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
Arrernte or Aranda (; ) or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are ...
group). Lower Arrernte was spoken in the
Finke River area, near the
Overland Telegraph Line station at
Charlotte Waters
Charlotte Waters was a tiny settlement in the Northern Territory of Australia located close to the South Australian border, not far from Aputula. It was known for its telegraph station, the Charlotte Waters Telegraph Station, which became a hub ...
, just north of the border between
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a 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 of Australia's states and territories ...
and the
Northern Territory, and in the
Dalhousie area in S.A. It had been extinct since the last speaker died in 2011, but there is now a
language revival
Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include linguists, cultural or community groups, o ...
project under way.
Extinction
By 2007 only one person was known to speak it fluently enough to hold a conversation:
Brownie Doolan Perrurle (1918–2011), known as Brownie Doolan.
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 ...
, an Australian
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...
, was able to compile a dictionary of Lower Arrernte comprising about a thousand words by recording talks he had with Doolan.
[NOTE: Incorrect reporting of years of his two occupations, as 1925 and 1940.]
Doolan's mother Fanny, father Paddy
and grandmother, who lived south of the small settlement at
Finke/Aputula in the Northern Territory, near Mt Dare in South Australia, spoke the language.
[ After a stint as a stockman on the Andado station in the mid-1940s,][ Doolan became a tracker for both Finke and Kulgera police. Doolan and his wife Biddy are recorded in 1960s censuses of Finke, with Brownie recorded as a tracker, and of the Purula group of Aranda people.]
Language revival
, Lower Southern Arrernte is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".
References
Arandic languages
Endangered indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory
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