Continuities and Discontinuities Affecting Aboriginal Learners
Postclausal modification
(‘afterthought’)
Ian G. Malcolm
[email protected]
Presentation to CDU/ATESOL (NT) symposium “Kids, Creoles and Classrooms”
th
Charles Darwin University, 7 April 2014.
1. Evidence for continuity in grammar
Morphological feature
Noun plural marking
Noun possessive marking
Personal pronoun
(dual/plural)
Personal pronoun (no
gender)
Noun compounding
Demonstrative for definite
article
Aboriginal English
Those.. are nothing but
piece of paper [La Perouse]
MK 97:62
my cousin bike [Leonora]
KM79:421
youfella = you pl [Onslow]
KM82:102; me’n’you = 1p
dual incl; youtwofella = 2p
dual [Barrow Ck] (Koch
2000:41)
my mother, ...e talk
[Wyndham] KM 79:422
eye glass, finger ring, cold
sick, foot track (KM 82:98)
dat dog for Alan mob
‘Alan’s family’s dog’
(Butcher 2008”634)
Continuities (TL; K or TSC)
TL: Eades 2013:61; Harkins
94:45-6
K: Sandefur 79:78
TL: Harkins 94:55
K: Sharpe & Sandefur 77:55
TL: Dixon 1980:3;Eades
2013:61
K: Hudson 1981:45 (yubala,
yundubala)
Aboriginal English
Where John? [Port
Hedland] (Geytenbeek
...school is real big, eh?
[Sydney] Eagleson 82:133
Resumptive pronoun
(‘double subject’)
Me and these other guys,
we roll up [Sydney]
Eagleson 82:129
She big dobba [Perth]
Collard 2011:27
K: Sharpe & Sandefur 79:55
TL: Koch 1985; Douglas
77:67
K: Hudson 1981:194
TL: Hudson & Richards
78:93; Kaldor 82:59
K: Sharpe & Sandefur 77:57
TL: Harkins 94:53; Douglas
77:67
K: Sharpe & Sandefur 77:58
TL: Kaldor 82:56;
Geytenbeek 77:41
K: Sharpe & Sandefur 77:56
c) Morphological Continuity of Aboriginal English with Kriol or Torres Strait Creole
TL: Harkins 1994:51
K: Sharpe & Sandefur 77:55
TL: Dixon 1980:272
K: Lee 2004
TL: Hudson & Richards
78:103; Douglas 77:68
K: Hudson 1981:56
Morphological feature
Invariant reflexive pronoun
Aboriginal English
wash ourself [Perth]
Collard 2011:33
Adjective suffixing
muticar, red-one [panregional] Butcher 2008:635
Numeral for definite article
They saw one man
[Leonora] KM 1979:122
catch one biggest turtle
Butcher 2008:635
Superlative suffix for extent
Lexical compounds with –
way = manner
walkin slow way [Perth]
Collard 2011:21
Continuity (K, TSC)
K: Hudson 1981:121 (suffix
–jelp)
TSC: Shnukal 1988:33
K: Sharpe & Sandefur
77:59,56
gulbala ‘cool’
K: Sandefur 1979:79
wanbala boni ‘a pony’
K: Sandefur 1979:102
bigiswan bijibiji ‘very big
fish’
K: Fraser 1977
TSC: Shnukal 1991:187
c) Syntactic continuity of Aboriginal English with Kriol or Torres Strait Creole
b) Syntactic continuity of Aboriginal English with Traditional Languages and Pidgin/Creole
Syntactic feature
Non-use of copula to relate a
subject to a complement
Tag question forms
No determiner before noun
a) Morphological Continuity of Aboriginal English with Traditional Languages and
Pidgin/Creole
1977:40)
We get five sheeps, fat one
[Onslow]KM 79:423
Syntactic feature
Continuous aspect without
be auxiliary
Continuities (TL; K or TSC)
TL: Geytenbeek 77:40;
Eades 2013:61
1
Aboriginal English
they comin this way [Perth]
Collard 2011:7
Continuities (TL; K or TSC)
K: Sandefur 1979:132
Existential clauses with get
(‘there is/are’)
Passive voice with get
Serial verbs
Preverbal past tense
marker bin
E got some sand [Broome]
KM82:86
them girls mighta got picked
up [Perth] Collard 2011:7
wind blow me knock me
over
[Gnowangerup] KM 79:414
I bin run [Leonora] KM
79:415
K: Hudson 1981:95
was/were generalization
K: Hudson 1981:108
TSC: Shnukal 1988:81
Pronouns not differentiated
for case
Aboriginal English
meet yous at the big crates
[Perth] Collard 2011:3
us four yorgas fell [Perth]
Collard 2011:5
Adjectival use of them in
subject position
Dem girls got the music
goin [Sydney] MK 97:63
Adjective forms with adverb
function
He was going real good
[Sydney] Eagleson
1982:131
See what she want [Perth]
Collard 2011:21
Inny reckon to me... [Perth]
Collard 2011:11
Then I come back...
[Sydney]
Eagleson 1982:119)
They gone to that
outstation
[pan-regional] Butcher
08:633
I been up there...
[Katanning] KM 1979:425
rd
Zero inflection on 3 person
singular present tense
Zero past tense inflection on
regular verb
Zero past tense inflection on
irregular verb
Use of past participle form
for past tense of verb
Zero have auxiliary
English
Non-standard English
variety (Hughes & Trudgill
79:56)
2. Evidence for continuity in Lexis and Semantics
a) Switches from Traditional Languages
K: Sandefur 1979:128


