynamics shifted but the base contention remained the same – increasing the fortunes of the settlers. The rapid expansion of the immigrant populations in the wake of the gold rush created further problems for the Aboriginal people who were further pushed into a corner by the incoming settlers. In an effort to explore more area for gold extraction the settlers used everything in their arsenals to displace the indigenous population. The continuous displacement of the Aboriginal population at the hands of the settlers has meant that entire clans and nations were swept out altogether. The disappearance of entire clans and nations meant that their collective identities, culture, customs and language became extinct. The vast depletion of native Aborigines took its toll on the languages being spoken as well. 4.2. Lack of Recording Techniques When the European settlers arrived in Australia they found a host of Aboriginal nations that spoke unique languages but did not possess any methods to record them at all. The lack of record keeping meant that as the language speakers disappeared so did any remaining traces of the language itself. A number of indigenous Australian languages disappeared altogether such as the Tasmanian group of languages because there were absolutely no written or other records of such languages. The lack of recording techniques such as audio and video recording in that age meant that no alternative forms of recording could be used to record these languages. 4.3. Socio Economic Backwardness Over time as the indigenous Australians were pushed to the margins of society, they crept into a phase of socio economic backwardness that is generally characterised as the circle of poverty. The Aboriginal population was far too hard pressed to care about their food and lodging to dedicate any real time to the preservation of culture and language. Given the fact that a large number of languages and dialects needed to be preserved, it was harder because a large amount of dedicated efforts would have been required for the preservation. The lack of any governmental support throughout the centuries except for a few decades recently also meant that the Aborigines had little resources to spare for the preservation of language. 5. Conclusion Various developments over the years have affected the status of Aboriginal languages in Australia. The immigration of foreign settlers and their expansionist policies all had negative effects on the Aboriginal languages being spoken in Australia before the advent of the foreigners. The Aboriginal languages were further pushed into the corner due to their socio economic backwardness, the lack of recording techniques as well as vast decreases in their numbers over the years. The government’s current efforts to rehabilitate the Aboriginal languages are not doing enough to make a lasting impact. 6. Bibliography Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1999. 4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 1999. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.NSF/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/aadb12e0bbec2820ca2570ec001117a5!OpenDocument" http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.NSF/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/aadb12e0bbec2820ca2570ec001117a5!OpenDocument [Accessed 21 November 2011]. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002. 1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2002. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/94713ad445ff1425ca25682000192af2/bfc28642d31c215cca256b350010b3f4!OpenDocument" http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/94713ad445ff1425ca25682000192af2/bfc28642d31c215cca256b350010b3f4!OpenDocument [Accessed 21 November 2011]. Bowern, C. & Koch, H., 2004. Australian Languages: Classification and the comparative method. Sydney: John Benjamins. Caldwell, J.C., 1987. Population. In W. Vamplew, ed. Australians: Historical Statistics. Broadway: Syme & Weldon Associates. pp.23-26. Dalby, A., 1998. Dictionary of Languages. Bloomsburg: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. Dixon, R.M.W., 1989. Searching for Aboriginal Languages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Evans, R., 2007. A History of Queensland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nathan, D., 2008. Aboriginal Languages of Australia. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.dnathan.com/VL/austLang.htm" http://www.dnathan.com/VL/austLang.htm [Accessed 21 November 2011]. Price, C., 1987. Immigration and Ethnic Origin. In W. Vamplew, ed. Australians: Historical Statistics. Broadway: Syme & Weldon Associates. pp.2-22. Thomson, N., 2001. Indigenous Australia: Indigenous Health. In J. Jupp, ed. The Australian people: an encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.153. UNESCO, 2011. Endangered languages. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/cultural-diversity/languages-and-multilingualism/endangered-languages/" http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/cultural-diversity/languages-and-multilingualism/endangered-languages/ [Accessed 21 November 2011]. Walsh, M., 1991. Overview of indigenous languages of Australia. In S. Romaine, ed. Language in Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Zuckermann, G., 2009. Aboriginal languages deserve revival. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion/aboriginal-languages-deserve-revival/story-e6frgcko-1225766141160" http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion/aboriginal-languages-deserve-revival/story-e6frgcko-1225766141160 [Accessed 21 November 2011]. Read More