Quotation in earlier and contemporary Australian Aboriginal English

Abstract

We examine constructed dialogue in a longitudinal corpus of Australian Aboriginal English (AE) spoken in Perth, Australia. We conduct a variationist analysis of naturalistic data from forty-six L1 speakers of AE born 1907–2005. We ask, regarding the use of quotative frames, whether AE has changed in line with settler colonial Englishes. We examine whether a division of labor exists in the use of quotative frames, and whether the rise of first-person-marked internal thought reporting attested in settler colonial Englishes is present in AE. Our statistical modeling shows functional partitioning in how quotative frames are used, with AE speakers strongly encoding direct speech across time. We find that the rise of first-person-marked internal thought reporting has not been systemic in AE. Despite be like's incursion after 1983, the underlying system of AE has not changed. The cultural prerogative to encode speech remains strong despite sustained contact with non-First Nations Australia.

Indigenizing say in Australian Aboriginal English

“…Diachronic change is usually observed over centuries, and AAE is a newcomer to World Englishes, having existed as a nativized variety in Western Australia only since the early 20 th century, and on audio record in Western Australia only since the 1970s. The 50-year birth-year time-span covered in this study represents an even more compressed time-frame, and there are gaps in the datano speakers born in the decade from 1940-1949, nor any born after 1961 (but see RodríguezLouro, Clews, & Collard, 2020). Nevertheless, there is sufficient substance in the corpus to yield interesting results that warrant further study.…”

“…It is particularly rich in quotation, which functions to structure and invigorate the culturally salient and pervasive practice of sharing narrative (Malcolm, 2018;Muecke, 1981;Rodríguez Louro, 2020;Rodríguez Louro, Clews & Collard, 2020;Rodríguez Louro & Collard, 2021). A diachronic study of features so closely bound with millennia of story-telling presents a unique opportunity to observe variation and change in a relatively new variety, embedded within an oral tradition that is older than any other in human history.…”