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Abstract
Borrowing is said to be a pervasive phenomenon among Australian languages, particularly in the domains of flora–fauna and material culture. In-depth studies of borrowing in individual languages or small groups of languages exist, as do quantitative analyses covering selected vocabulary items across a large number of languages. To date, however, there have not been any comprehensive surveys of the flora–fauna inventories of several languages at once with the aim of investigating broad semantic and geographic patterns of borrowing. This study attempts to carry out such an investigation on the languages of Arnhem Land, within the broader context of northern Australian languages. A thorough investigation of the flora–fauna lexica of 21 languages revealed a number of loanword ‘corridors’ within which borrowing frequently occurred; the principal corridors were two coastal corridors along the northern and eastern coasts of Arnhem Land, and an inland–coastal corridor between Non-Pama-Nyungan languages and Yolŋu languages. Several words, mostly bird names, were identified as being repeatedly borrowed (Wanderwörter), and in much larger numbers than previously reported. Finally, several correspondences, presumably long-distance loans, were detected in languages as far away as the Kimberleys, Queensland and north-central Australia.
Notes on Contributor
Aung Si is currently an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cologne. He has completed PhDs in Biology and Linguistics, and has carried out fieldwork in southern India, central Myanmar and Arnhem Land. Email: [email protected]
Notes
* The author thanks the many Indigenous people of Arnhem Land whose enthusiastic input made this research possible. In particular, he would like to acknowledge the involvement of Charlie Brian, Carol Liyawanga, Jeffrey Campion, Michael Munggula, Rita Djitmu, Cindy Jinmarabynana and Stanley Rankin. The author is also grateful for the provision of unpublished material by Margaret Carew, Ruth Singer, Isabel O’Keeffe and Rebecca Green. Valuable comments and suggestions were provided on an earlier version of the manuscript by David Nash, Patrick McConvell and Margaret Carew, and on the submitted manuscript by two anonymous reviewers. This work was supported by an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship, a University of Melbourne McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship and a University of Melbourne Research Unit for Indigenous Languages travel grant.
1 Language name abbreviations: Ani. Anindilyakwa, Bur. Burarra, Dal. Dalabon, Dji. Djinaŋ, Gup. Gupapuyŋu, Jaw. Jawoyn, Kay. Kayardild, Kbl. Kun-barlang, Kun. Kune, Mar. Marra, Maw. Mawng, Ndj. Ndjebbana, Ngb. Nunggubuyu, Ngn. Ngandi, Ngl. Ngalakan, Rem. Rembarrnga, Rir. Rirratjingu, Rit, Ritharrngu, Tiw. Tiwi, Wan. Wandarrang, Yan. Yanyuwa.
2 The figure is approximate because of the frequent instances of semantic shift (i.e. to a different species).
3 Here, ‘species’, especially in the context of birds and mammals, refers to mostly biological species as well as a handful of ethnospecies, which may cover two or more biological species. Examples include categories such as ‘white ibises’ or ‘small bats’. Words for different life stages or a particular species (especially wallabies) are counted as separate correspondence sets. There are more correspondence sets than species for each group because of the existence of multiple names for a particular plant or animal, sometimes as synonyms in a particular language or group of languages.
4 A common standardized orthography has been developed for this paper, loosely based on Bininj Kun-wok orthography and Harvey (Citation2003): retroflex consonants are written with a preceding r, as in rd, rn, rl; dental consonants are written with a following h, as in dh, lh, nh; voiceless stops (when contrastive) are indicated with a double consonant, as in bb, dd, kk, rdd, ddh; velar nasal ng, palatal nasal nj, glottal stop h, alveolar approximant r, alveolar trill rr, high central vowel (Rem only) v.
5 The families are Gunwinyguan (GUN), Iwaidjan (IWA), Yolŋu (YOL), Marran (MAR), Maningridan (MAN), along with the non-contiguous languages Tiwi, Anindilyakwa, Yanyuwa and Kayardild. Yanyuwa is included in this list because of its PN affiliation, and the fact that it is not contiguous with the YOL languages.
6 Following Bowern et al. (Citation2014) and Haynie et al. (Citation2014) % is used to indicate a general form of an etymon that has been borrowed.
7 Ngarrku-burdi (sic.) in the related language Wurlaki also means ‘wallaby blood’ (pers. comm. M. Carew).
8 These may represent shared inheritance with the PN languages Warlmanpa—tartaji (T. grandiflora) and Mudburra—dardaji ‘nut of nutwood tree T. arostrata’. T. grandiflora does not occur south of Warlmanpa country, and cannot be a loan from southern languages (pers. comm. D. Nash).
9 The Gun-nartpa name an-barndi refers to the Cedar Mangrove Xylocarpus moluccensis (pers. comm. M. Carew), but there is no connection to ‘kidney’.
10 Even though Rit territory does not quite extend to the coast, it is included with the coastal languages when words are shared primarily with Ngb, Wan and/or Mar. In the case of words shared primarily with Ngn and/or other inland languages, it is classed as an inland language.
11 It is very likely that some western dialects of Bininj Gun-wok, which have not been surveyed in this study, are also involved in this corridor.
12 The data for the ‘inland–coastal (Maw)’ corridor were excluded from this analysis, due to the very small sample size (n = 12).
13 Based on identifications given in Bonta et al. (Citation2017). The name in question is likely to be associated with other raptors in some languages.
14 Glossed in Heath (Citation1981b) as ‘yam sp. (climbing vine)’.
15 The superficial similarities between these names and the names for Avicennia marina and Barringtonia acutangula are probably not meaningful, as Terminalia carpentariae occurs in a very different habitat (sandstone country and well-drained sandy soils) (Brock Citation1988).
16 Mopan is also found in Gun-nartpa (glossed as T. ferdinandiana, pers. comm. M. Carew), the inland dialect of Burarra, and is likely a loan from GUN languages (probably Rem).
17 Kurrakurra is also Channel-billed Cuckoo in Mudburra (pers. comm. Reviewer 1).
18 Variants include gorrgolkol, gurrukorlkorl, gurrorlkorl (sic., pers. comm. M. Carew).
19 And/or T. populnea. The validity of the two species names is currently being reviewed, and it is possible that they will be officially regarded as synonyms for a single species (www.theplantlist.org, accessed 16 May 2018).
20 Like Ngb, Wan and Mar have distinct names for the two species: ngardinj/ngardidj respectively for H. tiliaceus and djirnrdidjirnrdi for T. populneoides.
21 Appendix A of this paper is available on the Ampersand journal website. The complete word lists used by Haynie et al. (Citation2014) and Bowern et al. (Citation2014) are available at https://huntergatherer.la.utexas.edu/home (Bowern et al. n.d., accessed 16 May 2018).
22 Nash (Citation2016) suggests that this name may be onomatopoeic in origin; a parallel may be found in the name berigora for the raptor Falco berigora in a number of languages of New South Wales.