Patrick McConvell

Gurindji Kriol: A Mixed Language Emerges from Code-switching

1. IntroductionBakker (2003: 129) claims that ‘mixed languages’ do not arise from code-switching.The language spoken most frequently by Gurindji people between the ages of 3 andabout 45, termed ‘Gurindji Kriol’ here, is a counter-example to this generalization.This language is made up of elements of Kriol, an English based creole spoken acrossthe middle of the Northern Territory of Australia; and Gurindji, the traditionallanguage of a group in the west of this region (Dalton et al. 1995; McConvell 2002).The previous generation spoke both these languages fluently, but the most prevalenttype of speech involved intersentential and intrasentential code-switching. Whilechoice of language in code-switching among middle-aged and older people in the1970s

Loanwords in Gurindji, a Pama-Nyungan language of Australia

This book is the first work to address the question of what kinds of words get borrowed in a systematic and comparative perspective. It studies lexical borrowing behavior on the basis of a world-wide sample of 40 languages, both major languages and minor languages, and both languages with heavy borrowing and languages with little lexical influence from other languages. The book is the result of a five-year project bringing together a unique group of specialists of many different languages and areas. The introductory chapters provide a general up-to-date introduction to language contact at the word level, as well as a presentation of the projects methodology. All the chapters are based on samples of 1000-2000 words, elicited by a uniform meaning list of 1460 meanings. The combined database, comprising over 70,000 words, is published online at the same time as the book is published. For each word, information about loanword status is given in the database, and the 40 case studies in the book describe the social and historical contact situations in detail. The final chapter draws general conclusions about what kinds of words tend to get borrowed, what kinds of word meanings are particularly resistant to borrowing, and what kinds of social contact situations lead to what kinds of borrowing situations.

Does Lateral Transmission Obscure Inheritance in Hunter-Gatherer Languages?

In recent years, linguists have begun to increasingly rely on quantitative phylogenetic approaches to examine language evolution. Some linguists have questioned the suitability of phylogenetic approaches on the grounds that linguistic evolution is largely reticulate due to extensive lateral transmission, or borrowing, among languages. The problem may be particularly pronounced in hunter-gatherer languages, where the conventional wisdom among many linguists is that lexical borrowing rates are so high that tree building approaches cannot provide meaningful insights into evolutionary processes. However, this claim has never been systematically evaluated, in large part because suitable data were unavailable. In addition, little is known about the subsistence, demographic, ecological, and social factors that might mediate variation in rates of borrowing among languages. Here, we evaluate these claims with a large sample of hunter-gatherer languages from three regions around the world. In this study, a list of 204 basic vocabulary items was collected for 122 hunter-gatherer and small-scale cultivator languages from three ecologically diverse case study areas: northern Australia, northwest Amazonia, and California and the Great Basin. Words were rigorously coded for etymological (inheritance) status, and loan rates were calculated. Loan rate variability was examined with respect to language area, subsistence mode, and population size, density, and mobility; these results were then compared to the sample of 41 primarily agriculturalist languages in [1]. Though loan levels varied both within and among regions, they were generally low in all regions (mean 5.06%, median 2.49%, and SD 7.56), despite substantial demographic, ecological, and social variation. Amazonian levels were uniformly very low, with no language exhibiting more than 4%. Rates were low but more variable in the other two study regions, in part because of several outlier languages where rates of borrowing were especially high. High mobility, prestige asymmetries, and language shift may contribute to the high rates in these outliers. No support was found for claims that hunter-gatherer languages borrow more than agriculturalist languages. These results debunk the myth of high borrowing in hunter-gatherer languages and suggest that the evolution of these languages is governed by the same type of rules as those operating in large-scale agriculturalist speech communities. The results also show that local factors are likely to be more critical than general processes in determining high (or low) loan rates.

