Re: Aust Aboriginal languages (fwd)

From: Giles S Martin (ulgsm@dewey.newcastle.edu.au)
Date: Mon Jun 02 1997 - 22:07:00 EDT


I am forwarding (below) a response by Geraldine Triffitt, who is an
expert on Aboriginal languages, on the general question of the
characters required to write Australian Aboriginal languages.

Giles

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 1997 09:23:35 -0500 (EST)
From: Geraldine Triffitt <grt@elc.aiatsis.gov.au>
To: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Library & Resource Network list
     <ATSILIRN@library.ntu.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Aust Aboriginal languages

The characters used in Australian languages depend on the accuracy of
pronunciation which the author is trying to portray. Although the usual
Roman alphabet predominates, from time to time other characters are used.
The palatal nasal, which is an 'n' with the long hook on the first
downstroke represents ny. This has caused a lot of confusion, for example,
in Jawoyn, where the word is mispronounced as Jawonee if the correct
spelling Jawony is used. Yidin(y) is another such word. Other areas with
symbols are the dental articulation symbol (like a half square underneath
the character) which is now usually represented as nh, lh, dh, etc, and the
retroflex symbol of dot under the character. It is difficult to represent
3 different 'r' sounds in a language.

The engma is important because the pronunciation of Wangurri is Wan'gurri,
whereas Yolngu is Yol'ng'u. It is a common mispronunciation to give two
sounds like kang'garoo, instead of one kang'aroo.

There are also some languages with diacritics, e.g. Ndjebbana with an
acute, and soem Yolngu languages have umlaut.
Geraldine Triffitt, Collection Manager (Linguistics), AIATSIS



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