e) Continuity of Aboriginal English with Other Non-standard Englishes
Grammatical feature
Plural you form yous
we was all shoutin [Perth]
Collard 2011:31


Suggested Continuity
Irish English

Non-standard English
variety, possibly N/S
Australian English
Non-standard English
variety, possibly N/S
Australian English
Non-standard English
variety or
Melanesian & NSW Pidgin
Simplification feature
(pidginization)
Simplification feature
(pidginization)
Non-standard English
variety, possibly N/S
Australian English
Non-standard English
variety,
possibly N/S Australian
English
Simplification feature
Possibly N/S Australian
pikurta = kangaroo (Yamatji, Carnarvon) I killed a pikurta (EKM 1982:221)
marlu = kangaroo (Wongai, Kellerberrin) “My pop shot one, one, one, one um
one marlu right in the um um eye...” (Malcolm et al 1999:58)
jinung = foot (SE Queensland) Move your big jinung (Eades 2013:61)
alknge = eye (Alice Springs) “Kids might get hurt: pokem alknge [eye] or
something.” (Harkins 1984)
kurlungka = schoolchild (Wongai, Kellerberrin) “I know what a kid is...kurlungka.
My dad..my dad told me...” (Malcolm et al 1999:59)
b) Traditional Language items with English affixes



yorgas/yorks = females (Nyungar, Perth) (Collard 2011:5, 37)
djerupin/jirrapin (Malcolm et al 1999:44) = excited, excitable, happy (Nyungar,
Perth) (Collard 2011:39)
kepered up = being drunk (Nyungar, Perth) (Malcolm et al 1999:44)
c) English items with Traditional Language affixes


We been see Megan-watha ‘We saw Megan’s family’ (Roebourne, WA)
[Yindjibarndi] (Malcolm et al 1999:46)
Arthur-ku brother; Auntie Wilmas-ku place [Wiluna, WA] (Kaldor & Malcolm
1982:85).
d) Switches from Traditional Languages with Semantic Shift



2
monartj = uniformed policeman (from Nyungar ‘cockatoo’) (Collard 2011:9, 23)
boya = money (from Nyungar ‘trading rocks’) (Collard 2011:17)
kepa = alcoholic drink (from Nyungar ke:p, ‘water’) (Malcolm et al 1999:44).
e) English items with Semantic Shift












