Code-switching helps to maintain traditional language use

Code-switching was a major factor in the emergence of the mixed language, Light Warlpiri, and therefore in a partial shift away from speaking Warlpiri, the traditional language, as the speakers' primary language. Now, Light Warlpiri speakers make use of both Light Warlpiri and Warlpiri verbal resources to organize discourse, with a by-product of promoting maintenance of Warlpiri. This paper responds to Simpson's (2015) call for "much more work … to discern the variation of ways of talking which occurs during times of rapid [language] change", by documenting code-switching by multilingual speakers in a community undergoing rapid change. In the 1970-80s adult speakers of Warlpiri in one community code-switched to very young children in a specific pattern that was then conventionalized by the children as a single code (Author 2013). Defining features of Light Warlpiri are re-analyzed verbal structure, derived from English and Kriol, with some innovations, combined with the Warlpiri nominal case-marking system. Light Warlpiri and Warlpiri are differentiated by verbal lexicon and verbal structure. Light Warlpiri speakers code-switch fluidly between between Light Warlpiri and Warlpiri, and they consider the interaction of multiple codes part of their local speech style. In this paper I will present code-switching data, and analyze the motivations for the code-switches using Gumperz' (1982) and Poplack's (1980) discourse organizing factors. I argue that code-switching between Light Warlpiri and Warlpiri for discourse purposes keeps some elements of Warlpiri verbal lexicon and structure accessible to Light Warlpiri speakers, even when not speaking Warlpiri for sustained periods of time. The data are of two types. One set is recordings of elicitation sessions where Light Warlpiri speakers spontaneously created scenarios, or recounted events, to illustrate their use of particular verbs. In the scenarios and recounts, when providing examples of actual or imagined speech, the speakers code-switch between Light Warlpiri and Warlpiri verbal lexicon and structures. The other set, more naturalistic, is recorded interactions of Light Warlpiri speakers telling a story from picture stimulus. The same kinds of discourse patterns are seen in the more, and less, naturalistic types of data, suggesting high data validity. References: Author. (2013). The role of multiple sources in the formation of an innovative auxiliary category in Light Warlpiri, a new Australian mixed language. Language, 89 (2), 328-354. Gumperz, John J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press. Poplack, Shana. (1980). Sometimes I'll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en Espanol: toward a typology of code-switching. Linguistics, 18, 581-618. Simpson, Jane. (2015). Language attrition and language change. In Claire Bowern & Bethwyn Evans (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics (pp. 537-554). London: Routledge

When more is more : the mixed language Light Warlpiri amalgamates source language phonologies to form a near-maximal inventory

This paper presents a combined analysis of the perception and production study of the mixed language Light Warlpiri (Australia), which systematically combines elements of Warlpiri, Kriol and English. The perception and production results suggest that the Light Warlpiri phonological inventory consists of a voiced and voiceless series of stops and affricates, differentiated by Voice Onset Time (VOT) word-initially and by Constriction Duration (CD) medially, by incorporating English-like VOT differentiation and Constriction duration differences found in Kriol and also in a number of traditional Indigenous Australian languages. The results also show that Light Warlpiri speakers perceptually differentiate stops and fricatives at the same POA, but that voicing distinctions in fricatives are more difficult to discriminate than voicing distinctions in stops. The large phonological inventory of Light Warlpiri combines most features of the source languages, allowing speakers of Light Warlpiri to maintain sufficient phonemic contrasts to accommodate vocabulary items in Light Warlpiri sourced from English/Kriol as well as Warlpiri

Language contact and children's bilingual acquisition: learning a mixed language and Warlpiri in northern Australia

This dissertation documents the emergence of a new language, Light Warlpiri, in the multilingual community of Lajamanu in northern Australia. It then examines the acquisition of Light Warlpiri language, and of the heritage language, Lajamanu Warlpiri, by children. Light Warlpiri has arisen from contact between Lajamanu Warlpiri (a Pama-Nyungan language), Kriol (an English-based creole), and varieties of English. It is a Mixed Language, meaning that none of its source languages can be considered to be the sole parent language. Most verbs and the verbal morphology are from Aboriginal English or Kriol, while most nouns and the nominal morphology are from Warlpiri. The language input to children is complex. Adults older than about thirty speak Lajamanu Warlpiri and code-switch into Aboriginal English or Kriol. Younger adults, the parents of the current cohort of children, speak Light Warlpiri and code-switch into Lajamanu Warlpiri and into Aboriginal English or Kriol. Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, the two main input languages to children, both indicate A arguments with ergative case-marking (and they share one allomorph of the marker), but Lajamanu Warlpiri includes the marker much more consistently than Light Warlpiri. Word order is variable in both languages. Children learn both languages from birth, but they target Light Warlpiri as the language of their everyday interactions, and they speak it almost exclusively until four to six years of age. Adults and children show similar patterns of ergative marking and word order in Light Warlpiri. But differences between age groups are found in ergative marking in Lajamanu Warlpiri - for the oldest group of adults, ergative marking is obligatory, but for younger adults and children, it is not. Determining when children differentiate between two input languages has been a major goal in the study of bilingual acquisition. The two languages in this study share lexical and grammatical properties, making distinctions between them quite subtle. Both adults and children distribute ergative marking differently in the two languages, but show similar word order patterns in both. However the children show a stronger correlation between ergative marking and word order patterns than do the adults, suggesting that they are spearheading processes of language change. In their comprehension of sentences in both Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, adults use a case-marking strategy to identify the A argument (i.e. N+erg = A argument, N-erg = O argument). The children are not adult-like in using this strategy at age 5, when they also used a word order strategy, but they gradually move towards being adult-like with increased age

