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Recent papers in Barngarla
Academic Reference: Zuckermann, Ghil'ad & Monaghan, Paul (2012). "Revival linguistics and the new media: Talknology in the service of the Barngarla language reclamation", pp. 119-126 of Foundation for Endangered Languages XVI Conference:... more
Academic Reference:
Zuckermann, Ghil'ad & Monaghan, Paul (2012). "Revival linguistics and the new media: Talknology in the service of the Barngarla language reclamation", pp. 119-126 of Foundation for Endangered Languages XVI Conference: Language Endangerment in the 21st Century:Globalisation, Technology & New Media. Auckland, New Zealand.
------------------------------
Revival Linguistics and the New Media:
Talknology in the service of the Barngarla Language Reclamation
Ghil‘ad Zuckermann
Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages
School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, SA Adelaide 5005, Australia
[[email protected]]
Paul Monaghan
Mobile Language Team
School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, SA Adelaide 5005, Australia
[[email protected]]
Abstract
Revival Linguistics is a new branch of linguistics, currently being established at Adelaide. It analyses comparatively and systematically the universal constraints and global mechanisms on the one hand (see Zuckermann 2009), and local peculiarities on the other hand, apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world (see Zuckermann & Walsh 2011). A branch of both linguistics and applied linguistics, it combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning (language reclamation is the most extreme case of Second Language Learning).
The study: The Barngarla language (spelled Parnkalla by Schürmann 1844) is a no-longer spoken Thura-Yura Pama-Nyungan Aboriginal language of the Lakes Cultural Region of South Australia. Most recently Zuckermann, Monaghan and the Barngarla community have launched a reclamation of this sleeping beauty in three major rural/urban centres on the Eyre Peninsula, namely Port Lincoln, Whyalla, and Port Augusta. The presence of three Barngarla populations several hours drive apart presents the revival linguist with a need for a sophisticated reclamation involving ‘talknological’ innovations, such as online chatting, newsgroups, photo and resource sharing through a Barngarla wiki. This paper also examines the tensions accompanying the creation of a Barngarla ‘community of practice’ (cf. Wenger 1998) in a post-traditional Aboriginal context. In important ways, the new talknology poses a direct challenge to existing authority structures relating to the everyday management of knowledge, collaboration and participation. We predict that how the broader Barngarla community negotiates these issues will have an important bearing on the ultimate results of the reclamation project.
Revival Linguistics
Revival Linguistics is a new branch of linguistics, currently being established at Adelaide. It analyses comparatively and systematically the universal constraints and global mechanisms on the one hand (see Zuckermann 2009), and local peculiarities and idiosyncrasies on the other hand, apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world (Zuckermann & Walsh 2011). A branch of both linguistics and applied linguistics, it combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning (language reclamation is the most extreme case of Second Language Learning).
Revival Linguistics complements the established field of documentary linguistics, which records endangered languages before they fall asleep. Revival Linguistics ought to revise the fields of grammaticography (writing grammars) and lexicography (writing dictionaries): Grammars and dictionaries ought to be written for language reclamation, i.e. in a user-friendly way, for communities, not only for linguists. For example, juxtapose Lutheran missionary Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann’s 1844 spelling of the Barngarla word nunyara ‘recovery’, which ignores the English environment, thus resulting in the pronunciation nanYAra rather than NOONyara.
Closely related to contact linguistics, Revival Linguistics changes the field of historical linguistics, e.g. by weakening the Family Tree model, which implies that a language ought to have only one parent. Assisting Aboriginal communities in a realistic, non-purisitic way, without selling them myths, Revival Linguistics promotes efficiency and efficacy in language reclamation.
Certainly Australia has been made the ‘Unlucky Country’ through the historical processes of linguicide (language killing) and glottophagy (language eating). These twin forces were in operation from the early colonial period. In her detailed study of the role missionary language practices in the early years of the South Australian colony, Scrimgeour quotes the following colonial language ideology: ‘Mr Forster afterwards adverted to the present mode of teaching the children in their own language. He, with all respect to the Missionaries, would say, on several grounds, that this was wrong. The natives would be sooner civilized if their language was extinct. The children taught would afterwards mix only with whites, where their own language would be of no use – the use of their language would preserve their prejudices and debasement, and their language was not sufficient to express the ideas of civilized life. He gave the Missionaries full credit for their talents and zeal, but he thought it would be better to teach the children in English’ (from Report on a public meeting of the South Australian Missionary Society in aid of the German Mission to the Aborigines, Southern Australian, 8 September 1843; Scrimgeour, 2007: 116, italics added).