EKM 82:88; Simpson 1996:187-8)
g) English-derived items showing Continuity with Kriol
liar/lie = pretend, deceive, break a promise, lie.
E bin lie-drop it ‘He pretended to drop it’ [Broome WA] (KM 82:98)
country = traditional land, c.f. kantri, ‘one’s people’s country’ (KK 93:46)
auntie = fathers’/mothers’ sisters, wives of mothers’ brothers, nieces
may also be used as a term of respect for older women (Nyungar, Collard p.c.)
c.f. Kriol anti = ‘father’s sisters and other females in her subsection’ (Hudson
1981:146)
uncle = mother’s brothers, husbands of mother’s sisters, nephews (Nyungar,
Collard p.c.)
ungkul, ‘mother’s brothers and other males in his subsection (Hudson
1981:146).
mummy = ‘mother or baby’ (Malcolm 2001:229)
grannies = grandchildren and/or grandparents (Malcolm et al 1999:45)
man = ‘initiated man’ (Arthur 1996:46)
make someone a young man ‘initiate him’ (Koch 1985)
kine = way (from ‘kind’) Mummy lie-say dis kine... ‘Mummy said pretendingly
this way...’ [Broome, WA] (EKM 1982:98)
fly (metaphorical) “Bird [name] flew in and flew out” (Collard, p.c.)
jar = sternly reprove (Malcolm et al 1999:45). In the South West, this carries
association with jarra = jarrah tree, which could provide punishment sticks
(Collard, p.c.)
open = empty, penniless, pathetic, exhausted, etc. (Malcolm et al 1999:45)
learn = teach ‘they learn me to talk all Nyungar words’ (KC 2002:83)
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




3. Evidence for Continuity in Speech Use





f) English items with Semantic Shift Shared by Melanesian or NSW Pidgin





you fullahs [Perth WA](Collard 2011:21); yupala, youfella [Halls Creek WA] =
you (pl).
From Kriol yu(m)bala, ‘you (pl)’ (Sharpe & Sandefur 1977:54)
mob = ‘a group of Aboriginal people linked by relationship and culture’ (Arthur
1996:186). One time a big mob of us slept in there [Perth WA] (Collard 2011:7).
c.f. Lee 1994 Kriol: mob ‘crowd, extended family’; big mob ‘many, a lot’
too = very. They too small ‘they are very small’ [Leonora, WA] (EKM 82:93).
From Kriol dumaj, ‘very’(Sharpe & Sandefur 1977:54).
One time = once. One time a big mob of us slept in there [Perth, WA] (Collard
2011:7).
From Kriol wantaim ‘one time’ (Lee 2004)
sing out = call out This guy sang out to me [Sydney] (Eagleson 1982:122).
Derived from Kriol singat, ‘sing out, shout’ (Lee 1994)
transitive suffix –im. E bin chuckim mela in the water ‘He chucked us in the
water’.
From Kriol. [Fitzroy Crossing, WA] (EKM 82:87).
stop = stay (at least overnight)
sit down = camp, c.f. Kriol jidan, be, dwell (Sandefur 1979:184)
(also occurring “in most Australian languages” (Dixon 1980:116)
d’rekly = soon (Collard 2011:39.
blackfellow = Aborigine (Simpson 1996:187)
along/longa/la = multipurpose preposition (Koch 1985:183; KM 79:429;

kin relationships are crucial to interaction (Eades 1982)
questioning may be less necessary (Eades 1982)
answering questions promptly (if at all) may not be required (Eades 1982)
one may need to offer information to trigger information in return (Eades 1982)
oral narrative employs preferred modes of organization (e.g. travel, hunting,
etc.) (Malcolm & Rochecouste 2000)
interaction may be “communal” or “broadcast” (Walsh 1991) with observations,
inferences and intended action being announced (Malcolm 2009)
4. Evidence for Continuity in Conceptualization

3
re-schematizing of SAE input to conform to cultural conceptual patterns

(Sharifian et al 2012)
utterances in English may follow cultural conceptual patterns (Sharifian et al
2004)
Eagleson, Robert D., Kaldor, Susan and Malcolm, Ian G. (1982) English and the Aboriginal
Child. Canberra: Curriculum Development Centre. (EKM 82)
Geytenbeek, Brian B. (1977) “Looking at English through Nyangumarda-coloured
spectacles.” In Ed Brumby and Eric Vaszolyi (eds.) Language Problems and Aboriginal
Education (pp. 34-44). Mount Lawley: Aboriginal Teacher Education Program, Mount
Lawley College of Advanced Education.
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