Aboriginal sign languages

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Aborigines from the Tiwi Islands

Sign languages ​​of the Aborigines are spoken language accompanying signs of the Aborigines , the natives of Australia .

background

Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or have traditionally had spoken-language signs, a sign language as the counterpart of their spoken language. This seems to be related to various taboos ( avoidance language ) that exist between their clan or at special times, such as during periods of mourning for women or during initiation ceremonies for men. It is comparable to the Armenian sign language , but differs significantly from the sign language of the Plains Indians , which did not include any language taboos, as well as from the sign languages ​​used by the deaf , which is not a coding of spoken language. There is some similarity between neighboring groups and some similarities to pidgin languages comparable to the standard sign language of the Plains Indians in the American Great Plains .

Sign languages ​​seem to be most developed in areas with extensive language taboos, e.g. B. the central desert ( Simpson desert ), especially under the Warlpiri and Whyungu as well as the western Cape York . Complex sign systems are also formed from the southern, central and western desert regions, the Gulf of Carpentaria (including northeast Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands ), some Torres Strait Islands, and the southern areas of Fitzmaurice and Kimberley . Evidence of sign language elsewhere is sparse, though it is reported as far south as the south coast ( Jaralde Sign Language ). And there are even references from the first years of the 20th century to the use of signs by peoples from the south-west coast. However, many of these codes are now extinct and very few clues have reported details.

Studies soft on the status of deaf members of such indigenous communities from each other, with some writers the inclusion of deaf people in the life of the dominant culture praise, while others point out that dove the sign language not learn and how others dove in hearing cultures isolated develop a simple system of home signs in order to communicate with their families. Nevertheless, there is a dialect of the Auslan (AUStralianSignLANguage - Sign Language of the Australian Deaf Culture ) of the Aborigines and the Torres Strait Islanders in the far north of Queensland (from Yarrabah to Cape York ), which is strongly influenced by the indigenous sign languages ​​and gesture systems of the region.

Sign languages ​​were reported in North Queensland as early as 1908 (Roth). Early studies of native sign languages ​​were made by the American linguist La Mont West and later, more in depth, by the English linguist Adam Kendon .

List of Aboriginal Sign Languages

Note that most Aboriginal languages ​​have multiple possible spellings; B. Warlpiri is also known under the names Walpiri, Walbiri, Elpira, Ilpara, Wailbri.
  • Arrernte Sign Language **
  • Dieri [Diyari] Sign Language ** (extinct)
  • Djingili Sign Language * (non-Pama – Nyungan)
  • Jaralde sign language
  • Kaititj [Kaytetye]: Akitiri Sign Language **
  • Calcutungu Sign Language *
  • Manjiljarra sign language
  • Mudbura Sign Language *
  • Murngin ( Yolngu ) sign language
  • Ngada sign language
  • Pitha Pitha Sign Language *
  • Torres Strait Islander Sign Language
  • Umpila Sign Language *
  • Warlmanpa Sign Language **
  • Warlpiri Sign Language **
  • Warluwara Sign Language *
  • Whyungu Sign Language or Warramunga Sign Language **
  • Western Desert Sign Language (Kardutjara, Yurira Watjalku) *
  • Worora Kinship Sign Language
  • Yir Yoront *
* "Developed" (Kendon 1988)
** "highly developed"

bibliography

general

  • Kwek, Joan / Kendon, Adam (1991). Occasions for sign use in an Australian aboriginal community. (with introduction note by Adam Kendon). In: Sign Language Studies 20: 71 (1991), pp. 143-160
  • Kendon, A. (1988) Sign Languages ​​of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. Xviii + 542. (Presents the results of the research on Australian Aboriginal sign languages ​​that the author began in 1978. The book was awarded the 1990 Stanner Prize, a biennial award given by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies , Canberra , Australia. Reviews include: Times Literary Supplement, August 25-31, 1989; American Anthropologist 1990, 92: 250-251; Language in Society, 1991, 20: 652-659; Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 1990, 35 (1): 85-86)
  • Roth, WE (1908), Miscellaneous Papers , Australian Trustees of the Australian Museum. Sydney.
  • O'Reilly, S. (2005). Indigenous Sign Language and Culture; the interpreting and access needs of Deaf people who are of Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islander in Far North Queensland. Sponsored by ASLIA, the Australian Sign Language Interpreters Association.

