4.7.1 Western Australian Aboriginal English




1. Names of the language and different spellings that have been used:
Aboriginal English
Black English
Pidgin
2. Classification of the language:
Identification codes:AIATSIS:(Aboriginal English is listed as Subject 48/3E1)
Capell (1963):(not mentioned)
Oates (1975):(not mentioned)
3. Dialects of the language:
There are varieties of Aboriginal English spoken all over Western Australia.
4. Present number and distribution of speakers:
No information
5. People who have worked intensively to record the language:
Susan Kaldor (since 1970s)
Ian Malcolm (since 1970s)
Stephen Muecke (since late 1970s)
6. Practical spelling system:
None needed
7. Word lists:
None
8. Texts:
Some contemporary Aboriginal writing uses Aboriginal English, especially dramatic work by authors such as Jack Davis and Archie Wellar.
Benterrak, Muecke and Roe (1984)
9. Grammar or sketch grammar:
Muecke (1982b) has some information.
10. Language programmes:
None
11. Language learning material:
None
12. Literature in the language:
Some contemporary Aboriginal writing uses Aboriginal English, especially dramatic work by authors such as Jack Davis and Archie Wellar.
13. Material available:
This bibliography contains only work dealing with Western 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.
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.
(see section 5 (Bibliography) for annotations on the following works)
Anonymous (n.d.i) Some of the ways the natives commenced to use the white man's language when asking for anything in the early sixties, ts.
Benterrak, K., S. Muecke and P. Roe (1984) Reading the country: introduction to nomadology, Fremantle Arts Press, Fremantle.
Bolam, A.G. (1927) The trans-Australian wonderland, Modern Printing, Melbourne (facsimile, UWA, 1978).
Brumby, E. and E.G. Vászolyi (eds) (1977) Language problems and Aboriginal education, WACAE, Perth.
Brumby, E. (1976) 'But they don't use it in the playground' pp.200-203 in E. Brumby and E.G. Vászolyi, (eds) Language problems and Aboriginal education, WACAE, Perth.
Capell, A. (1979) 'Languages and creoles in Australia', pp.141-161 in Sociologia Interationalis, Vol.17.
Chesson, K. (1978) 'The problem of non-standard English', pp.38-39 in Aboriginal and Islander Identity, Vol.3, no.5.
Douglas, W.H. (1968b) The Aboriginal languages of South-West Australia: speech forms in current use and a technical description of Njungar, Australian Aboriginal Studies no.14, Linguistic Series no.4, AIAS, Canberra.
Dwyer, L.J. (1984) 'A language program for Aboriginal children', pp.27-49 in Wikaru, Vol.12.
Eagleson, R.D. (1977) 'English and the urban Aboriginal', pp.535-544 in Meanjin, no.36.
Eagleson, R.D. (1978) 'Urban Aboriginal English', pp.52-64, in Journal of the Australian University Modern Languages Association, Vol.49.
Eagleson, R.D. (1982a) 'Aboriginal English in an urban setting', pp.113-162 in R.D. Eagleson, S. Kaldor and I.G. Malcolm, (eds) English and the Aboriginal child, Curriculum Development Centre, Canberra.
Eagleson, R.D. (1982b) 'Variation in English language', pp.11-30 in R.D. Eagleson, S. Kaldor and I.G. Malcolm, (eds) English and the Aboriginal child, Curriculum Development Centre, Canberra.
Eagleson, R.D., S. Kaldor and I.G. Malcolm (1982) English and the Aboriginal child, Curriculum Development Centre, Canberra.
Geytenbeek, B.B. (1977a) 'Looking at English through Nyangumarda-coloured spectacles', pp.34-50 in E. Brumby and E.G. Vászolyi, (eds) Language problems and Aboriginal education, ATEP, Mount Lawley College of Advanced Education, Perth.
Gibbons, B. (n.d.) Church service with hymns (Kalgoorlie English?) (audiotape).
Grey, G. (1841) Journals of two expeditions of discovery in North-West and Western Australia during the years 1837, 38, and 39, T. and W. Boone, London (facsimile 1964).
