is a Japanese linguist, specializing in Australian Aboriginal languages. His interests embrace linguistic typology and

endangered languages An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

Career

Tsunoda was born in Akagi,

Gumma Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima P ...

(now incorporated with other villages and renamed

Shibukawa is a city in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 76,098 in 32,439 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Shibukawa is the location of Ikaho Onsen, a popular hot spring resort. ...

) in 1946. On graduating from

Tokyo University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

, Tsunoda moved to

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university h ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

where he completed a master's and then a doctoral degree in linguistics. His choice of

for postgraduate work was partially influenced by the fact that the Monash campus was close to an athletic training camp run by the former world middle distance champion

Herb Elliott Herbert James Elliott (born 25 February 1938) is a former Australian athlete and arguably the world's greatest middle distance runner of his era. In August 1958 he set the world record in the mile run, clocking 3:54.5, 2.7 seconds under the re ...

. His supervisor for both his M.A. and PhD was

Barry Blake Barry Blake, born 1937, is an Australian linguist, specializing in the description of Australian Aboriginal languages. He is a professor emeritus at La Trobe University Melbourne. Career Blake was born in the northern Melbourne suburb of Ascot V ...

. Beginning in 1972, he undertook fieldwork on Palm Island in Queensland for his master's thesis (1974), where he undertook extensive interviews with a native informant, Alf Palmer(1891–1981), who happened to be the last fluent speaker of Warrungu, an Aboriginal language originally spoken in the upper reaches of the

Herbert River The Herbert River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. The southernmost of Queensland's wet tropics river systems, it was named in 1864 by George Elphinstone Dalrymple explorer, after Robert George Wyndham Herbert, the fir ...

, west of Tully He later wrote up his research to produce the standard grammar of the language, published in 2012. The language is important also for being one of less than 10 languages in the world, uniquely found in Northern Queensland, that embody the phenomenon of syntactic ergativity. On Palmer's death, Tsunoda, a Japanese, became the last speaker of the all but extinct Australian language, Warrungu. Subsequently, Tsunoda pursued field work in the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia, where he mastered and wrote a grammar of

Djaru The Djaru people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia. Language Djaru is a member of the Ngumbin language family, and is related to Walmajarri. Country The Djaru people ranged along Margar ...

. On retirement from Tokyo University, he joined the

National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics The (NINJAL) is an independent administrative institution in Japan, established for the purpose of studying, surveying, promoting, and making recommendations for the proper usage of the Japanese language.NINJALweb page (English)/ref> The institu ...

. He has returned on occasion to Palm Island as a guest of the Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation in order to help children learn some Warrungu and assist in attempts to revive the language. He has provided the community with translations of classic children's books such as

The Very Hungry Caterpillar ''The Very Hungry Caterpillar'' is a 1969 children’s picture book designed, illustrated, and written by Eric Carle. The book features a hungry caterpillar that eats a variety of foods before pupating and emerging as a butterfly. It has won m ...

, and Worrongo tales.

Publications

* (1981) ''The Djaru Language of Kimberley, Western Australia,'' Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. * (1991)『世界の言語と日本語』くろしお出版。 * (2005
''Endangerment and Language Revitalization: An Introduction''
Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. * (2012
''A Grammar of Worongo,''
Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Notes and references

Notes

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsunoda, Tasaku 1946 births Linguists from Japan Linguists of Australian Aboriginal languages Linguists of Pama–Nyungan languages Living people