Pertame, also known as Southern Arrernte or Southern Aranda, is an

Arandic language Arandic is a family of Australian Aboriginal languages consisting of several languages or dialect clusters, including the Arrernte (Upper Arrernte) group, Lower Arrernte (also known as Lower Southern Arrernte), Pertame language (also known as So ...

(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 A ...

group) from the country south of

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 ...

, along 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 wate ...

, north and north-west of the location inhabited by speakers of

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 Overla ...

. ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

'' classes Pertame as a variant name for Lower Southern, but other sources vary in their classifications and descriptions of this language.

Language revival

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. , Pertame 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 Australian Department of Communications and the Arts was a department of the Government of Australia charged with responsibility for communications policy and programs and cultural affairs. In December 2019, prime minister Scott Morrison ...

. 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".

Speakers

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.

References

Arandic languages Endangered indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory {{ia-lang-stub