WHAT’S THAT IN LIGHT WARLPIRI?

A LANGUAGE is being born in Australia’s Northern Territory. Warlpiri rampamu is spoken by a small, isolated group of indigenous Australians, most under the age of 35.

The kids of Lajamanu are speaking an entirely new language. Image from Carmel O’Shannessy/University of Michigan, The New York Times, July 14, 2013.

This is noteworthy to linguists because it’s not a dialect, not a creole. It’s a new language. It’s interesting to the rest of us in several ways: What makes for a creole? A dialect? And how quickly does something like language evolve?

For the past several years, Professor Carmel O’Shannessy at the University of Michigan has been studying speakers of the Lajamanu Community, 700 people in an isolated Northern Territory village about 550 miles south of Darwin.

Australia’s Northern Territory is vast. Lajamanu is 340 miles from its nearest commercial center of Katherine, N.T.

O’Shannessy’s most recent paper on Warlpiri rampaku, or Light Warlpiri, is in the journal Language; an Abstract and a portion of its Introduction are at http://goo.gl/X4LIX. This generated an item in The New York Times, July 14, 2013, http://goo.gl/fYGGz. And, as an example of how quickly the language of the Internet responds, there’s already a Wikipedia entry citing both, http://goo.gl/nIOLr.

The older people of the community speak “strong” Warlpiri, an aboriginal language unrelated to English and shared by about 4000 people.

Many also speak Kriol, an English-based indigenous Australian creole. Which got me looking up this latter term.

A creole is a full-fledged language that’s a mixing of tongues which kids come to acquire naturally. Haitian Creole, for example, is predominately French mixed with elements of native American, English and Spanish.

As another example, Tok Pisin is an English Creole that’s the official language of Papua New Guinea. Also known as Pidgin English, it’s the linguistic glue connecting speakers from different parts of this Oceania nation.

The Book of Pidgin, Buk Bilong Tok Pisin, by John J. Murphy, Robert Brown & Associates (Aust), 1985. Both www.amazon.com and www.abebooks.com list it.

To linguists, a pidgin is a simplification of communication evolving for those without a common language. Many linguists say it’s the first step toward a stable creole language, which formally describes the status of Tok Pisin.

By contrast to these, a dialect is a distinct form of a single language, often based on region, ethnicity or social class. Dialect can affect all of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. (If only the sounds differ, it’s better termed an “accent.”)

Back to Australia’s Northern Territory and Light Warlpiri.

The kids of Lajamanu all learn English; indeed, secondary education involves boarding school in far-off Darwin. They also learn Kriol and Warlpiri from older members of the community.

A new language, Light Warlpiri draws words from Warlpiri, English and Kriol. Source: Carmel O’Shannessy/University of Michigan, The New York Times, July 14, 2013.

From these, the kids have evolved a unique new mixture. What’s more, taking itself beyond a creole, the language has accumulated its own special structure, especially in its verb forms.

Prof. Carmel O’Shannessy and several of her Light-Warlpiri-conversing friends. The peace sign is universal. Image from the University of Michigan.

About 350 people, almost all under the age of 35, speak Light Warlpiri. For linguists like O’Shannessy, this is particularly exciting in that the language’s first speakers are still around to describe its development.

O’Shannessy speaks a little Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, though she doesn’t claim fluency in either. With the latter, though, she’s getting in at an early stage—and clearly making new friends as well. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2013