Hosokawa, K. (1987) 'Malay talk on boat: an account of Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin', pp.287-296 in D.C. Laycock and W.Winter, (eds) A world of language: papers presented to Professor S.A.Wurm on his 65th birthday, Pacific Linguistics, C-100, Canberra.
Hudson, J.(1977) Some common features in Fitzroy Crossing children's pidgin and Walmatjari, MS.
Hudson, J. (1984) 'Why English should be taught as a second language in Aboriginal schools in the Kimberleys', pp.99-106 in Wikaru, Vol.12.
Jones, B. (1985) English in a Nyungar kindy, BA (Hons), UWA, Perth.
Kaldor, S. (1974) 'Notes on the language problems of Western Australian Aboriginal children and on the requirements for the treatment of such problems', submission to the Royal Commission, Report of Royal Commission into Aboriginal Affairs, WA Government, Perth.
Kaldor, S. (1977) 'Language problems, language planning and Aboriginal education', pp.237-251 in Aborigines and change - Australia in the seventies, AIAS, Canberra.
Kaldor, S. and I.G.Malcolm (1980) 'The language of the school and the language of the Western Australian Aboriginal schoolchild-implications for education', pp.406-437 in R.M. Berndt and C.H. Berndt, (eds) Aborigines of the West: their past and present, UWA Press, Perth.
Kaldor, S. and I.G. Malcolm (1985) 'Aboriginal children's English - Educational implications', pp.223-240 in M.Clyne, (ed.) Australia, meeting place of languages, Pacific Linguistics, C-92, Canberra.
Kaldor, S. and I.G. Malcolm (1991) 'Aboriginal English - an overview', in S.Romaine, (ed.) Language in Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Liberman, K. (1978) 'Problems of communication in Western Desert courtrooms', pp.94-96 in Legal Services Bulletin, July 1978.
Malcolm, I.G. (1979a) Classroom communication and the Aboriginal child: a sociolinguistic investigation in Western Australian primary schools, PhD thesis, UWA.
Malcolm, I.G. (1979b) 'The West Australian Aboriginal child and classroom interraction: a sociolinguistic approach', pp.305-320 in Journal of Pragmatics, Vol.3, no.3.
Malcolm, I.G. (1980) 'The discourse of the reading lesson: sociolinguistic observations in Aboriginal classrooms' in T. Bessell-Brown, B. Gardiner, R. Latham and N. Reeves, (eds) Reading into the eighties, UWA Press, Perth.
Malcolm, I.G. (1982) 'Communicative dysfunction in Aboriginal classrooms', pp.153-172 in J. Sherwood, (ed.) Aboriginal education, Creative Research, Perth.
Miller, W.R. (n.d.b) Talking, songs and elicitation (audiotape).
Millett, E.J. (1872) An Australian parsonage, E.Stanford, London (facsimile edition, UWA 1980).
Muecke, S. (1978) Narrative discourse units in Aboriginal English, Magill, SA, ts.
Muecke, S. (1981a) Aboriginal English and Aboriginal law, Magill, SA, ts.
Muecke, S. (1981b) Discourse, history, fiction: language and Aboriginal history, ts.
Muecke, S. (1981c) 'Discursive alternation in oral narrative', Paper presented at the ALS conference, Canberra, ts.
Muecke, S. (1982a) Ideology reiterated: the use of Aboriginal oral narrative, ts.
Muecke, S. (1982b) The structure of Australian Aboriginal narratives in English: a study in discourse analysis, PhD thesis, UWA.
Muecke, S. (1983a) 'Discourse, history, fiction: language and Aboriginal history', pp.71-79 in Australian Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol.1.
Muecke, S. (1983b) 'The good oil company and the bad oil company', pp.3-13 in Art and Text 9.
Mühlhäusler, P. (1987a) Pidgin English in Western Australia: an introduction, ts.
Mühlhäusler, P. (1987b) Post-contact languages in Western Australia (handout, ts).
Richards, E. and J. Fraser (1975) 'A comparison and contrasting of the noun phrases of Walmatjari with the noun phrases of Fitzroy Crossing children's pidgin'. Paper presented to the 7th meeting of the ALS, Sydney, MS.
Stuart, D. (1959) Yandy, Georgian House, Melbourne.


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