In the case of glottophagy, Governor George Grey noted: ‘The merchant in London who lays on a vessel for a certain port, regards the affair as a mere mercantile speculation, but could he trace out the results he effects in their remotest ramifications, he would stand astonished at the changes he produces. With the wizard wand of commerce, he touches a lone and trackless forest, and at his bidding, cities arise, and the hum and dust of trade collect – away are swept ancient races; antique laws and customs moulder into oblivion. The strong-holds of murder and superstition are cleansed, and the Gospel is preached amongst ignorant and savage men. The ruder languages disappear successively, and the tongue of England alone is heard around’ (Grey 1841: 200-201, italics added). Grey was a strong supporter of Aboriginal languages, encouraging Schürmann’s work documenting the Adelaide language (Kaurna) and Barngarla at Port Lincoln (see below).
With globalization, homogenization and Coca-colonization there will be more and more groups all over the world added to the forlorn club of the lost-heritage peoples. Language reclamation will become increasingly relevant as people seek to recover their cultural autonomy, empower their spiritual and intellectual sovereignty, and improve their wellbeing. There are various ethical, aesthetic and utilitarian benefits of language revival: for example, social justice, diversity and employability, respectively.
Zuckermann (2012) has enthusiastically called for Native Tongue Title and linguistic human rights, suggesting that the Australian government ought to compensate Indigenous people not only for the loss of land but equally importantly for the loss of language. Zuckermann has suggested to the Australian government to define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vernaculars as official languages.
Furthermore, it is predicted that in the future the very insights offered by Revival Linguistics will themselves become part of Indigenous Intellectual Property, when Slovenes and Estonians come to Australia and New Zealand to ask Aboriginal Australians and Maori to assist them in their own European language resurrection.
There is an urgent need to produce perspicacious LINGUISTIC and socio-linguistic insights relevant to language reclamation. Otherwise, linguists or language workers would not be able to offer, if asked by Indigenous people, efficient and efficacious advice. There are linguistic constraints applicable to all revival attempts. Mastering them would help revivalists and First Nations leaders to work more efficiently; for example, to focus more on basic vocabulary and verbal conjugations than on sounds and word order – see Zuckermann (2009: http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/Hybridity_versus_Revivability.pdf.
Revival linguistics would assist revivalists to be more realistic and to abandon discouraging slogans such as "Give us authenticity or give us death!" The following are among the basic principles that the revival linguist encourages in Aboriginal communities:
i. If your language falls asleep: stop, revive, survive!
ii. If you revive a language, embrace the hybridity of the emerging tongue; and
iii. If your language is healthy, assist others in linguistic need.
One day we may invent devices to “inject” a language into our brains. But until then, any attempt to reclaim a hibernating language will result in a hybrid that combines components from the revivalists' and documenters' mother tongues and, of course, the target language. In the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld: "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"
The Study
Figure 1: Map of Traditional Aboriginal Country after Norman Tindale (adapted from Hercus 1999)
The Barngarla language reclamation project has arisen through partnerships between the University of Adelaide (Linguistics and the Mobile Language Team) and the Barngarla people. Although still in its infancy, consultations began in September 2011, a number of very significant steps have been made towards reclaiming this ‘sleeping beauty’. Without doubt, the key challenge has been to develop a strategy for the reclamation of the language simultaneously and without favour in three major regional centres. In ways that will be elaborated below, this multi-sited, regional or peripheral reclamation makes demands that are very different to those often found in metropolitan reclamation contexts (e.g. Kaurna, cf. Amery...
Zuckermann, Ghil'ad & Monaghan, Paul (2012). "Revival linguistics and the new media: Talknology in the service of the Barngarla language reclamation", pp. 119-126 of Foundation for Endangered Languages XVI Conference: Language Endangerment in the 21st Century:Globalisation, Technology & New Media. Auckland, New Zealand.
