AIATSIS assists in creation of first comprehensive Kaytetye dictionary

 

Kaytetye to English Dictionary

AIATSIS' Native Title Research Officer displays the recent released Kaytetye to English dictionary. Grace's husband, Dr Harold Koch recorded the Kaytetye language from 1974 to the 1990s and many of his field notes and audio recordings are held in the Institute’s archival collections.

 

19 March 2012

The recent publication of the first comprehensive Kaytetye to English dictionary is another example highlighting the extensive archive of cultural material stored in the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra.

Kayteye is an endangered language of Central Australia spoken by the Aboriginal people around Barrow Creek, some 300 kilometres from Alice Springs. 

The dictionary gives an alphabetical listing of Kaytetye words with English translations along with sentences.

AIATSIS Principal, Mr Russell Taylor, said that the dictionary was commissioned by the Institute of Aboriginal Development in Alice Springs but had gained significant momentum as a result of assistance from an AIATSIS grant of $24,000.

“In addition to financial assistance, the recordings made over a span of 20 years by another AIATSIS grant recipient, Dr Harold Koch, had been of great help to the compilers of the dictionary,” Mr Taylor said.

 “Dr Koch - the former Head of Linguistics at the ANU – recorded the Kaytetye language from 1974 to the 1990s and many of his field notes and audio recordings are held in the Institute’s archival collections.”

Mr Taylor also noted that AIATSIS staff had worked extensively with early dictionary researchers Robert Hoogenraad and Shirleen McLaughlin as well as the compilers of the dictionary, Myfany Turpin and Alison Ross.

“It is a wonderful publication that will help the survival of a language now spoken by less than 200 people,” Mr Taylor said.

The dictionary contains an extensive list of Kaytetye words and their meanings and more than 8,000 Kaytetye example sentences illustrating an extensive English finder list.

Mr Taylor said the recent creation of AIATSIS’s Centre for Australian Languages would continue the Institute’s work to not only safeguard endangered Indigenous languages but also to supplement the extensive work being done to reclaim languages.

“So much has been lost,” Mr Taylor said.  “ Of an estimated 250 known Australian languages at the time of colonization, only 18 languages are now considered ‘strong’ and have speakers in all age groups.

“Any language is a storehouse of cultural and kinship knowledge and ancestral history,” Mr Taylor said.

“AIATSIS is determined to continue to play a major role in preventing further language loss as well as making a contribution to ensuring the revival of languages,” Mr Taylor said.