Barngarla, formerly known as Parnkalla, is an
Aboriginal language of
Eyre Peninsula,
South Australia,
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, sma ...
. The last native speaker of the language died in 1964. However, the language has been revived due to work of a German Lutheran pastor Clamor Wilhelm Schurmann who worked at a mission in 1844 and recorded 3,500 words to form a Barngarla dictionary.
"In 2011 an
Israeli linguist, working with
Adelaide University and the chair of linguistics and endangered languages,
Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann, contacted the Barngarla community about helping to revive and reclaim the Barngarla language. This request was eagerly accepted by the
Barngarla people and language reclamation workshops began in
Port Lincoln,
Whyalla and
Port Augusta
Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a port, seaport, it is now a road traffic and Junction (rail), railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about ...
in 2012" (Barngarla man Stephen Atkinson, 2013). The reclamation is based on 170-year-old documents.
In October 2016 a mobile app featuring a dictionary of over 3000 Barngarla words was publicly released.
Orthography
Barngarla is written phonetically using an
alphabet of 25
letters, consisting of both single
characters and
digraphs from the
English alphabet.
Despite being considered letters of Barngarla, "ai", "aw", and "ii" do not denote distinct phonemes. On the contrary, they are in fact nothing more than the sum of their parts. The sound of "ai" is literally just the sound of "a" followed by the sound of "i"; similarly with "aw" and "ii".
One important thing to note is that when there is a sequence of two dental phonemes ("dh", "nh"), the "h" is only written once rather than twice. That is, the sequence /dÌŸnÌŸ/ is written "dnh" and not "dhnh". Similarly with palatal phonemes ("dy", "ny", "ly") with the "y", ("dny" instead of "dyny"), and with retroflex phonemes ("rd", "rl", "rn") with the "r", ("rdn" instead of "rdrn").
Phonology
Consonants
Barngarla has the following consonant phonemes:
The phonemes /dÌŸ/ and /nÌŸ/ are
interdental, they are pronounced with the tongue in between the teeth. The phoneme /ɾ~r/ is usually realised as
� but it is realised as
in careful speech or for emphasis. The plosive /ÉŸ/ is usually realised as an affricate [] or as a plosive with approximant release [] when followed by a vowel.
Vowels
Barngarla has the following vowel phonemes:
Stress
The
stress always falls on the first
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
of each word.
Grammatical features
Grammatical number
Barngarla has four
grammatical numbers: singular, dual, plural and superplural.
[ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad 2020, ''Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond'']
Oxford University Press
(ISBN 9780199812790 / ISBN 9780199812776) For example:
*''wárraidya'' "
emu" (singular)
*''wárraidyalbili'' "two emus" (dual)
*''wárraidyarri'' "emus" (plural)
*''wárraidyailyarranha'' "a lot of emus", "heaps of emus" (superplural)
[
]
Matrilineal and patrilineal distinction
Barngarla is characterized by a matrilineal and patrilineal distinction. For example, the matrilineal ergative case first person dual
Dual or Duals may refer to:
Paired/two things
* Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another
** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality
*** see more cases in :Duality theories
* Dual (grammatical ...
pronoun ''ngadlaga'' ("we two") would be used by a mother and her child, or by a man and his sister’s child, while the patrilineal form ''ngarrrinyi'' would be used by a father and his child, or by a woman with her brother’s child.[
]
Naming children according to their birth order
In traditional Barngarla, birth order was so important that each child within the family was named according to the order in which s/he was born. Barngarla has nine male birth order names and nine female birth order names, as following:
Language resources
*Zuckermann, Ghil'ad and the Barngarla (2019)
''Barngarlidhi Manoo (Speaking Barngarla Together)''
Barngarla Language Advisory Committee.
''Barngarlidhi Manoo'' – Part II
*Zuckermann, Ghil'ad, Emma Richards and the Barngarla (2021)
''Mangiri Yarda (Healthy Country: Barngarla Wellbeing and Nature)''
Revivalistics Press.
Scholarly articles
* Zuckermann, Ghil‘ad, Shakuto-Neoh, Shiori & Quer, Giovanni Matteo, 2014
Native Tongue Title: Proposed Compensation for the Loss of Aboriginal Languages
''Australian Aboriginal Studies'' 2014/1: 55-71.
*Zuckermann, Ghil‘ad & Walsh, Michael, 2014
'Our Ancestors Are Happy!': Revivalistics in the Service of Indigenous Wellbeing
''Foundation for Endangered Languages'' XVIII: 113-119.
Media items
Language lost and regained / Barngarla man Stephen Atkinson, THE AUSTRALIAN, 20 September 2013
Dr Anna Goldsworthy on the Barngarla language reclamation / The Monthly, September 2014
Barngarla language reclamation, Port Augusta
Barngarla language reclamation, Port Lincoln
Reawakening Language
(including Barngarla sentences uttered by revivalist Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann)
Waking up Australia's sleeping beauty languages
Reclaiming their language / Port Lincoln
Awakening the "sleeping beauties" of Aboriginal languages
Cultural historical event begins / Whyalla
Barngarla language app
Transcontinental, 2 August 2016
Group moves to preserve Barngarla language / Port Augusta
Calls for compensation over 'stolen' Indigenous languages
* ttp://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australias-unspeakable-indigenous-tragedy/ Australia’s Unspeakable Aboriginal Tragedy / Lainie Anderson, 6 May 2012
Language More Important than Land
References
External links
BARNGARLA: PEOPLE, LANGUAGE & LAND
An interview with Stolen Generation Barngarla man Howard Richards and his wife Isabel / Port Lincoln
Bibliography of Parnkalla language and people resources
at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
{{Pama–Nyungan languages, South
Thura-Yura languages
Language revival
Extinct languages of South Australia
Reconstructed languages
Eyre Peninsula