Subtle features of Aboriginal English that I love: agreeing or confirming by copying

Linguists aren't supposed to play favourites, but I love Aboriginal English. Maybe because it's what the love of my life speaks and separating language from people and society isn't a realistic prospect. I'm lucky to regularly be around Aboriginal people speaking English in all sorts of ways and privileged to have insights into some of the more subtle ways in which Aboriginal ways of using English differ from the suburban white English I grew up speaking. 

I want to share some of these more subtle features. Not just because I am fond of them but also because they seem to be features that escape the attention of most academic discussions of Aboriginal English / Aboriginal ways of using English. I'm going to skip over the complexities of what Aboriginal English is (and isn't) and also if/why that label is worth using at all (a chapter I wrote on Aboriginal English(es) dips into some of that discussion - email me if you want a copy). For brevity's sake, let's just say: today I'm talking about Aboriginal English as spoken by Aboriginal people I know (from NT and Queensland).

The feature I love that I'm going to talk about here is a little discourse thing that I don't know anyone's really noticed before - in the literature or otherwise - but if you have read about it or noticed it before, please share in the comments! 

This particular feature goes like this:

1. You're having a good chat with someone and they say something important or surprising
2. You say or ask something in reply just to clarify or because you're surprised and want to check the info
3. And the storyteller agrees with you or confirms by repeating exactly what you said, matching your lexical choices and even your intonation

Here's a fictional example:

A: I was so tired I'm lying there and you know how aunty can talk? Well, I just fell asleep! I had to call her back later to apologise

B: You fell asleep while she was still talking?

A: I fell asleep while she was still talking!

I first noticed this about 20 years ago as something my housemate in Katherine would do. He was from a small town in central-coast Queensland and part of a family that worked with and supervised the incredible Diana Eades while she did her groundbreaking study on pragmatics of Aboriginal English in South-east Queensland (though my mate was a toddler at the time!). And in the 20 years since, it's something I regularly hear my partner from Townsville do too.

This repetition-as-confirmation is probably easily overlooked as a feature of Aboriginal English. It's something that any Australian English speaker could do - and possibly many do. My qualitative observation though is that Aboriginal English speakers are more likely to do this and it is part of the rich make-up of what good conversation between Aboriginal English speakers sounds/feels like. As a white suburban English speaker, I feel like if I want to support or confirm a proposition, my go-to response would be an exclamation like 'yeah!', 'exactly', or 'I did!'. I doubt I would repeat the whole proposition; it feels like too many words, too redundant, too inefficient.

But I love this feature. I feel kinda warm and fuzzy when someone uses it on me. It's like the ultimate in speech accommodation. Speech accommodation is when we tailor our speech - our word choices, intonation, accent - towards who we are talking to if we want foster a positive relationship. But doing speech accommdation in this way - using the exact same sentence, with the same prosody and intonation that was used on you just seconds before - is there a way to feel more agreed with? By taking the time to confirm with not just a full sentence, but your full sentence, how could you not feel good towards your conversation partner?

I'm not sure that any linguist who has looked into Aboriginal English has said anything about this feature before. I did skim Diana Eades' PhD thesis which would probably be the place most likely to discuss it and didn't find a mention. I skimmed Ian Malcolm's 2018 tome too with no sign of this feature being mentioned. I'm going to go out on a limb and claim that I'm sharing new linguistic analysis here! 

Some recorded data

But to propose this as a "feature" based on me saying 'hey I've heard two guys I know well do this a lot and here's a made-up convo to demonstrate?'. I mean, academic publication standards are falling and this is just a blog, but still - I should offer some better evidence! 

I went back to a really wonderful long-form interview as part of ABC's Conversations program I remember being enthralled by. Wesley Enoch spends a brilliant 50 minutes talking to Mick Gooda, a former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Human Rights Commissioner, about his life and work. Both men are Queenslanders and their chat is genuine, wonderful and unselfconscious. 

Enoch as the interviewer does a beautiful job of gently swinging between direct questions required of the genre that directs the interview to where it needs to go and then more typical Aboriginal English strategies of offering/suggesting information in place of direct questions to keep the chat relaxed and comfortable as an Aboriginal English conversation. Gooda shares stories about his life with candour, humour and care and, as a listener, it's really like we're privileged eavesdroppers.

As the conversation flows, Gooda responds to Enoch a number of times by simply repeating the last thing Enoch said as a way to confirm and agree with Enoch. I found eight pretty clear examples of the feature I described above. You can access the original audio here and it's pretty easy to skip through to the sections I've timestamped: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/mick-gooda-and-human-rights/13428084

Example 1 - 11:43

At 11:43, Gooda is talking about his family movements in his youth:

Gooda: "We moved as a mob, to Sarina. My uncles were good football players, played in Sarina and Mackay. Um,
Enoch: "And Sarina's cane country."
Gooda: "Cane country, yeah."

Example 2 - 18:00

Now talking about life as a young person in Rockhampton, Gooda discusses playing sport and then Enoch continues the discussion into other recreational activities

Gooda: "You'd cop a bit of abuse, but it was where you sort of were treated as equals to a certain extent."
Enoch: "And the Fitzroy River."
Gooda" "Ah the Fitzroy River. Love the Fitzroy River."

