Australian Languages: Their Nature and DevelopmentAboriginal people have been in Australia for at least 40,000 years, speaking about 250 languages. Through examination of published and unpublished materials on each of the individual languages, Professor Dixon surveys the ways in which the languages vary typologically and presents a profile of this long-established linguistic area. The areal distribution of most features is illustrated with more than 30 maps and an index of languages and language groups is provided. Professor Dixon, a pioneering scholar in the field, brings a unique perspective to this diverse and complex material. |
Contents
1 The language situation in Australia | 1 |
2 Modelling the language situation | 20 |
3 Overview | 55 |
4 Vocabulary | 96 |
5 Case and other nominal suffixes | 131 |
6 Verbs | 176 |
7 Pronouns | 243 |
8 Bound pronouns | 337 |
10 Generic nouns classifiers genders and noun classes | 449 |
11 Ergativeaccusative morphological and syntactic profiles | 515 |
12 Phonology | 547 |
13 Genetic subgroups and small linguistic areas | 659 |
14 Summary and conclusion | 690 |
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Common terms and phrases
accusative added addition adjectives affixes and/or apical appears applies argument assimilation Australian languages become body bound pronouns cent clause clitic cognate combination common consonant continent contrast coverb dative derivational described developed dialects diffusion discussed distinction Dixon Dyirbal enclitics ergative example final forms four free pronouns function further genetic genitive given grammatical groups guages imperative indicating inflection initial instance intransitive involve lack laminal later linguistic locative lost marker marking meaning mentioned nasal neighbours nominal Note noun class ŋ ŋ ŋ occur original past pattern person phonological position possessive possible preceding prefixes present pronominal pronominal prefixes provides reference reflexive region Rembarrnga retained rhotic root shown similar simple verb single sometimes specific stage stem stop subgroup suffix suggests syllable tense third transitive Type verbal vowel