------------------------------
Revival Linguistics and the New Media:
Talknology in the service of the Barngarla Language Reclamation
Ghil‘ad Zuckermann
Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages
School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, SA Adelaide 5005, Australia
[[email protected]]
Paul Monaghan
Mobile Language Team
School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, SA Adelaide 5005, Australia
[[email protected]]
Abstract
Revival Linguistics is a new branch of linguistics, currently being established at Adelaide. It analyses comparatively and systematically the universal constraints and global mechanisms on the one hand (see Zuckermann 2009), and local peculiarities on the other hand, apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world (see Zuckermann & Walsh 2011). A branch of both linguistics and applied linguistics, it combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning (language reclamation is the most extreme case of Second Language Learning).
The study: The Barngarla language (spelled Parnkalla by Schürmann 1844) is a no-longer spoken Thura-Yura Pama-Nyungan Aboriginal language of the Lakes Cultural Region of South Australia. Most recently Zuckermann, Monaghan and the Barngarla community have launched a reclamation of this sleeping beauty in three major rural/urban centres on the Eyre Peninsula, namely Port Lincoln, Whyalla, and Port Augusta. The presence of three Barngarla populations several hours drive apart presents the revival linguist with a need for a sophisticated reclamation involving ‘talknological’ innovations, such as online chatting, newsgroups, photo and resource sharing through a Barngarla wiki. This paper also examines the tensions accompanying the creation of a Barngarla ‘community of practice’ (cf. Wenger 1998) in a post-traditional Aboriginal context. In important ways, the new talknology poses a direct challenge to existing authority structures relating to the everyday management of knowledge, collaboration and participation. We predict that how the broader Barngarla community negotiates these issues will have an important bearing on the ultimate results of the reclamation project.
Revival Linguistics
Revival Linguistics is a new branch of linguistics, currently being established at Adelaide. It analyses comparatively and systematically the universal constraints and global mechanisms on the one hand (see Zuckermann 2009), and local peculiarities and idiosyncrasies on the other hand, apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world (Zuckermann & Walsh 2011). A branch of both linguistics and applied linguistics, it combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning (language reclamation is the most extreme case of Second Language Learning).
Revival Linguistics complements the established field of documentary linguistics, which records endangered languages before they fall asleep. Revival Linguistics ought to revise the fields of grammaticography (writing grammars) and lexicography (writing dictionaries): Grammars and dictionaries ought to be written for language reclamation, i.e. in a user-friendly way, for communities, not only for linguists. For example, juxtapose Lutheran missionary Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann’s 1844 spelling of the Barngarla word nunyara ‘recovery’, which ignores the English environment, thus resulting in the pronunciation nanYAra rather than NOONyara.
Closely related to contact linguistics, Revival Linguistics changes the field of historical linguistics, e.g. by weakening the Family Tree model, which implies that a language ought to have only one parent. Assisting Aboriginal communities in a realistic, non-purisitic way, without selling them myths, Revival Linguistics promotes efficiency and efficacy in language reclamation.
Certainly Australia has been made the ‘Unlucky Country’ through the historical processes of linguicide (language killing) and glottophagy (language eating). These twin forces were in operation from the early colonial period. In her detailed study of the role missionary language practices in the early years of the South Australian colony, Scrimgeour quotes the following colonial language ideology: ‘Mr Forster afterwards adverted to the present mode of teaching the children in their own language. He, with all respect to the Missionaries, would say, on several grounds, that this was wrong. The natives would be sooner civilized if their language was extinct. The children taught would afterwards mix only with whites, where their own language would be of no use – the use of their language would preserve their prejudices and debasement, and their language was not sufficient to express the ideas of civilized life. He gave the Missionaries full credit for their talents and zeal, but he thought it would be better to teach the children in English’ (from Report on a public meeting of the South Australian Missionary Society in aid of the German Mission to the Aborigines, Southern Australian, 8 September 1843; Scrimgeour, 2007: 116, italics added).
In the case of glottophagy, Governor George Grey noted: ‘The merchant in London who lays on a vessel for a certain port, regards the affair as a mere mercantile speculation, but could he trace out the results he effects in their remotest ramifications, he would stand astonished at the changes he produces. With the wizard wand of commerce, he touches a lone and trackless forest, and at his bidding, cities arise, and the hum and dust of trade collect – away are swept ancient races; antique laws and customs moulder into oblivion. The strong-holds of murder and superstition are cleansed, and the Gospel is preached amongst ignorant and savage men. The ruder languages disappear successively, and the tongue of England alone is heard around’ (Grey 1841: 200-201, italics added). Grey was a strong supporter of Aboriginal languages, encouraging Schürmann’s work documenting the Adelaide language (Kaurna) and Barngarla at Port Lincoln (see below).
