New languages two – Old languages love

[Update! See the comments! Darkness is lightened! How I overlooked Nick Thieberger’s QE2 I don’t know, but it is FANTASTIC news for PARADISEC! And on the computational linguistics side, good about Tim Baldwin’s project]
It’s Poverty Action Day. Whaddya know, speakers of small endangered languages are usually the poorest of the poor, and often don’t have the time/money to work on their own languages. That work gets done in partnerships with linguists and others from rich countries like Australia. No joy for this in the Australian Research Council funding results. This must be the worst year for funding endangered language work for a very very long time. (I whinged in 2006 about the ARC lottery results – but that was a FAR better year).
After wading through piles of .pdfs, I could only spot two grants for endangered language work – both for work on new languages in the Northern Territory, [plug! stemming in part from the Aboriginal Child Language Acquisition Project]. Congratulations to

• Caroline Jones, (based at the University of Wollongong) Phonological development in child speakers of mixed language
• Felicity Meakins (based at the University of Queensland) Life after death: Exploring the birth of Gurindji Kriol, a new Aboriginal mixed language.

Also connected to Indigenous languages and cultures are:

• PARADISEC’s Linda Barwick, who is a CI on a Linkage grant (Sustainable futures for music cultures: Toward an ecology of musical diversity [.pdf], first CI Prof Dr H Schippers, Griffith University)
• Paul Burke’s ANU anthropology project Indigenous Diaspora: a new direction in the ethnographic study of the migration of Australian Aboriginal people from remote areas. Dead relevant to the Intervention…

Please lighten my gloom by noting if I’ve missed any projects of direct relevance to Transient Languages readers.

Here are the descriptions of the projects mentioned above:
Caroline Jones: Phonological development in child speakers of mixed language
In Northern Territory Aboriginal communities where traditional languages are mostly spoken fluently by older people, the home language for many children is a kind of mixed language combining elements of traditional languages, Kriol and English. This project will document for the first time the sound system of this language, and investigate how children’s background knowledge of this sound system prepares them to learn words in English and traditional languages. This information is important because it can help parents, teachers and speech pathologists assess and teach Aboriginal children from mixed language backgrounds.
Felicity Meakins: Life after death: Exploring the birth of Gurindji Kriol, a new Aboriginal mixed language.
Considerable attention is currently being directed towards the problems faced by Indigenous people living in remote communities. Just how best to help the younger generations emerge from the cycle of poor health and education standards is the topic of many debates in contemporary Australian society and politics. This project addresses the issue of what it is to be a modern Indigenous person and how this identity is expressed linguistically. In understanding more clearly what it means to be a modern Indigenous person, communication channels between mainstream Australia and Indigenous communities can be improved.
Prof Dr H Schippers; Dr P Dunbar-Hall; Prof PR Hayward; A/Prof LM Barwick; Prof K Howard;
Prof P Campbell; Prof J Drummond; Dr H Lundstrom; Dr RA Letts
Sustainable futures for music cultures: Toward an ecology of musical diversity
The project will contribute to a vibrant and diverse musical life in Australia, and by extension the sense of wellbeing of its population. Further, it has the potential to substantially contribute to Australia’s reputation as an innovative, forward looking nation by taking the lead in the emerging sub-discipline of applied ethnomusicology. Finally, from the perspective of the National Research Priorities, the project will contribute to fostering understanding between cultures in Australia and the region by increasing insight into the working of other cultures, focusing on the Asia-Pacific.
Also connected to Indigenous languages and cultures is Paul Burke’s ANU anthropology project Indigenous Diaspora: a new direction in the ethnographic study of the migration of
Australian Aboriginal people from remote areas.
This project relates directly to current policy debates about the future of Aboriginal populations in remote Australia and proposals for encouraging mobility between homeland centres and distant jobs and education. It seeks to understand the process and the social and cultural implications of the urbanisation of remote Aboriginal people. As such, it addresses the priority goal of understanding and strengthening Australia’s social and economic fabric to help families and individuals lead healthy, productive and fulfilling lives (Research Priority 2). It will also provide a model for the extension of existing anthropological research on remote Aboriginal communities.

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