New Genetic and Linguistic Analyses Show Ancient Human Influence on Baobab Evolution and Distribution in Australia

This study investigates the role of human agency in the gene flow and geographical distribution of the Australian baobab, Adansonia gregorii. The genus Adansonia is a charismatic tree endemic to Africa, Madagascar, and northwest Australia that has long been valued by humans for its multiple uses. The distribution of genetic variation in baobabs in Africa has been partially attributed to human-mediated dispersal over millennia, but this relationship has never been investigated for the Australian species. We combined genetic and linguistic data to analyse geographic patterns of gene flow and movement of word-forms for A. gregorii in the Aboriginal languages of northwest Australia. Comprehensive assessment of genetic diversity showed weak geographic structure and high gene flow. Of potential dispersal vectors, humans were identified as most likely to have enabled gene flow across biogeographic barriers in northwest Australia. Genetic-linguistic analysis demonstrated congruence of gene flow patterns and directional movement of Aboriginal loanwords for A. gregorii. These findings, along with previous archaeobotanical evidence from the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, suggest that ancient humans significantly influenced the geographic distribution of Adansonia in northwest Australia.

On the Omaha trail in Australia: Tracking skewing from east to west

This paper illustrates a method that relies heavily on comparative linguistics. Its aim is to provide robust hypotheses about the transformations of kinship and related systems of social organisation in the prehistory of Australia. Arriving at such results, though, is not the end of the road, since these outcomes suggest models of how new systems originate and develop that are quite different from those offered by some of the writers in Godelier et al. (1998a). In particular, it is argued here that transformations may crucially arise from interaction between groups and the interaction between their systems, and by this we mean not just the adoption of part or all of another group’s system. These ways of examining kinship change could also be relevant to a variety of situations outside Australia. The kinship terms noted by observers as being widespread in Australia (e.g., Elkin 1970) are shared primarily in the Pama-Nyungan language family. This family, whose existence was proposed by O’Grady and Hale (O’Grady et al. 1966), covers seven-eighths of the Australian continent, with the exception of tropical regions of the central north, which are occupied by speakers of 10 ± 15 non-Pama-Nyungan language families. Within this generally non-Pama-Nyungan zone there is one Pama-Nyungan outlierÐ the Yolngu languages of North East Arnhem Land (henceforth NEAL)Ð that will play an important role in the argument below.

Southern Anthropology: A History of Fison and Howitt's Kamilaroi and Kurnai

1. Introduction. The Publication Of Kamilaroi And Kurnai 2. Morgan Imaging Kinship 3. The Unity Of World Kinship: A Southern Perspective 4. The Apocalypse In The South: Fison In Victoria And Fiji 5. Twice Converted: Fisons Epiphany 6. Cracks In The Theory: The Problems Of The Pacific 7. Fisons Fiji Discovery And The Interpretation Of Kinship History 8. Seeing Gamilaraay 9. Evidence And Anomalies From Australian And Pacific Sites 10. Howitt And Tulaba 11. The Turn From Kin To Skin 12. Time, Human Difference And Evolution In Oceania 13. Pen To Paper: Writing Kamilaroi And Kurnai 14. Kamilaroi And Kurnai: The Content And The Form 15. The Anthropology Of Kamilaroi And Kurnai 16. The British Response To Kamilaroi And Kurnai 17. The Legacy Of Kamilaroi And Kurnai In The Anthropology Of Kinship 18. Conclusion

Loan and inheritance patterns in hunter-gatherer ethnobiological systems

Abstract We compare the etymologies of ethnobiological nomenclature in 130 hunter-gatherer and agriculturist languages in Australia, North America, and Amazonia. Previous work has identified correlations between systems of ethnobiological terminology and dominant means of community subsistence, relating stability of terminology to the “salience” of the items. However, the relevance of subsistence patterns to the development of ethnobiological nomenclature requires further investigation, as does the notion of “salience” and how it might relate to etymological stability. The current study probes the relationship between salience and stability and the variability within this relationship. We refine the notion of stability by studying both inheritance and loan rates. We refine the notion of “salience” by separately testing retention and loan rates in flora and fauna vocabulary that might be considered salient for different reasons. Results indicate that the most etymologically stable items are core foodstuffs (whether cultivated or wild). Psychotropic items were more likely to be loaned. There were no significant patterns for cultivar status or trade, though we note that the most frequently loaned items in the sample are also traded.