With globalization, homogenization and Coca-colonization there will be more and more groups all over the world added to the forlorn club of the lost-heritage peoples. Language reclamation will become increasingly relevant as people seek to recover their cultural autonomy, empower their spiritual and intellectual sovereignty, and improve their wellbeing. There are various ethical, aesthetic and utilitarian benefits of language revival: for example, social justice, diversity and employability, respectively.
Zuckermann (2012) has enthusiastically called for Native Tongue Title and linguistic human rights, suggesting that the Australian government ought to compensate Indigenous people not only for the loss of land but equally importantly for the loss of language. Zuckermann has suggested to the Australian government to define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vernaculars as official languages.
Furthermore, it is predicted that in the future the very insights offered by Revival Linguistics will themselves become part of Indigenous Intellectual Property, when Slovenes and Estonians come to Australia and New Zealand to ask Aboriginal Australians and Maori to assist them in their own European language resurrection.
There is an urgent need to produce perspicacious LINGUISTIC and socio-linguistic insights relevant to language reclamation. Otherwise, linguists or language workers would not be able to offer, if asked by Indigenous people, efficient and efficacious advice. There are linguistic constraints applicable to all revival attempts. Mastering them would help revivalists and First Nations leaders to work more efficiently; for example, to focus more on basic vocabulary and verbal conjugations than on sounds and word order – see Zuckermann (2009: http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/Hybridity_versus_Revivability.pdf.
Revival linguistics would assist revivalists to be more realistic and to abandon discouraging slogans such as "Give us authenticity or give us death!" The following are among the basic principles that the revival linguist encourages in Aboriginal communities:
i. If your language falls asleep: stop, revive, survive!
ii. If you revive a language, embrace the hybridity of the emerging tongue; and
iii. If your language is healthy, assist others in linguistic need.
One day we may invent devices to “inject” a language into our brains. But until then, any attempt to reclaim a hibernating language will result in a hybrid that combines components from the revivalists' and documenters' mother tongues and, of course, the target language. In the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld: "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"
The Study
Figure 1: Map of Traditional Aboriginal Country after Norman Tindale (adapted from Hercus 1999)
The Barngarla language reclamation project has arisen through partnerships between the University of Adelaide (Linguistics and the Mobile Language Team) and the Barngarla people. Although still in its infancy, consultations began in September 2011, a number of very significant steps have been made towards reclaiming this ‘sleeping beauty’. Without doubt, the key challenge has been to develop a strategy for the reclamation of the language simultaneously and without favour in three major regional centres. In ways that will be elaborated below, this multi-sited, regional or peripheral reclamation makes demands that are very different to those often found in metropolitan reclamation contexts (e.g. Kaurna, cf. Amery...
Stop, revive and survive Ghil'ad Zuckermann 6 June 2012 The Australian Higher Education LINGUICIDE (language killing) and glottophagy (language eating) have made Australia the unlucky country. With globalisation, homogenisation and... more
Stop, revive and survive
Ghil'ad Zuckermann
6 June 2012
The Australian
Higher Education
LINGUICIDE (language killing) and glottophagy (language eating) have made Australia the unlucky country. With globalisation, homogenisation and Coca-colonisation there will be more and more groups added to the forlorn club of the lost-heritage peoples.
Language reclamation will become increasingly relevant as people seek to recover their cultural autonomy, empower their spiritual and intellectual sovereignty, and improve wellbeing.
There are various ethical, aesthetic and utilitarian benefits of language revival - for example, historical justice, diversity and employability, respectively. There is an urgent need to offer perspicacious insights relevant to language reclamation.
Revival linguistics is a new discipline, being established at Adelaide, studying comparatively and systematically the universal constraints, global mechanisms and local peculiarities and idiosyncrasies apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world. Revival linguistics combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning. After all, language reclamation is the most extreme case of second-language learning.
Revival linguistics complements the established area of documentary linguistics, which records endangered languages before they fall asleep.
There is a need to revise the fields of grammaticography (writing grammars) and lexicography (writing dictionaries): grammars and dictionaries ought to be written for language reclamation in a user-friendly way, for communities, not only for linguists. For example, we should avoid highfalutin, often Latin-based grammatical terminology.
