that munanga linguist

Nga-gin.garra ! Jawayiga! :)

Today was a fairly average day for my fieldwork in Ngukurr. Average, yet remarkable. Me and the Marra mob I work here with did two sessions today and did some good work on Marra. But just in those two short sessions, we spanned a 45-year period, exemplifying that the Marra language is actually being remarkably resilient given the sociocultural situation it finds itself in. This morning BR, JJ and FR worked with me and I encouraged them to continue some Marra literacy and transcription practice. So we used an archived recording made in 1966 by Margaret Sharpe and Stanley Roberts. It's a great recording to listen to and use for transcription training. The words and sentences aren't too fast and complex and we get to chuckle and Margaret and Old Stanley's not-quite-perfect Marra and English skills. It's also great that such an old recording is lively again. In the afternoon session, I had a go at doing my own elicitation session with FR and MT. BR and GB where there...

I'm still finding out new Kriol words and constructions even though I've been learning Kriol since 2004. This is exciting for me and a constant reminder of just how intricate and complex Kriol can be. It's so easy to just see the English-related surface of Kriol and miss all the juicy stuff going on behind the scenes. So today two young guys DR and KM were starting to transcribe a recording we'd made of them and I learned a couple of things. A new word: medrim . I'd listened to it on the recording but had no clue what the word was. The example sentence: Kriol: Ai garra medri im tha'n Gloss: I FUT beat+Tr him/her "that one" English: I'll flog her. Don't ask me where the word medrim comes from. I have no idea as of yet. Note also the contractions and dropping of sounds that happen all the time in the normal speech of your average Roper Kriol speaker. In the above sentence, medrim gets shortened to medri and tha'n is actually a cont...

I love the network of gossip around remote communities (or in any small community, I suppose). The intricate communication networks are quite astounding. A nice little example I was involved in was yesterday: 4pm : JJ calls from Ngukurr. I was in a meeting so didn't answer phone. JJ then calls CK who was in the same meeting. CK answered and put me on the phone. JJ's two daughters are travelling and in Katherine and could I lend them some money for their dinner tonight. "OK, no worries, I'll sort it out after the meeting". 5:30pm : Went to see IP who I knew would know where the two girls were so I could give them some money. Yes, she knew where they were so off I went on my scooter to lend them $50. 5:45pm : Arrived at place where 2 girls were staying. Gave them $50. They laughed because they were hoping to get a lift to Red Rooster to buy some dinner, but they didn't know I was travelling by scooter. They also laughed: "Did IP tell you abou...

A munanga friend was telling me a funny story the other day, which I hope she doesn't mind me repeating here. She got a text message from a Kriol-speaking relative but she didn't know who it was from. The number wasn't stored in her phone. So she replied with a 'who's this?' type message and then the reply came... "untie me barry" This SMS caused quite a bit of confusion. Untie him? Why, what's happened? Has he been locked up? Is someone holding him captive? Knowing that Kriol speakers are susceptible to not expressing themselves perfectly clearly over text messages, she didn't completely panic. But still... 'untie me barry'? After going back to the message about 5 times, finally it clicked. My friend was reading the stress wrong and the sender was using non-English spelling to show that he was 'writing' in Kriol. She finally decoded the message: Aunty! Me, Barry! Which in standard Kriol spelling, would read: Anti, mi...

Last year I blogged about an opinion piece by Aden Ridgeway that was written in Gumbaynggirr and how cool it was. Well, it seems the UN also thought it was pretty cool because they gave it a media peace award! See an article about it here . Good work Aden and also well done to those involved with the great work that seems to be going on in reviving Gumbaynggirr and making Muurrbay one of the best language centres in Australia (if not *the* best).

hehehe... I was at the Katherine Markets yesterday drinking yummy coffee and socialising. I was chatting to a couple I've known for ages - one speaks Kriol as a first language, the other speaks English as a first language and both speak the other language well. Because I'd just spent a couple of weeks out bush, my Kriol was well-oiled so I was switching between Kriol and English as I was talking to them. After speaking Kriol a bit, their son (all of 4) goes to me, "Are you speaking French?". Now, this kid can understand Kriol pretty well and hangs around Kriol speakers quite a lot, so I was surprised he thought I was speaking French. I laughed and told him "ai nomo sabi tok Frentj" (I don't know how to speak French) but he still kept asking if I was speaking French... too funny. I realised that for him, the majority of non-English speaking white people he's met in his short life are probably French speakers and I'm guessing he'd be lucky ...