Barngarla, formerly known as Parnkalla, is an
Aboriginal language of
Eyre Peninsula
The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north.
Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named af ...
,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
. 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
Israeli may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel
* Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel
* Modern Hebrew, a language
* ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008
* Guni Israeli (b ...
linguist, working with
Adelaide University
The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on ...
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
The Barngarla, formerly known as Parnkalla and also known as Pangkala, are an Aboriginal people of the Port Lincoln, Whyalla and Port Augusta areas. The Barngarla are the traditional owners of much of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia.
Language ...
and language reclamation workshops began in
Port Lincoln,
Whyalla
Whyalla was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Gawler and along with Port Pirie and Port Augusta ...
and
Port Augusta
Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a seaport, it is now a road traffic and railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about north of the state c ...
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
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...
of 25
letters
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alpha ...
, consisting of both single
characters and
digraphs from the
English alphabet
The alphabet for Modern English is a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an upper- and lower-case form. The word ''alphabet'' is a compound of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, ''alpha'' and '' beta''. ...
.
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 ...
of each word.
Grammatical features
Grammatical number
Barngarla has four
grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages present number categories of ...
s: 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 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
{{Pama–Nyungan languages, South
Thura-Yura languages
Language revival
Extinct languages of South Australia
Reconstructed languages
Eyre Peninsula