We should also offer communities a user-friendly spelling. Juxtapose Lutheran missionary Clamor Wilhelm Schurmann's 1844 user-unfriendly spelling "nunyara" for the Barngarla (Parnkalla) word for "recovery". Ignoring the English environment, this spelling resulted in the pronunciation nanYAra rather than NOONyara. While nunyara suits documentary linguistics, NOONyara would be preferred from a revival linguistic perspective.
For linguists, the first stage of any language revival must involve a long period of observation and careful listening while learning, mapping and characterising the specific needs, desires and potentials of an indigenous or minority or culturally endangered community. Only then can one inspire and assist.
That said, there are linguistic constraints applicable to all revival attempts. Mastering them would help revivalists and first nations' leaders to work more efficiently. For example, it is easier to resurrect basic vocabulary and verbal conjugations than sounds and word order.
Revivalists should be realistic and abandon discouraging, counter-productive slogans such as "Give us authenticity or give us death!"
Closely related to contact linguistics, revival linguistics changes the field of historical linguistics by, for instance, weakening the family tree-model, which implies that a language has only one parent.
One day we may invent devices to "inject" a language into our brains. But until then, any attempt to reclaim a hibernating language will result in a hybrid that combines components from the revivalists' and documenters' mother tongues and, of course, the target sleeping language. In the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld, "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"
Native tongue title and language rights should be promoted. The government ought to define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vernaculars as official languages of Australia. We must change the linguistic landscape of Whyalla and elsewhere. Signs should be in both English and the local indigenous language. We ought to acknowledge intellectual property of indigenous knowledge including language, music and dance.
Furthermore, in the future the very insights offered by revival linguistics will become part of Aboriginal intellectual property, when Slovenes or Estonians come to Australia to ask indigenous Australians to assist them in their own European language resurrection.
The punchline? One, if your language is endangered, do not allow it to fall asleep. Two, if your language falls asleep: stop, revive, survive! Three, if you revive a language, embrace the hybridity of the emerging tongue. Four, if your language is healthy, assist others in linguistic need.
Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann is Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide.
Ghil'ad Zuckermann
6 June 2012
The Australian
Higher Education
LINGUICIDE (language killing) and glottophagy (language eating) have made Australia the unlucky country. With globalisation, homogenisation and Coca-colonisation there will be more and more groups added to the forlorn club of the lost-heritage peoples.
Language reclamation will become increasingly relevant as people seek to recover their cultural autonomy, empower their spiritual and intellectual sovereignty, and improve wellbeing.
There are various ethical, aesthetic and utilitarian benefits of language revival - for example, historical justice, diversity and employability, respectively. There is an urgent need to offer perspicacious insights relevant to language reclamation.
Revival linguistics is a new discipline, being established at Adelaide, studying comparatively and systematically the universal constraints, global mechanisms and local peculiarities and idiosyncrasies apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world. Revival linguistics combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning. After all, language reclamation is the most extreme case of second-language learning.
Revival linguistics complements the established area of documentary linguistics, which records endangered languages before they fall asleep.
There is a need to revise the fields of grammaticography (writing grammars) and lexicography (writing dictionaries): grammars and dictionaries ought to be written for language reclamation in a user-friendly way, for communities, not only for linguists. For example, we should avoid highfalutin, often Latin-based grammatical terminology.
We should also offer communities a user-friendly spelling. Juxtapose Lutheran missionary Clamor Wilhelm Schurmann's 1844 user-unfriendly spelling "nunyara" for the Barngarla (Parnkalla) word for "recovery". Ignoring the English environment, this spelling resulted in the pronunciation nanYAra rather than NOONyara. While nunyara suits documentary linguistics, NOONyara would be preferred from a revival linguistic perspective.
For linguists, the first stage of any language revival must involve a long period of observation and careful listening while learning, mapping and characterising the specific needs, desires and potentials of an indigenous or minority or culturally endangered community. Only then can one inspire and assist.
That said, there are linguistic constraints applicable to all revival attempts. Mastering them would help revivalists and first nations' leaders to work more efficiently. For example, it is easier to resurrect basic vocabulary and verbal conjugations than sounds and word order.
Revivalists should be realistic and abandon discouraging, counter-productive slogans such as "Give us authenticity or give us death!"
Closely related to contact linguistics, revival linguistics changes the field of historical linguistics by, for instance, weakening the family tree-model, which implies that a language has only one parent.
