Tasmanian languages

Tasmanian languages are attested by three dozen word lists, the most extensive being those of Joseph Milligan and George Augustus Robinson. From the limited evidence, the sounds of Tasmanian appear to have been fairly typical of Australian languages. Plomley (1976) presents all the lexical data available to him in 1976. Crowley and Dixon (1981) summarise what little is known of Tasmanian phonology and grammar. Bowern (2012) organises 35 different word lists and attempts to classify them into language families. Fanny Cochrane Smith recorded a series of wax cylinder recordings of Aboriginal songs, the only existing audio recording of a Tasmanian language, though they are of extremely poor quality. In 1972, her granddaughters still remembered some words and a song. Robert M. W. Dixon, who interviewed them as part of his research with Terry Crowley, concluded that "there is virtually no data on the grammar and no running text so that it is impossible to say very much of linguistic interest about the Tasmanian languages". However, from the scant sources that are available, Tasmanian people are seeking to recover their lost languages and traditions. The largest language revival project to date is the palawa kani project. ==External classification==

Little is known of the languages and no relationship to other languages is demonstrable. It appears that there were several language families on Tasmania, which would be in keeping with the long period of human habitation on the island. In the 1970s Joseph Greenberg proposed an Indo-Pacific superfamily which includes Tasmanian along with Andamanese and Papuan (but not Australian). However, this superfamily proposal is rejected by the vast majority of historical linguists. ==Languages and language families==

Based on short wordlists, it appears that there were anywhere from five to sixteen languages on Tasmania, related to one another in perhaps four language families. There are historical records as well that indicate the languages were not mutually intelligible and that a lingua franca was necessary for communication after resettlement on Flinders' Island. J.B. Walker, who visited the island in 1832 and 1834, reported: Reports from the subsequent settlement at Oyster Cove were similar: Schmidt (1952) distinguished five languages in the word lists: • Tasmanian languages • Eastern Tasmanian languages • North-East • East • East Central (Oyster Bay) • South-East • Western Tasmanian languages • North Coast • West Coast The Eastern languages seem to share a common vocabulary, and use the nominal particle na. The Western languages use leā instead of na. Dixon & Crowley (1981) Dixon and Crowley (1981) reviewed the data. They evaluate 13 local varieties, and find 6 to 8 languages, with no conclusion on two additional varieties (those of the west coast) due to lack of data. Listed here (clockwise from the northwest) with their Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) codes, they are: • North-western (T3) and Robbins Island (T11*) [northern NW region on the map displayed in the box above at right] • :North-western and Robbins Island are probably dialects of a single language; Circular Head may be a dialect as well. • :Although Circular Head (T12*) [NE strip of NW region on map] shares only half its vocabulary with Northwestern & Robbins Island, it cannot be ruled out as a dialect of the NW language due to the poor state of the data. • Northern (T1) [N region on map] • :Probably a separate language, though it shares 50% of vocabulary with Piper River and cannot be ruled out as a dialect of the NE language. • Port Sorell (T13*) [N coast of N Midlands region on map] • :It is "unlikely" there is a close genetic connection with any other Tasmanian language. • Piper River (T14*), Cape Portland (T9*), and Ben Lomond (T7) [NE and Ben Lomond regions on map] • :These appear to form an interrelated group. Either the first two or all three could be dialects of a single language. May form a language with Northern, which is separated geographically by Port Sorell. • North Midlands (T4) [central N Midlands region on map] • :"Must" be a distinct language. • Oyster Bay (T2), Big River (T8*), and Little Swanport (T15*) [Oyster Bay and Big River on map] • :Oyster Bay and Big River share 85% of vocabulary and are very likely to be dialects. Little Swanport could be a dialect as well. • South-eastern (T5) [SE region on map] • :Appears to be a distinct language from Oyster Bay / Big River. The two western varieties are South-western (T10*) and Macquarie Harbour (T6) [southern and northern ends of SW region on map] Bowern (2012) One of the difficulties in interpreting Tasmanian data is the fact that some of the 35 word lists mix data from various locations, and even for the rest, in some cases the location is not recorded. Bowern (2012) used a clustering algorithm to identify language admixture, and further techniques to conclude that the 26 unmixed lists with more than 100 words record twelve Tasmanian varieties (at p < 0.15) that may be assumed to be distinct languages. Due to the poor attestation, these varieties have no names apart from the names of the wordlists they are recorded in. They fall into five clusters; Bayesian phylogenetic methods demonstrate that two of these are clearly related, but that the others cannot be related to each other (that is, they are separate language families) based on existing evidence. Given the length of human habitation on Tasmania, it should not be expected for the languages to be demonstrably related to each other. The families, and the number of attested languages, are: Lingua franca by using a phonograph. It is unknown if the Tasmanian lingua franca was a koine, creole, pidgin, or mixed language. However, its vocabulary was evidently predominantly that of the eastern and the northeastern languages because of the dominance of those peoples on the settlements. Bass Strait Pidgin The unattested Bass Strait Pidgin of Flinders Island consisted primarily of English vocabulary, but is reported to have had a mixture of words from Tasmanian languages, introduced by the women whom the island's sealers had abducted from Tasmania. palawa kani Palawa kani is an in-progress constructed language, built from a composite of surviving words from various Tasmanian Aboriginal languages. ==Phonology==

