Episode 26 Australian Languages Part 2

Dr John McWhorter (2019)

Film Review

Australia used to have more language families, but over several thousand years the  Pamu-Nyungan languages (originally limited to the far north) spread south and overran other languages. Tasmanian languages separated from mainland languages about 12,000 years ago. Historically Tasmania had 12 languages belonging to three district families. They ceased to be spoken after 1830, when the British rounded up all indigenous Tasmanians, exiled them to Flinders Island and made it illegal to speak their native languages.

A creole (see What Are Creole Languages?) known as Kriol is spoken more widely than other aboriginal languages. It’s a lot like Tok Pisin  spoken in New Guinea but incorporates aboriginal words.

Ergativity (in which the subject adds a suffix if there’s a direct object) is common in Australian languages (and in the Dravidian languages spoken in southern India).

Djyrbal, which used to have multiple genders, now has only four grammatical genders:

• men and beasts
• women, the sun, fire, water, stinging animals and animals that sound like women
• fruit and fruit treas
• inanimate objects and everything else.

In contrast, some Australian languages have oddly few words. Jingulu has only three verbs: come, do and go.

When he discovered Australia, Captain cook took down a few words of Gugu Imatyr, including kangaroo.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/6120000/6120052