Milpirri: Jennifer Biddle in Discussion with Tracks Dance Company

Jennifer Biddle interviews the artistic directors of Tracks Dance Company, Tim Newth and David McMicken, about the company's ongoing involvement in the Milpirri festival

Language contact and children's bilingual acquisition: learning a mixed language and Warlpiri in northern Australia

This dissertation documents the emergence of a new language, Light Warlpiri, in the multilingual community of Lajamanu in northern Australia. It then examines the acquisition of Light Warlpiri language, and of the heritage language, Lajamanu Warlpiri, by children. Light Warlpiri has arisen from contact between Lajamanu Warlpiri (a Pama-Nyungan language), Kriol (an English-based creole), and varieties of English. It is a Mixed Language, meaning that none of its source languages can be considered to be the sole parent language. Most verbs and the verbal morphology are from Aboriginal English or Kriol, while most nouns and the nominal morphology are from Warlpiri. The language input to children is complex. Adults older than about thirty speak Lajamanu Warlpiri and code-switch into Aboriginal English or Kriol. Younger adults, the parents of the current cohort of children, speak Light Warlpiri and code-switch into Lajamanu Warlpiri and into Aboriginal English or Kriol. Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, the two main input languages to children, both indicate A arguments with ergative case-marking (and they share one allomorph of the marker), but Lajamanu Warlpiri includes the marker much more consistently than Light Warlpiri. Word order is variable in both languages. Children learn both languages from birth, but they target Light Warlpiri as the language of their everyday interactions, and they speak it almost exclusively until four to six years of age. Adults and children show similar patterns of ergative marking and word order in Light Warlpiri. But differences between age groups are found in ergative marking in Lajamanu Warlpiri - for the oldest group of adults, ergative marking is obligatory, but for younger adults and children, it is not. Determining when children differentiate between two input languages has been a major goal in the study of bilingual acquisition. The two languages in this study share lexical and grammatical properties, making distinctions between them quite subtle. Both adults and children distribute ergative marking differently in the two languages, but show similar word order patterns in both. However the children show a stronger correlation between ergative marking and word order patterns than do the adults, suggesting that they are spearheading processes of language change. In their comprehension of sentences in both Lajamanu Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, adults use a case-marking strategy to identify the A argument (i.e. N+erg = A argument, N-erg = O argument). The children are not adult-like in using this strategy at age 5, when they also used a word order strategy, but they gradually move towards being adult-like with increased age

The knowing ear : an Australian test of universal claims about the semantic structure of sensory verbs and their extension into the domain of cognition

In this paper we test previous claims concerning the universality of patterns of polysemy and semantic change in perception verbs. Implicit in such claims are two elements: firstly, that the sharing of two related senses A and B by a given form is cross-linguistically widespread, and matched by a complementary lack of some rival polysemy, and secondly that the explanation for the ubiquity of a given pattern of polysemy is ultimately rooted in our shared human cognitive make-up. However, in comparison to the vigorous testing of claimed universals that has occurred in phonology, syntax and even basic lexical meaning, there has been little attempt to test proposed universals of semantic extension against a detailed areal study of non-European languages. To address this problem we examine a broad range of Australian languages to evaluate two hypothesized universals: one by Viberg (1984), concerning patterns of semantic extension across sensory modalities within the domain of perception verbs (i .e. intra-field extensions), and the other by Sweetser (1990), concerning the mapping of perception to cognition (i.e. trans-field extensions). Testing against the Australian data allows one claimed universal to survive, but demolishes the other, even though both assign primacy to vision among the senses

A Happy Marriage: The Stop and Affricate Inventory of the Mixed Language Light Warlpiri (Australia)

This paper presents a first acoustic analysis of the stops and affricates of the mixed language Light Warlpiri (Australia). The results suggest that the Light Warlpiri phonological inventory consists of a voiced and voiceless series of stops and affricates, differentiated by Voice Onset Time (VOT) wordinitially and by Constriction Duration (CD) medially, by incorporating English-like VOT differentiation and Constriction duration differences found in Kriol and also in a number of traditional Indigenous Australian languages. Word-initially, stops from Warlpiri words pattern with English/Kriol voiced stops; medially with the ‘long’ stops in Kriol, /c/ being the exception in patterning with short /ʤ/, rather than the voiceless /ʧ/. This inventory allows speakers of Light Warlpiri to maintain sufficient phonemic contrasts to accommodate vocabulary items in Light Warlpiri sourced from English/Kriol as well as Warlpiri, the Indigenous Australian language that they also speak

TESL and Warlpiri children: understanding Warlpiri children's problems in learning to speak English

This paper contrasts the sound systems of the English and Warlpiri, with a view to appreciating the knowledge that the Warlpiri child brings to learning a second languag

Culture Cult: Ritual Circulation of Inalienable Objects and Appropriation of Cultural Knowledge (Northwest and Central Australia)

24 p