Barngarlidhi Manoo (LARA edition) in LARA

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Jun 17, 2019 Manny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: children, australia, linguistics-and-philosophy, australian-languages, fun-with-lara

We've been in Adelaide since February, and during this visit we've got to know Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann, who has for much of his professional career been engaged what he calls "Revivalistics": the transformation of dead/sleeping languages into living ones. Ghil'ad is from Israel, where most people speak the revived language of Modern Hebrew, so he knows from his own experience that it can be done. Since moving to Australia, he's been trying to do the same thing with aboriginal languages.

This We've been in Adelaide since February, and during this visit we've got to know Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann, who has for much of his professional career been engaged what he calls "Revivalistics": the transformation of dead/sleeping languages into living ones. Ghil'ad is from Israel, where most people speak the revived language of Modern Hebrew, so he knows from his own experience that it can be done. Since moving to Australia, he's been trying to do the same thing with aboriginal languages.

This book is part of the Barngarla revival program, where Ghil'ad has been one of the central figures. Barngarla was spoken on the Eyre Peninsula, near Adelaide, but the last native speaker died in the 1960s. The Barngarla Language Advisory Committee has been painstakingly collecting together the available material, linking it together with information about other related aboriginal languages, and trying to reconstruct Barngarla. It seems to be going well, and my understanding is that the Barngarla people are very happy to see their language returning. Early indications suggest that there is a strong positive correlation between recapturing of native language and improved mental health in aboriginal people. I can certainly understand why that might be. If I'd had my language and culture forcibly taken away from me, I think I'd feel better if I saw a possibility of getting them back.

The Barngarla Alphabet Book provides a very gentle introduction to Barngarla, aimed to be accessible to young children. It consists of a short introduction plus about eighty pages of main content, giving examples of simple words and phrases in a picture-book format: if you're diligent, you can learn about 300 words of Barngarla. It's fun, and I'm sold: I already want to know more about aboriginal languages.
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Your linguistic fun fact for today: the Barngarla word maga means "no".
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If you want to hear what revived Barngarla sounds like, we've collaborated with Ghil'ad to create a LARA version of the book. You'll find it here. Open in Chrome or Firefox, and hover the mouse over any phrase marked in red to listen to it. ...more

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