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Arandic is a family of
Australian Aboriginal languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...
consisting of several languages or
dialect cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
s, including the
Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
(Upper Arrernte) group,
Lower Arrernte Lower Arrernte, also known as Lower Southern Arrernte, Lower Aranda, Lower Southern Aranda and Alenjerntarrpe, was an Arandic language (but not of the Arrernte language group). Lower Arrernte was spoken in the Finke River area, near the Overl ...
(also known as Lower Southern Arrernte),
Pertame language Pertame, also known as Southern Arrernte or Southern Aranda, is an Arandic language (but not of the Arrernte language group) from the country south of Alice Springs, along the Finke River, north and north-west of the location inhabited by spe ...
(also known as Southern Arrernte) and Kaytetye.


Languages

*Upper Arrernte (or just Arrernte) dialect cluster, with five or six main dialects, with the most dominant being Central or Eastern Arrernte, which is spoken in and around
Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...
(Mparntwe) itself. * Lower Arrernte, also known as Alenjerrntarpe and Lower Southern Arrernte, was spoken by the people around the
Finke River The Finke River, or ''Larapinta'' ( Arrernte), is a river in central Australia, one of four main rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin and thought to be the oldest riverbed in the world. It flows for only a few days a year and when this happens, its wat ...
area, but it is now extinct. The last speaker was Brownie Doolan, from whom
Gavan Breen Gavan Breen (born 22 January 1935), OAM, also known as J.G. Breen, is an Australian linguist, specialising in the description of Australian Aboriginal languages. He has studied and recorded 49 such languages. Life Early life Breen was born at ...
managed to write up a dictionary of roughly 1000 words. According to
AIATSIS The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...
, this was a clearly distinct language. *Pertame, also known as Southern Arrernte, is from the country south of Alice Springs, along the Finke River, north and north-west of the location of speakers of Lower Arrernte. With only 20 fluent speakers left by 2018, the Pertame Project is seeking to retain and revive the language, headed by Pertame elder Christobel Swan. Renowned artist
Erlikilyika Erlikilyika (c.1865 – c.1930), known to Europeans by the name Jim Kite or Jim Kyte or Jim Kite Penangke, was an Aboriginal Australian sculptor, artist and anthropological interpreter. He was an Arrernte man, born into the Southern Arrernte ...
(Jim Kite) was a Pertame speaker. ''Ethnologue'' classes Pertame as a variant name for Lower Southern, but other sources vary in their classifications and descriptions of this language. * Kaytetye, spoken near
Barrow Creek Barrow Creek is a very small town, with a current population of 11, in the southern Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the Stuart Highway, about 280 km north of Alice Springs, about halfway from there to Tennant Creek. The ...
and
Tennant Creek Tennant Creek ( wrm, Jurnkkurakurr) is town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with the western term ...
by the Kaytetye people, had only 120 speakers in the 2016 census, and the number has been decreasing.


Differing classifications

There are differing opinions as to which are dialects and which separate languages, among linguists and among the
Arrernte people The Arrernte () people, sometimes referred to as the Aranda, Arunta or Arrarnta, are a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the Arrernte lands, at ''Mparntwe'' (Alice Springs) and surrounding areas of the Central Australia reg ...
themselves. *Koch (2004) only distinguished two dialects, Upper Arrernte and Katetye. *''
Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is a bibliographic database of the world's lesser-known languages, developed and maintained first at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany (between 2015 and 2020 at the Max Planck Institute fo ...
'' defines the Arandic group as comprising five Aranda (also known as Arrernte) dialects, plus two distinct languages, Kaytetye (Koch, 2006) and Lower Southern (or just Lower) Aranda, an extinct language. *'' Ethnologue'' defines eight Arandic languages and classifies them slightly differently.


Proto-language

Proto-Arandic and Pre-Arandic reconstructions from Koch (2004): Koch, Harold (2004). "The Arandic subgroup of Australian languages". In Claire Bowern & Harold Koch, eds., ''Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method.'' John Benjamins Publishing Company. :


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References


Sources

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Bibliography

*Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). ''Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development.'' Cambridge University Press. {{Australian Aboriginal languages Indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory