that munanga linguist

"...Council is part of the Katherine community..." "... we have a social responsibility to contribute to the growth of the town..." Positive rhetoric like the above is par for the course for any Australian local government. The above quotes come from Roper Gulf Regional Council's CEO Michael Berto. Great messages? Definitely. One major problem though: the town they refer to - Katherine - isn't part of the council's area. Roper Gulf Regional Council covers a massive, sparsely populated area reaching from east of Katherine right out to the Gulf of Carpentaria coast. It came into being 10 years ago when the NT Government oversaw the establishment of 'Super Shires' - amalgamations that subsumed a stack of community government councils which were often local government areas with only a few hundred constituents. The creation of 11 'Super Shires' a decade ago was an unpopular move . Poorly consulted and hastily done, some say it ca...

As mentioned in my last post , in my lecturing this semester I've been trying to exemplify key concepts in sociolinguistics via popular culture. I have a stock of these snippets and hope to find time to share a few more. As I said previously, it's an effort to engage students and adhere to the philosophy that "when all is said and done, we study sociolinguistics because it is fun" (Meyerhoff 2011: 4) In part two, we jump to this week's lecture where we looked at various of definitions of 'speech community' and then how concepts of social networks and community of practice have built upon notions of speech community. Key concept : Social networks, unlike macro-social categories such as class, group people according to interactions (and can then tell us more about linguistic variation) Concept in more detail:  Some sociolinguistic studies have shown how important social networks are in explaining language variation and change (or lack of change). Accor...

I am currently teaching sociolinguistics. Most lectures, I have found ways to illustrate key points and concepts with short online videos - usually stuff from TV shows, YouTube and other things. It's an effort to co-opt things I already enjoy and am familiar with to make sociolinguistics and lectures fun. After all, "when all is said and done, we study sociolinguistics because it is fun" (Meyerhoff 2011: 4) So, in the name of fun, I'd like to share the videos and corresponding sociolinguistic concepts I've been using in my lectures. Others might enjoy and learn from them too. Here's part one. Key concept : Sociolinguistics is about individuals. No two speakers have the same language. Concept in more detail: Societies consist of individuals, none of whom are exactly the same. We shouldn't forget this when we study sociolinguistics. In Hudson's introductory textbook, he says: "The individual speaker is important in sociolinguistics in much ...

I recently spent a week in Ngukurr. It's the middle of the wet season and road access goes only to Roper Bar Store . After that point, two swollen rivers block the way. I flew into Ngukurr on the mail plane, which was awesome. But how to get out? The Bodhi Bus of course! Bodhi Bus provides a twice-weekly bus service between Ngukurr and Katherine, in the wet season as well as the dry. In the wet season, you pay a bit extra and get barged up the Roper River for about an hour and at the remote boat ramp, you are dutifully collected and then arrive safe'n'sound in Katherine via an air-conditioned bus. Bodhi Bus' wet season drop-offs/pick-ups at Four Mile, connecting with the barge trip up/down the Roper River. I promise you, this blogpost is in no way sponsored by Bodhi Bus. I am just a fan. Not only does it service Ngukurr and the communities between there and Katherine, it goes all over the Katherine region - Bulman (incl Beswick), Lajamanu (incl Kalkaring...

I'm knee-deep in transcribing Kriol interviews that I did last year for this Kriol Proujek , being ably assisted by some Summer Research Scholars from UQ and, before Christmas, some Kriol-speaking language workers from Ngukurr. (See here for a neat little story about their work). Pretty regularly, while transcribing, I smile, laugh and really enjoy some of the chat I hear. The lovely examples are endless really. The recordings are just wonderful (in my humble opinion). I won't go into a lot of detail (or share any examples that might be a bit too personal or identifiable), but here's one that made me giggle this afternoon, when I transcribed the part of the interview where I asked two young guys if they use a regionalised term for 'scavenge': gubarl : Q: Yu sabi det 'gubarl'? A: Yuwai! Ai oldei gubarlgubarl grawun faibsen burru eberriwe la grawun! Q: Do you know (the word) gubarl? A: Yeah! I'm always 'gubarl'-ing the ground (for) five ...

I managed to have a proper holiday and went to Perth for a few days, switching off entirely from work and linguistics which was much needed. Flying back to Darwin though, I had the most pleasurable easing back into the world of languages when I happened across the doco Language Matters on my little back-of-the-chair Qantas Inflight entertainment screen. Look who's on my Qantas flight! Nick Evans in Language Matters I was aware of Language Matters but I'd also kinda forgotten about it. Filmed in 2013 , it was made for PBS (Public TV) in America and I don't actually know anyone who has seen it. The only reason I knew of it was because it features my at-the-time PhD supervisor Nick Evans and I remember him talking about it (see also this mention in an old  ANU newsletter ). So what a pleasant surprise to be reminded of its existence by Qantas and then be able to spend the next two hours watching it while zooming over Australia. It turns out, Language Matters is wond...

2016 sign at Rapid Creek (Source: Facebook) When I shared th is Kriol sign on Facebook as an example of a bad Kriol translation, a first language Kriol speaker commented: Im nomo Kriol garjinga, bambai aibina sabi.   Which means:   It’s not Kriol for goodness sake, otherwise I would’ve understood it. My thoughts exactly. And also the thoughts of every other Kriol speaker I know who has s e en it. Poorly translated signage isn’t uncommon. Everyone is familiar with the hilarity of Engrish . But when translation is just a commercial novelty, it doesn’t matter too much. However, when government departments seek out translation services, you can assume that it is for an important reason. And when that goes wrong, it is more serious and more embarrassing. My favourite example of this is an English sign emailed off to be translated into Welsh. The resultant sign features an ‘Out Of Office’ auto-reply message in Welsh! Out of office messa...