Introduction
This section deals with languages that have developed in Western Australia since the arrival of non-Aboriginal people. Whenever a group of people take over another group's land it is likely that a new language will develop. This happened when the French invaded Britain in the eleventh century, and our English today is the product of the original (Germanic) language and the new (French) language. Typically, first of all a pidgin develops to allow communication between the two groups, and as children grow up speaking the pidgin, it develops into a full language, a creole.
Creole languages are found all over the world, and the creole languages of the northern part of Australia have become grouped together under the one name 'Kriol', even though there are regional variations that mean that the creole languages themselves are quite different from each other. A creole is a language with its own grammar, meaning and sound system, combining elements of English and Aboriginal languages, and it is a language that is being used everyday in the north of Western Australia. Hudson (1983a) describes the structures of Fitzroy Valley Kriol.
While educational policy directions for Kriol remain controversial, it is generally accepted that children coming to school should not be disadvantaged because they speak a different language to the language of the school. Eagleson, Kaldor and Malcolm (1982) discuss the educational implications of the use of Aboriginal English and Kriol.
Aboriginal English is a dialect which only varies in some features from English. Kaldor and Malcom have recorded and worked on Aboriginal English in Western Australia. Muecke has written about Aboriginal English and Aboriginal discourse style, based on his work around Broome.
English is not the only immigrant language to have mixed with Aboriginal languages of Western Australia. Brandenstein (1970e and 1989) notes the Portuguese influence in Ngarluma and neighbouring Ngayarta languages of the Pilbara. There are also reports of a Malay influence on Aboriginal English and perhaps Aboriginal languages spoken at Shark Bay. Nothing has yet been done to record this variety. Hosokawa (1987) has written about Malay influence in Broome. Douglas (1976b) also reports a form of 'pig-latin' from the South-West, called Yeraka in which the syllable 'raka' is added to the end of words.
Further reading lists on post-contact languages in Australia are contained in McGregor's Handbook of Kimberley languages, or Menning and Nash's Sourcebook of Central Australian languages.
This bibliography contains only work dealing with Western Australia, but the list below contains general reading on the topic of post-contact languages in Australia. Since most of the work on Creole in Western Australia has been done in the Kimberley, reference is also made to this work, even though it is outside the region covered by this handbook.
General Work
Eades, D.K. (1985)English as an Aboriginal language in South-east Queensland Aboriginal society, PhD thesis, University of Queensland.
Eagleson, R.D., S. Kaldor and I.G. Malcolm (1982) English and the Aboriginal child, Curriculum Development Centre, Canberra.
Harris, J.W. (1986) Northern Territory pidgins and the origin of Kriol, Pacific Linguistics, C-89, Canberra.
Hudson, J. (1983a) Grammatical and semantic aspects of Fitzroy Valley Kriol, SIL/AAB, Darwin.
Mühlhäusler, P. (1986)Pidgin and creole linguistics, Blackwell, Oxford.
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