Warlpiri sign language:

  • Mountford, CP (1949). Gesture language of the Walpari tribe, central Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 1949, 73: 100-101.
  • Meggitt MJ (1954). Sign language among the Warlpiri of Central Australia. Oceania, 25 (1), p. 2-16.
  • Wright, CD (1980). Walpiri Hand Talk: An Illustrated Dictionary of Hand Signs used by the Walpiri People of Central Australia. Darwin: NT Department of Education.
  • Kendon, A. (1980). The sign language of the women of Yuendumu: A preliminary report on the structure of Warlpiri sign language. Sign Language Studies, 1980 27, 101-112.
  • Kendon, A. (1984). Knowledge of sign language in an Australian Aboriginal community. Journal of Anthropological Research. 1984 40, 556-576.
  • Kendon A. (1985). Iconicity in Warlpiri Sign language. In Bouissac P., Herzfeld M. & Posner R. (eds), Inconicity: Essay on the Nature of Culture. TÅbingen: Stauffenburger Verlag. In press, p. .
  • Kendon, A. (1985). Variation in Central Australian Aboriginal Sign language: A preliminary report. Language in Central Australia, 1 (4): 1–11.
  • Kendon, A. (1987) Simultaneous Speaking and Signing in Warlpiri Sign language Users . Multilingua 1987, 6: 25-68.
  • Kendon A. (1988). Parallels and divergences between Warlpiri sign language and spoken Warlpiri: analyzes of signed and spoken discourses. Oceania, 58, p. 239-54.

Torres Strait Islander sign language

  • Haddon, Alfred C. (1907). The gesture language of the Eastern Islanders, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits. Cambridge, England: The University Press, v.3.
  • Seligman, CG , and A. Wilkin (1907). The gesture language of the Western Islanders, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits. Cambridge, England: The University Press, v.3.

Original researchers' notes archived at the IATSIS library:

  • Hale, Ken (c1960s), Original handwritten lexical list, 3pp .; notes on 'Kaititj: akitiri sign language', 3pp. in IATSIS library, MS 4114 Miscellaneous Australian notes of Kenneth L. Hale, Series 2 Barkly Tablelands language material, item 1-2 Wampaya [Wambaya (C19)].
  • West, La Mont (Monty), (1963–66), original field report and papers 'Sign language' and 'Spoken language' , and vocab cards , Items 1–2 in IATSIS library, MS 4114 Miscellaneous Australian notes of Kenneth L. Hale, Series 7: Miscellaneous material, Items 1-3 Correspondence 1963-1966

From Aboriginal sign languages ​​of the Americas and Australia , Vol. 2, 1978. New York: Plenum Press:

  • Roth, Walter E. (1897). The expression of ideas by manual signs: a sign-language. (p. 273-301) Reprinted from Roth, WE Ethnological studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines . London, Queensland Agent-Generals Information Office, 1897; 71-90; Information collected from the following tribes; Pitta-Pitta, Boinji, Ulaolinya, Wonkajera, Walookera, Undekerebina, Kalkadoon, Mitakoodi, Woonamurra, Goa.
  • Strehlow, Carl (1915). The sign language of the Aranda. (p. 349-370). Extracted from The Aranda and Loritja Tribes in Central Australia , Frankfurt: Baer; translated by C. Chewings.
  • Warner, W. Lloyd (1937). Murngin Sign Language. (p. 389-392) Extracted from A Black Civilization . New York: Harper and Row, 1937.
  • Mountford, CP (1938). Gesture language of the Ngada tribe of the Warburton Ranges, Western Australia . (p. 393-396). Originally published in Oceania, 1938, 9: 152–155.
  • Berndt, RM (1940). Notes on the sign-language of the Jaralde tribe of the Lower River Murray, South Australia. (p. 397-402)
  • Love, JRB (1941). Worora kinship gestures. (p. 403-405)
  • Meggitt, Mervyn (1954). Sign language among the Walbiri of Central Australia. (p. 409-423) Originally published in Oceania (see above).
  • Miller, Wick R. (1978). A report on the sign language of the Western Desert (Australia). (p. 435-440)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kendon, A. (1988) Sign Languages ​​of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. (German: "Sign language of the aborigines of Australia: cultural, smiotic and communicative perspectives") Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p 60