One day we may invent devices to "inject" a language into our brains. But until then, any attempt to reclaim a hibernating language will result in a hybrid that combines components from the revivalists' and documenters' mother tongues and, of course, the target sleeping language. In the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld, "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"
Native tongue title and language rights should be promoted. The government ought to define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vernaculars as official languages of Australia. We must change the linguistic landscape of Whyalla and elsewhere. Signs should be in both English and the local indigenous language. We ought to acknowledge intellectual property of indigenous knowledge including language, music and dance.
Furthermore, in the future the very insights offered by revival linguistics will become part of Aboriginal intellectual property, when Slovenes or Estonians come to Australia to ask indigenous Australians to assist them in their own European language resurrection.
The punchline? One, if your language is endangered, do not allow it to fall asleep. Two, if your language falls asleep: stop, revive, survive! Three, if you revive a language, embrace the hybridity of the emerging tongue. Four, if your language is healthy, assist others in linguistic need.
Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann is Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide.
Reviving Barngarla language By Daniela Dean May 15, 2013, 11:30 p.m. The Barngarla language is seeing a revival in Whyalla and the Eyre Peninsula region. See your ad here This revival has come in the form of courses that... more
Reviving Barngarla language
By Daniela Dean May 15, 2013, 11:30 p.m.
The Barngarla language is seeing a revival in Whyalla and the Eyre Peninsula region.
See your ad here
This revival has come in the form of courses that have been run in Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Lincoln.
There have been six courses run across all three towns in the last year, the latest of which occurred in Whyalla on Monday, May 13 and Tuesday, May 14.
The program is the brainchild of Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann.
Professor Zuckermann has been assisted by the Office for the Arts Indigenous Languages Support, and has collaborated with the Mobile Language Team of the University of Adelaide.
This latest course was run at the newly established Hincks Avenue and Clutterbuck Street, Gabmididi Manoo (Barngarla for "Learning Together") Children and Family Centre.
The course was attended by some local Barngarla people residing in Whyalla including resident Dawn Taylor.
Dawn brought along her daughters and her grandson to the course, in order to expose all three generations to their heritage language.
Community development coordinator Anita Taylor said it was amazing to have Professor Zuckermann helping the Barngarla people reclaim their language.
"The language has always been here, but we've not had the opportunity to wake it up," Ms Taylor said.
"The feeling of identity and excitement to be able to speak our own language is fantastic."
Language is at the centre of the course teachings, but the course is so much more.
Professor Zuckerman has been an authority on linguistics for many years and his first hand experience at helping to revive languages that have been lost, speaks volumes.
It is his firm belief, one that has been proven by other scholars in varied fields, that language is tied to many aspects of a person's wellbeing.
"Personal identity, community empowerment, cultural autonomy, spiritual, intellectual sovereignty and improved wellbeing are just some of the added benefits that come from a people being proficient in and reconnected to their language," Professor Zuckermann said.
Professor Zuckermann hopes these courses will eventually be conducted by Barngarla leaders themselves, so they can spread the language among their own communities and revive it to its full form.
As part of the reclamation course, the Barngarla language is not only being taught as it existed in its original context, but also as a living thriving entity.
Using the language rules as they are known, participants of the Whyalla Barngarla reclamation course made up a word for beanie - ganoo ganoo moona, literally translating to 'warm hat'.
They also embraced the Port Augusta coinage for internet - irbiyarnoo, a compound word consisting of irbi meaning information and yarnoo meaning net.
Professor Zuckermann's interest in the Barngarla language started in a very round about way and the journey has brought him from Oxford and Cambridge in England via Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and Adelaide all the way to Whyalla.
Professor Zuckermann has been establishing a new interdisciplinary field of enquiry called Revivalistics, including Revival Linguistics - to assist revival attempts all over the globe.
In 2011, he was also looking for a specific local language to revive.
Being based in Adelaide, he started to travel through South Australia in order to meet local indigenous people and ask about their native language.
Arriving in Port Lincoln, near Coffin Bay Professor Zuckermann began enquiring and found that the beautiful native language of the Barngarla people of Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Lincoln was subject to linguicide (language killing) and was no-longer spoken.
At the time, Professor Zuckermann had researched Australian Aboriginal languages and discovered that out of 250 languages that had once existed, only 18 (about seven percent) were now alive and kicking, spoken by all children.
Reviving languages is something that is close to Professor Zuckermann's heart, given that his mother tongue is revived Hebrew, a language that was not spoken 127 years ago.
