Globally, songs and instrumental melodies are slower, higher, and use more stable pitches than speech: a registered report

Both music and language are found in all known human societies, yet no studies have compared similarities and differences between song, speech, and instrumental music on a global scale. In this Registered Report, we analyzed two global datasets: (i) 300 annotated audio recordings representing matched sets of traditional songs, recited lyrics, conversational speech, and instrumental melodies from our 75 coauthors speaking 55 languages; and (ii) 418 previously published adult-directed song and speech recordings from 209 individuals speaking 16 languages. Of our six preregistered predictions, five were strongly supported: Relative to speech, songs use (i) higher pitch, (ii) slower temporal rate, and (iii) more stable pitches, while both songs and speech used similar (iv) pitch interval size and (v) timbral brightness. Exploratory analyses suggest that features vary along a “musi-linguistic” continuum when including instrumental melodies and recited lyrics. Our study provides strong empirical evidence of cross-cultural regularities in music and speech

Melaleuka : a history and description of New South Wales pidgin

This thesis is about the genesis and development of the first pidgin English in Australia, called here New South Wales Pidgin. It presents a detailed analysis of the history of the language and a diachronic analysis of developments in the grammar and lexicon of the language. 'Melaleuka' refers to the model devised for the purposes of this thesis to explain the hypothesis on which the work is premised—that NSW Pidgin existed in two dialect forms. The time frame addressed is from the late eighteenth century when the language had its inception to the middle of the nineteenth century when it was consolidated. The geographical area of study encompasses the states of New South Wales and Victoria. The area was known as the colony of New South Wales until the middle of the nineteenth century

Melaleuka : a history and description of New South Wales pidgin.

This thesis is about the genesis and development of the first Pidgin English in Australia, called here New South Wales Pidgin. It presents a detailed analysis of the history of the language and a diachronic analysis of developments in the grammar and lexicon of the language. 'Melaleuka' refers to the model devised for the purposes of this thesis to explain the hypothesis on which the work is premised—that NSW Pidgin existed in two dialect forms. The time frame addressed is from the late eighteenth century when the language had its inception to the middle of the nineteenth century when it was consolidated. The geographical area of study encompasses the states of New South Wales and Victoria. The area was known as the colony of New South Wales until the middle of the nineteenth century

First steps on the Ngunawal language revitalization journey

In this paper we present a research project driven by a community of Aboriginal people, the Ngunawal, in south eastern Australia who have joined the growing movement in our country to ‘wake up’ our sleeping languages. It is a unique partnering between a peak research agency for Indigenous studies in Australia and a community group formed specifically for the purposes of language revival – the Ngayuriija Ngunawal Language Group. The ancestral territory of the Ngunawal includes the city of Canberra, Australia’s national capital. The focus on a programme of community outreach in our own region led us to seek to support the Ngunawal community to explore ways in which their language can be revitalized. It has also grown from our work on developing a national Framework document for teaching Australian languages in schools. This happened through the Australian Government initiative to develop a standard Australian Curriculum. Teaching languages in schools has been a driving force for communities keen to see their children have access to studying their own languages in our schools. Indeed this is a key motivating factor for many of the Ngunawal. Unfortunately the documentation for this language is relatively meagre, much of it early manuscript sources and no more than a few minutes of audio-recording. This means that there will be a need to fill gaps not just in vocabulary but also in morphosyntax. Because each Australian Language has owners this will involve negotiations with neighbouring language communities. We will describe the process of this language revitalization initiative from the perspective of the researchers as well as that of the Ngunawal community. It has been a slow process in part because of the limited documentation of the language but more importantly because of the need to form a partnership based on trust and commitment. As this partnership has developed the Ngunawal community has gradually revealed additional documentation which has been compiled within the community largely independent of the academy. We will display some of the products of this partnership and reflect on the impact of Ngunawal language revitalization not just on the Ngunawal community but also on the wider Australian community