The phonology is uncertain, due to the poor nature of the transcriptions. Schmidt (1952) reconstructed the following for East-central and South-east Tasmanian, as well as parts from Blake; Dixon (1981): Consonants Plosives were conditionally voiced in the interior of a word. There is no evidence of a lamino-dental nasal, but for people who do not have this contrast in their native language, this phoneme is difficult to distinguish from an alveolar nasal. However, both Dixon and Crowley (1981) and Schmidt (1952) note a possible n̪]. There may have been a glottal stop. There is evidence of two rhotic consonants, like almost all languages from the Australian mainland. One flapped or trilled /r/ and a frictionless continuant /ɹ/. Dixon and Crowley come to the conclusion that where there is alternation in each source for the same word between r, w and l this consonant was /ɹ/, where there is alternation between r and the sequences dr or rr this consonant was /r/. Milligan mentions two velar fricatives, transcribing them as ch and gh. These appear to have been uncommon, and were probably allophones of /k/ or [g] occurring mainly before /r/ and also before /l/ or /w/. Vowels There were certainly at least three vowels, /a/, /i/ and /u/. There may have been more, and there may have been variation among the languages. Schmidt (1952) noted five short /a e i o u/, and five long vowels /aː eː iː oː uː/, and nasal vowels such as "[ʌ̃]" in French pronunciations. It is possible that any additional vowels that have been recorded were allophones of the three vowels. /a/ appears as [o] most frequently next to labial or dorsal consonants, and as [e] most frequently next to laminal or apical consonants. There is also evidence for alternation between /u/ with [o], and between /i/ with [e]. There is evidence of a central vowel [ə] occurring as an allophone of these three vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ in unstressed positions, in some languages. Open vowels [æ] and [ɑ] are mentioned only in Milligan's vocabulary and they are almost certainly allophones of /a/. Milligan and the records of French maritime explorers are the only observers to record an ü. It is likely that this ü was an allophone of /u/ in some conditions. It is difficult to tell if vowel length was distinctive. One recorder may have used a spelling which implied that there was a long vowel in a certain word, while another recorder for the same word may use a spelling that suggests a short vowel. This is further diluted by some of the recorders using English spelling conventions. Crowley and Dixon (1981) come to the conclusion that vowel length was likely not phonologically significant. Blench (2008) notes, however, that some supposed Tasmanian speakers may actually have been from South (mainland) Australia. Word internal clusters were fairly common. Word final consonants were very rare but somewhat less rare in the western languages. All words were minimally disyllabic and stress appears to have been on the penultimate syllable. ==Grammar==

East-Central Tasmanian is used for illustration, unless otherwise indicated. ;Nouns There is no evidence of plurality or gender. The nominal particle may have marked the end of a noun phrase. Possession was indicated by the possessor (noun) dropping the nominal particle: :wurrawa lowa-na 'the wife of the deceased' ;Postpositions Postpositions, or perhaps case endings, include le/li 'behind', ra 'without', to/ta (change in direction): There is also an adverbial suffix -re in lene-re 'backwards'. :lunamea ta 'to my house', nee-to [nito] 'to you' ;Adjectives Adjectives follow the noun, and some end in -ne (pāwine 'small') or -ak (mawbak 'black', tunak 'cold'). ;Pronouns Only singular personal pronouns are known: mī-na 'I', nī-na 'you', nara 's/he'. (In Northeast Tas, these are mi-na, ni-na, nara.) These form possessive suffixes: loa-mi 'my woman'. Pronouns might be incorporated in the verb: tiena-mia-pe 'give me!'. Demonstrative pronouns are wa/we 'this' and ni/ne 'that': Riena narra wa 'this is my hand'. ;Numerals marra(wa) 'one', pʲa(wa) 'two'. ;Verbs The negative particle is noia. :noia meahteang meena neeto linah :'I won't give you any water' :(not give I to-you water) In Southeast Tas., suffixes -gara/-gera and -gana/-gena appear on verbs. Their meaning is unknown: :nunug(e)ra 'to wash', tiagarra 'to keep', nugara 'to drink' :longana 'to sleep', poenghana 'to laugh', winganah 'to touch' ==Vocabulary==

Some basic words: :nanga 'father' :poa 'mother' (Northeast) :pögöli-na 'sun' :wīta 'moon' :romtö-na 'star' :''pö ön'e-na'' 'bird' :wī-na 'tree' :poime-na 'mountain' :waltomo-na 'river' (Northeast) :nani 'stone' The difficulty in analysing the records is apparent in the conflicting recorded forms for the words for "two" ("Fr" means a French transcription): Given the possibility that suffixes are responsible for some of the differences, there are still clearly several distinct words, though it is difficult to say how many or what their forms were. ==References==