Kun-dangwok: “clan lects” and Ausbau in western Arnhem Land

Language & Communication

2018

Introduction Although multilingualism has been the norm throughout human history, we still know very little about the full range of societal multilingualisms. To flesh out the picture, this special issue considers Indigenous contexts where the hierarchical models of multilingualism often naturalised by nation states play a more marginal role (e.g. Fishman 1967; Lüpke 2015, 2016). Current discussions of multilingualism may treat sociolinguistic complexity or 'superdiversity' (e.g. Blommaert 2013; Vertovek 2006) as a relatively new phenomenon; a product of our increasingly mobile and diverse era. Yet these conditions, that have long existed in more 'peripheral' local language communities, seem to be simply going "mainstream at the metropole" (Silverstein 2015: 7). Attention to multilingualism in Indigenous contexts tends to focus exclusively on the dynamics between local languages on the one hand and new languages that grow or come into being as a result of colonialism on the other, such as English, Portuguese, Nheengatú or Australian Kriol. In some regions there has been early and continuing attention to Indigenous multilingualism, such as in Americanist work on pre-contact cross-language dynamics, established in the Boasian tradition of anthropological linguistics (Kroskrity, Epps). However, in general there has been a lack of attention to relations between Indigenous languages. These dynamics can be overshadowed by a focus on colonial-Indigenous relations or rendered invisible by assumptions about traditional life informed by linguistic nationalism. As the papers in this special issue show, intra-Indigenous multilingualisms are an integral part of intra-Indigenous relations more generally, and distinct from colonial-Indigenous relations. For example, Epps notes that while code-switching between Hup and Portuguese is common, code-switching between Hup and another Indigenous language would evoke strong censure (cf. Vaughan in press). The papers in this issue contextualise Indigenous multilingualisms, revealing the ways that multiple Indigenous languages come to be deeply embedded into the fabric of daily life. Some reflect on the effects of linguistic work on local language ideologies, such as classifications of Indigenous languages and the valorisation of certain Indigenous languages by missionaries or governments (Narayanan, Vaughan). The papers in this issue compare observations about contemporary multilingualism with records of multilingualism from earlier contact eras and reconstructions of pre-contact patterns of language use. Intensely multilingual ecologies have been reported at various times and places within the present-day United States, Australia, South America, Melanesia, and West Africa. Many of the Indigenous communities where multilingualism has endured are at global 'peripheries'; the edges of imperial, colonial and globalizing projects (May 2016; Pietikäinen & Kelly-Holmes 2013; Silverstein 2015). In researching Indigenous multilingualisms, it has typically been a challenge for researchers to 'un...

Section: Competing Pressures In Language Contact and Variationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here the same processes we are familiar with play out on a much smaller stage (cf. Garde 2008). A model of non-polyglossic multilingualism needs to encompass the range of ways linguistic nationalism is expressed at a smaller scale where groups are often overlapping, fluid and not clearly defined.…”

Section: Theorising Multilingualism(s)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous multilingualisms past and present

Vaughan

Language & Communication

2018

“…Other current work on social organisation in western Arnhem land also uses the term ‘clan’ (Garde ), which is not to say that the term has not generated significant debate. For example Catherine and Ronald Berndt avoided the term in their research in the region (Berndt & Berndt ).…”

Section: Configurations Of Language and Identity: Australian Anthropomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, it varies between languages, as to whether each clan is even ascribed a specific variety. For Gunwinyguan languages such as Kunwinjku and Kunbarlang each clan is seen to possess its own language (Garde ), but speakers of Mawng do not have the view that each clan has its own variety of the Mawng language. Instead, specific varieties of Mawng are said to have been spoken by different clan aggregates in the past.…”

Section: A Note On Languages Clans and Clan Aggregatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These patrilineal clans are most commonly referred to in Maung as nguya. Nguya names refer both to an area of country and the group of people with whom it is associated (Gould 2016: 620). Other current work on social organisation in western Arnhem land also uses the term 'clan' (Garde 2008), which is not to say that the term has not generated significant debate. For example Catherine and Ronald Berndt avoided the term in their research in the region (Berndt & Berndt 1970).…”

Section: Configurations Of Language and Identity: Australian Anthropomentioning

confidence: 99%

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The wrong t‐shirt: configurations of language and identity at Warruwi Community

Australian J of Anthropology

2018

On June 22nd 1916, Reverend James Watson was brought to Warruwi in a canoe by a group of Maningpurru people. A re‐enactment of this event was staged at the beach called Angpungijpa or Watson's Landing on the 22nd of June 2016. The performers wore either a yellow or blue t‐shirt and the two colours were interpreted by many participants as representing the languages Mawng and Kunwinjku. In interpreting the t‐shirts, people made a direct connection between language and identity, invoking the ‘language tribe’ (Rumsey 1993). In other contexts, however, language ownership is claimed by connecting language to identity indirectly, via patrilineal clan (Merlan 1981). The multiple configurations of language and identity available at Warruwi reflect the way that clan groupings, significant within the current regime of recognition in the region (Povinelli ) co‐exist with the ‘language tribes’ of earlier eras and other groupings both long‐standing and emergent.

The expression of emotions in Kunbarlang and its neighbours in the multilingual context of western and central Arnhem Land

O'Keeffe

Coleman

2020

P&C

This paper explores how emotions are expressed in the endangered Gunwinyguan language Kunbarlang and compares these expressions to those in the neighbouring Gunwinyguan language Bininj Kunwok, and neighbouring languages from other language families, Mawng (Iwaidjan) and Ndjébbana (Maningridan). As well as considering body-based emotion expressions and the tropes (metaphors and metonymies) they instantiate, we consider the range of other (non-body-based) expressions and tropes available in each language. These provide an important point of comparison with the body-part expressions, which are limited to expressions based on noun incorporation in the Gunwinyguan languages and, correspondingly, a more limited range of tropes. By outlining and comparing the linguistic tropes used to express emotions in these four languages in the highly multilingual yet socioculturally unified context of western Arnhem Land, we aim to shed further light on the relationships between linguistic figurative features and conceptual representations of emotions.