Example 3 - 22:25

Here Gooda talks about a life-changing decision to not getting involved in youth crime and some of his peers took the other path:

Gooda: "and a fair few of them got sent away, to that awful place down here Westbrook"
Enoch: "A detention centre?"
Gooda: "A detention centre, yeah, um..."

This example in particular is one where you can also hear Gooda match Enoch's timing and intonation in the copied phrase as well as the lexical content. 

Example 4 - 30:05

Gooda is sharing a few stories to depict race relations in the 70s and 80s during his early career:

Gooda: "These two whitefellas went and hid and when the family left they attacked them" 
Enoch: "The whole family?"
Gooda: "The family. And there was like guns going off..."

Example 5 - 32:56

Here Gooda is talking about his early career with ATSIC and working for Indigenous leaders who were ATSIC Commissioners:

Gooda: "We were supporting the elected members, the commissioners. That was our job, so there was Charlie Perkins, Lowitja, 
Enoch: "Powerhouses"
Gooda: "Powerhouses. Kerry O'Shane. And we had to coordinate and say how are we gonna respond to this."

Example 6 - 39:55

Gooda now talks about activism where he publicly criticised the NT Government over their youth justice practices

Gooda: "You get overwrought with these things and I tweeted that maybe instead of sacking Aboriginal organisations they should maybe think about sacking the Northern Territory Government"
Enoch: "That woulda got a reaction"
Gooda: "It got a reaction. And it was basically all the way through the threats of me being disqualified from the Royal Commission."

Again in this one, what's noticeable is how Gooda matches Enoch's timing and intonation in his near-copy of Enoch's phrasing.

Example 7 - 44:01

Here, Gooda discusses a difficult time where his mother decided not to have dialysis after renal failure

Gooda: "I had to sort of work it through with my family, some of whom wanted to insist that she gets taken up to the hospital and put on a dialysis machine"
Enoch: "against her will"
Gooda: "against her will, and I said no, that's not gonna happen."

Example 8 - 46:55

In a very moving part of the interview, Gooda reflects of the impacts of suicide in his immediate family.

Gooda: "You know, Australia's the suicide capital of the world."
Enoch: "Especially in our communities."
Gooda: "In our communities."

Discussion

So there's a fair bit going on here with this data. Unlike my initial invented example, Gooda doesn't often repeat a full sentence although he does in example (6). Elsewhere, the copied phrase is a noun phrases or prepositional phrase of usually 2-3 words. 

You can see/hear that Gooda's copying is a way of confirming and agreeing with Enoch's interjections or clarifying comments. I mentioned a couple of times above that if you listen to the examples, one of the distinct characteristics of what Gooda does is align not just his words but also his pacing, tone and intonation to Enoch too. It's like the ultimate warm hug in speech accommodation.

As I also said, this is a subtle feature. It's not one I'm willing to suggest only Aboriginal people do. I reckon non-Indigenous people could read these examples and feel like it's something they could or would do. But I do think it's something that's more prevalent in Aboriginal English conversations (at least between adult men from Queensland which is who all my sources are!). Non-Indigenous Australian English speakers might do this too, but is it a marker for non-Aboriginal people of how to be good conversation partner? I don't think so.

After 15+ years of hearing my partner do this and never mentioning it to him, I announced the other night that "I have a language question" (I rarely ask him language stuff). It took me a few goes to successfully describe the feature to him (it is subtle after all) and when it clicked, he did recognise it as something he does but he'd never noticed it before. I asked if he felt it's something Aboriginal people do more than white people and his initial thought was yes because white people would be likely to give "proper" answers like 'yes' rather than just repeat what was said. But he didn't really have strong opinions on it - which makes sense given how barely noticeable the feature is.

Conclusion

(Look at me adding a conclusion like I'm a real social scientist...)

Speech accommodation is something we all do in conversation. When we like someone or want someone to like us (which is most of the time!) we adjust our communication to match theirs - we tend to try to use the same words they do, use the same gestures, match their tone or register (casual or formal, for example) and so on.

But here, I'm suggesting that Aboriginal English speakers - or at least Aboriginal people born in Queensland in the second half the twentieth century - have a distinctive way of accommodating to their interlocutors in a way that non-Aboriginal English speakers don't do as much or do as a 'thing'.

Listening to Mick Gooda regularly agree and confirm what Wesley Enoch says by using the same phrases as Enoch, I suggest it contributes to the sense of warmth you feel between the two men. It's part of what makes their conversation so lovely, which they both feel themselves, as demonstrated by how they close it:

Enoch: "An amazing story about an amazing man. Thanks Mick, for a wonderful, wonderful journey of a story."
Gooda: "Oh, it's been great. Just wish everyone could have a bit of luck like I've had so ... So great to be interviewed by you, my brother."
Enoch: "Oh thanks Mick."
Gooda: "I love it."

Aboriginal English is rich and complex and so much more than a few iconic words like 'deadly' and 'gammon' or some sort of 'Aboriginal accent'. Diana Eades' observations from all those years ago, under the supervision of Michael Williams, is still one of the most inspiring and interesting pieces of linguistic research I've ever read. She went beyond the obvious and carefully thought about what it means for an Aboriginal person to be a good conversation partner with other Aboriginal people. Subtle features like the one I've tried to describe are, I think, part of that.