Ms Taylor said it was a scary realisation that these languages were dying out.
"If you go back to colonisation, native cultures were almost wiped out back then, and now to have our languages taken away as well, it's taking our culture away in a different way," Ms Taylor said.
"We're not a dying race, we are still thriving and bouncing back.
See your ad here
"People like this (Professor Zuckermann) are waking it up again."
If you are interested in attending a Barngarla language reclamation program, contact Anita Taylor on [email protected] or go to www.facebook.com/Barngarla.
For more information on the stories of Barngarla people that have lost their language go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZPjdNaLCho.
By Daniela Dean May 15, 2013, 11:30 p.m.
The Barngarla language is seeing a revival in Whyalla and the Eyre Peninsula region.
See your ad here
This revival has come in the form of courses that have been run in Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Lincoln.
There have been six courses run across all three towns in the last year, the latest of which occurred in Whyalla on Monday, May 13 and Tuesday, May 14.
The program is the brainchild of Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann.
Professor Zuckermann has been assisted by the Office for the Arts Indigenous Languages Support, and has collaborated with the Mobile Language Team of the University of Adelaide.
This latest course was run at the newly established Hincks Avenue and Clutterbuck Street, Gabmididi Manoo (Barngarla for "Learning Together") Children and Family Centre.
The course was attended by some local Barngarla people residing in Whyalla including resident Dawn Taylor.
Dawn brought along her daughters and her grandson to the course, in order to expose all three generations to their heritage language.
Community development coordinator Anita Taylor said it was amazing to have Professor Zuckermann helping the Barngarla people reclaim their language.
"The language has always been here, but we've not had the opportunity to wake it up," Ms Taylor said.
"The feeling of identity and excitement to be able to speak our own language is fantastic."
Language is at the centre of the course teachings, but the course is so much more.
Professor Zuckerman has been an authority on linguistics for many years and his first hand experience at helping to revive languages that have been lost, speaks volumes.
It is his firm belief, one that has been proven by other scholars in varied fields, that language is tied to many aspects of a person's wellbeing.
"Personal identity, community empowerment, cultural autonomy, spiritual, intellectual sovereignty and improved wellbeing are just some of the added benefits that come from a people being proficient in and reconnected to their language," Professor Zuckermann said.
Professor Zuckermann hopes these courses will eventually be conducted by Barngarla leaders themselves, so they can spread the language among their own communities and revive it to its full form.
As part of the reclamation course, the Barngarla language is not only being taught as it existed in its original context, but also as a living thriving entity.
Using the language rules as they are known, participants of the Whyalla Barngarla reclamation course made up a word for beanie - ganoo ganoo moona, literally translating to 'warm hat'.
They also embraced the Port Augusta coinage for internet - irbiyarnoo, a compound word consisting of irbi meaning information and yarnoo meaning net.
Professor Zuckermann's interest in the Barngarla language started in a very round about way and the journey has brought him from Oxford and Cambridge in England via Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and Adelaide all the way to Whyalla.
Professor Zuckermann has been establishing a new interdisciplinary field of enquiry called Revivalistics, including Revival Linguistics - to assist revival attempts all over the globe.
In 2011, he was also looking for a specific local language to revive.
Being based in Adelaide, he started to travel through South Australia in order to meet local indigenous people and ask about their native language.
Arriving in Port Lincoln, near Coffin Bay Professor Zuckermann began enquiring and found that the beautiful native language of the Barngarla people of Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Lincoln was subject to linguicide (language killing) and was no-longer spoken.
At the time, Professor Zuckermann had researched Australian Aboriginal languages and discovered that out of 250 languages that had once existed, only 18 (about seven percent) were now alive and kicking, spoken by all children.
Reviving languages is something that is close to Professor Zuckermann's heart, given that his mother tongue is revived Hebrew, a language that was not spoken 127 years ago.
Ms Taylor said it was a scary realisation that these languages were dying out.
"If you go back to colonisation, native cultures were almost wiped out back then, and now to have our languages taken away as well, it's taking our culture away in a different way," Ms Taylor said.
"We're not a dying race, we are still thriving and bouncing back.
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"People like this (Professor Zuckermann) are waking it up again."
If you are interested in attending a Barngarla language reclamation program, contact Anita Taylor on [email protected] or go to www.facebook.com/Barngarla.
For more information on the stories of Barngarla people that have lost their language go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZPjdNaLCho.
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