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Aboriginal Sign Languages
Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or traditionally had a manually coded language, a signed counterpart of their oral language. This appears to be connected with various speech taboos between certain kin or at particular times, such as during a mourning period for women or during initiation ceremonies for men, as was also the case with Caucasian Sign Language but not Plains Indian Sign Language, which did not involve speech taboo, or deaf sign languages, which are not encodings of oral language. There is some similarity between neighboring groups and some contact pidgin similar to Plains Indian Sign Language in the American Great Plains. Sign languages appear to be most developed in areas with the most extensive speech taboos: the central desert (particularly among the Warlpiri and Warumungu), and western Cape York. Kendon, A. (1988) ''Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a Megadiverse countries, megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with Deserts of Australia, deserts in the centre, tropical Forests of Australia, rainforests in the north-east, and List of mountains in Australia, mountain ranges in the south-east. The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately Early human migrations#Nearby Oceania, 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, last i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torres Strait Islands
The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land area is . The Islands have been inhabited by the indigenous Torres Strait Islanders. Lieutenant James Cook first claimed British sovereignty over the eastern part of Australia at Possession Island in 1770, but British administrative control only began in the Torres Strait Islands in 1862. The islands are now mostly part of Queensland, a constituent State of the Commonwealth of Australia, but are administered by the Torres Strait Regional Authority, a statutory authority of the Australian federal government. A few islands very close to the coast of mainland New Guinea belong to the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, most importantly Daru Island with the provincial capital, Daru. Only 16 of the islands are inhabited. The Torres Strai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akitiri Sign Language
Akitiri Sign Language, also known as Eltye eltyarrenke (''hand signs''), is (or was) a highly developed Australian Aboriginal sign language used by the Kaytetye people The Kaytetye, also written Kaititya, and pronounced ''kay-ditch'', are an Aboriginal Australian people who live around Barrow Creek and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Their neighbours to the east are the Alyawarre, to the south the Anm ... of northern Australia. Kendon, A. (1988) ''Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 60 References Bibliography * Hale, Ken (c1960s), Original handwritten lexical list, 3pp.; ''notes on ‘Kaititj: akitiri sign language’,'' 3pp. in IATSIS library, MS 4114 Miscellaneous Australian notes of Kenneth L. Hale, Series 2 Barkly Tablelands language material, item 1-2 Wampaya ambaya (C19) Australian Aboriginal Sign Language family Arandic languages {{ia-lang-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Djingili Sign Language
Jingulu, also spelt Djingili, is an Australian language spoken by the Jingili people in the Northern Territory of Australia, historically around the township of Elliot. The language is one of several languages of the West Barkly family. The Jingulu have (or had) a well-developed signed form of their language. A 2022 study reports on an artificial intelligence (AI) system based on some unusual elements of the language, which only has three verbs and a flexible sentence structure. Background and location Other languages spoken in the West Barkly family include Wambaya, Gudanji, Binbinka, and Ngarnka. When the Mudburra people arrived to the region the Jingili live, a cultural fusion group arose named Kuwarrangu, while the Jingilu and Mudburra cultures still remained separate. Based on geographical proximity, the Jingili and other ethnic groups have related languages with common vocabulary. Jingulu was historically spoken around the township of Elliot. Speakers and status ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dieri Sign Language
Diyari () or Dieri () is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Diyari people in the far north of South Australia, to the east of Lake Eyre. It was studied by German Lutheran missionaries who translated Christian works into the language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so that it developed an extensive written form. Only a few fluent speakers of Diyari remained by the early 21st century, but a dictionary and grammar of the language was produced by linguist Peter K. Austin, and there is a project under way to teach it in schools. Related languages Sign language The Diyari had a highly developed sign language. This was first noticed by Alfred William Howitt in 1891, who first mistook them for defiant or command gestures until he then realised that they formed part of an integral system of hand signs, of which he registered 65. One of their functions was to allow women to communicate during mourning, when a speech taboo prevailed. Dialects Dhirari (extinct lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Mont West
La Mont West, Jr. (born 2 July 1930) is an anthropologist. He received his PhD in anthropology from Indiana University in 1960. He specializes in sign languages, which he has studied among Native American Indians and Aboriginal Australians. Career West attended Cornell University, majoring in economics, from September 1947 to February 1951, and also from February 1955 to June 1955. He attended Indiana University as a PhD candidate, majoring in anthropology, and became a protégé of Charles F. Voegelin, his doctoral supervisor, and Alfred L. Kroeber, who were concerned with the neglect suffered by the topic since the late 19th century. He was at Indiana University from June 1955 to June 1959, doing field work among Plain Indian the results of which were published with his doctoral dissertation, entitled "The Sign Language, An Analysis," a study of Plains Indian Sign Language, which was the most sophisticated non-verbal language among North American Indians. Both Kroeber and Voegeli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yarrabah, Queensland
Yarrabah (traditionally ''Yagaljida'' in the Yidin language spoken by the indigenous Yidinji people is a coastal town and locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Yarrabah, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Yarrabah recorded a population of 2,559 people. Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. It is an Aboriginal community. Geography The town is about by road from Cairns CBD on Cape Grafton. It is by direct-line distance, but is geographically separated from Cairns CBD by the Murray Prior Range and Trinity Inlet, an inlet of the Coral Sea. History Gunggay (also known as Gunggandji, Kongandji, Kongkandji, Gungganyji, Idindji and Yidiny) is an Aboriginal language of Far North Queensland. The Gunggay language region of Cape Grafton includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Cairns Regional Council and Yarrabah Council. An Anglican church missionary, Ernest Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Far North Queensland
Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf Country. The waters of Torres Strait include the only international border in the area contiguous with the Australian mainland, between Australia and Papua New Guinea. The region is home to three World Heritage Sites, the Great Barrier Reef, the Wet Tropics of Queensland and Riversleigh, Australia's largest fossil mammal site. Far North Queensland lays claim to over 70 national parks, including Mount Bartle Frere; with a peak of it is the highest peak in both Northern Australia and Queensland. The Far North region is the only region of Australia that is the indigenous country of both Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders. Far North Queensland supports a significant agricultural sector, a number of significant mines and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auslan
Auslan () is the majority sign language of the Australian Deaf community. The term ''Auslan'' is a portmanteau of "Australian Sign Language", coined by Trevor Johnston in the 1980s, although the language itself is much older. Auslan is related to British Sign Language (BSL) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL); the three have descended from the same parent language, and together comprise the BANZSL language family. Auslan has also been influenced by Irish Sign Language (ISL) and more recently has borrowed signs from American Sign Language (ASL). As with other sign languages, Auslan's grammar and vocabulary is quite different from English. Its origin cannot be attributed to any individual; rather, it is a natural language that emerged spontaneously and has changed over time. Recognition and status Auslan was recognised by the Australian government as a "community language other than English" and the preferred language of the Deaf community in policy statements in 1987 and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torres Strait Islander
Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped with them as Indigenous Australians. Today there are many more Torres Strait Islander people living in mainland Australia (nearly 28,000) than on the Islands (about 4,500). There are five distinct peoples within broader designation of Torres Strait Islander people, based partly on geographical and cultural divisions. There are two main Indigenous language groups, Kalaw Lagaw Ya and Meriam Mir. Torres Strait Creole is also widely spoken, as a language of trade and commerce. The core of Island culture is Papuo- Austronesian and the people traditionally a seafaring nation. There is a strong artistic culture, particularly in sculpture, printmaking and mask-making. Demographics In June 1875 a measles epidemic killed about 25% of the popul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