Introduction: Language Shift, Code-mixing and Variation

Major languages are accelerating their expansion throughout the world, in some cases threatening the existence of small languages, as speakers shift towards the world languages. In this issue of the journal we look at the impact of two such major languages: English in Australia and West Africa, and Malay varieties in Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, and in the Dutch diaspora. In the process of language contact, various types of mixing and switching between local and ethnic languages and various varieties of the major languages are found, including emergent innovations in the speech of bilinguals. Problems of analysis face us at various levels. Is the ‘mixed speech’ we are hearing code-mixing or codeswitching, a ‘composite matrix language’ with switches, or a new ‘mixed language’? Can the data be analysed as a ‘stage’ in a larger process of ‘language shift’*/is it legitimate to use ‘language shift’ as a tool of analysis before shift is completed? If it is true that ‘mixed languages’ can emerge from the crucible of code-mixing or codeswitching, how does that occur? Is the variation which is encountered in these situations, which includes new forms and new constructions, simply the type of variation normally encountered or of a different order? What is the impact of highly mixed and variable speech input from adults on the learning of the community languages by children? Is the ‘symbolic’ use of limited vocabulary from the old language enough to represent an ethnic identity, and is this a barrier to maintenance of full proficiency? These questions and others are discussed here by researchers currently engaged in fieldwork in both indigenous and migrant language contexts; in Australia; in Ghana where code-mixing between local languages and English is prevalent; in Brunei and Malaysia; and in contrasting contexts for languages indigenous to Indonesia*/in Java where regional languages are also prestigious and appear to be in a symbiotic language ecology with Indonesian; in Maluku where small languages are being eclipsed by Indonesian, and among speakers of Malukan languages in a migrant setting in the Dutch diaspora.

Results and Prospects in the Study of Semantic Change: A Review of From Polysemy to Semantic Change (2008)

The topic of this review article is a volume addressing the relationship between polysemy and semantic change, a relationship which has been important in discussions of semantic theory and method particularly in recent years, and which has the potential to unite synchronic and diachronic approaches. The first part of this article consists of thorough reviews of the fourteen chapters in the volume, entitled From Polysemy to Semantic Change, edited by Martine Vanhove (2008). We review each of them in turn, providing a brief summary of the content of each chapter, as well as comments on the impact of the contribution to the study of polysemy and semantic change, and/or on its limits. The second part of the article presents a general evaluation of the volume, and reflects upon the achievements, limits and perspectives of the study of polysemy and semantic change. Some of the chapters demonstrate that a degree of generalization can be reached on these questions, and provide new and potentially productive ways forward in theory and method; others either do not have such aims, or struggle to provide a useful general framework. We consider why this may be the case, and suggest hypothetical solutions. In particular, we examine the difficulty met with drawing conclusions across semantic domains, and the lack of a framework taking language contact and diffusion into account in the study of semantic change.

Skin, Kin and Clan: The dynamics of social categories in Indigenous Australia

In the Ashburton River district of Western Australia, individual members of different patrifilial totemic country groups (patriclans) could share a common name that was used in both address and reference for those individuals. This namesake relationship between members of distinct patriclans or descent-based estate-owning groups existed regardless of the linguistic identities of the patriclans concerned and was regional in distribution. This institution had family resemblances to cross-regional identity-sharing systems in other parts of Aboriginal Australia; however, it was unique in its detail. These shared names frequently, but not always, reflected shared patriclan totems. In any case, they structurally yielded subsets of patriclans. In some recorded cases, members of these subsets married each other. These cases may or may not have been post-conquest ‘wrong marriages’ contracted when the old prescriptive marriage laws were losing force.