Australian Journal of Linguistics

Vol. 17, no. 2 (1997)

Articles

Palyku is a Ngayarta language	Geoffrey N. O'Grady & Mary Laughren	129-154
An acoustic phonetic study of broad, general, and cultivated Australian English vowels	Jonathan Harrington, Felicity Cox & Zoe Evans	155-184
Engan pronouns and their old endings	Karl J. Franklin	185-216

Book reviews

Linguistic ecology: Language change and linguistic imperialism in the Pacific region (Peter Mühlhäusler)	Jeff Siegel	219-238
Understanding utterances: An introduction to pragmatics (Diane Blakemore)	Koenraad Kuiper	238-241
Growing up bilingual: Puerto Rican children in New York (Ana Celia Zentella)	Antonia Rubino	241-244

Shorter notices

The search for the perfect language (Umberto Eco)

Cliff Goddard

245-246

Abstracts

Palyku is a Ngayarta language

Geoffrey N. O'Grady & Mary Laughren

Abstract: In this paper we present evidence in favour of the O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966:84) and O'Grady (1966) classification of Palyku, a language identified by von Brandenstein (1967) also by the term Njijapali (our Nyiyaparli), as a Ngayarta language and against its inclusion in the Wati subgroup as proposed by Dench (1995a). Because Palyku/Nyiyaparli is the only recorded Ngayarta language with three sets of bound pronominals marking person, number and grammatical function distinctions, including some forms not attested in other South Western (or Nyungic) Group languages (including Wati languages), its classification as a Ngayarta language raises the distinct possibility that Proto-Ngayarta had similar sets of bound pronouns no longer attested in most Ngayarta languages. Other features of Palyku described in this paper indicate that it is indeed one of the most conservative of attested Ngayarta languages, these features being relevant to any reconstruction of proto-Ngayarta morphology and syntax and of genetic relationships within the Ngayarta subgroup.

An acoustic phonetic study of broad, general, and cultivated Australian English vowels

Jonathan Harrington, Felicity Cox & Zoe Evans

Abstract: The focus of this paper is an acoustic analysis of citation-form monophthongs and diphthongs produced by a large number of male and female talkers whose accents vary from broad to general to cultivated and who were recorded as part of the Australian National Database of Spoken Language (ANDOSL). Following an initial auditory categorisation of the talkers' accents, the formants frequencies were calculated and the data were labelled for vowel target positions. Four main kinds of analysis were carried out: of monophthongs, of onglides in /i u/ vowels, of the trajectories in rising diphthongs, and of the trajectories of falling diphthongs. Consistently with earlier studies, the results show that the broad/general/cultivated accent differences are confined mostly to the rising diphthongs and to ongliding in /i/. The production of the falling diphthongs was found to be phonetically the most variable of all vowel categories. Some proposals are included for a modification to the transcription system of Australian English.

Engan pronouns and their old endings

Karl J. Franklin

Abstract: The Engan family of languages includes a number of languages and dialects that are part of the Trans New Guinea Phylum (TNGP) languages, a subgroup of the large and tentative group referred to as 'Papuan' languages. Such languages generally have a system of free pronominal forms which occur in cross-reference with fused verb suffixes. I examine the free forms in particular and draw attention to the reflexes and retentions of old endings in present day pronouns. I then attempt to reconstruct the basic forms and their endings for Proto-Engan. Because the evidence for sets of old endings goes beyond their use in Engan, I examine a number of languages which are located adjacent to the family as well. Finally, I briefly give evidence that there are other endings reflected in Papuan languages that are found on word classes.

Last update: 23 April 2000
Comments to Tim Curnow