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The Forum > Article Comments > Precarious state of our Indigenous languages > Comments

Precarious state of our Indigenous languages : Comments

By Brendan O'Reilly, published 25/11/2016

NSW will become the first state in Australia to introduce landmark legislation to protect traditional Aboriginal languages and establish an Aboriginal Languages Centre.

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English is the only language that will assist Aborigines. There is no place for or use for Stone Age, unwritten languages in modern society, particularly when the people paying to revive them have no interest in them or use for them.
Posted by ttbn, Friday, 25 November 2016 8:54:32 AM
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Given my ancestry, my native tongue ought to be galic! And given the tide of original settlers, why isn't it also ours!?

That said, I see no harm in folks clinging to their mother tongues? But see no case for ensuring the taxpayer funds it?

When they all have english,, university degrees and self determined economic self reliance, they can fund the preservation of all the stone age relics they want, or consider essential to their cultural identity?

And indeed emphasise those (6 degrees) differences that divide us, as opposed to what we share as human beings, who bleed the some colored blood, pee the same colored urine, eat the same colored food, drink the same colorless life preserving water!

The world has lost enumerable languages and the battling bable it created!

We just do not need to go back there, but move on and forward in increased common purpose unity! Or become another hotbed of division that divides the entire Middle (muddle) East!

Communication in a common universally understood language needs to be first prioritized! Haven't the, we know best do gooders, done enough harm already!? ACADEMICS!
Alan B.
Posted by Alan B., Friday, 25 November 2016 10:20:44 AM
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Why should government become involved in the preservation of Aboriginal languages and dialects?
Their continued use should be for cultural and educational,not communication, purposes.

Communication is the reason for a language; the English language is becoming global and is mandatory in many professions, such as aviation.

The attraction and charm of preserving an historic tongue is the skill in fluency, as well as the understanding of the cultural factors which bear upon it. It gives a sense of pride and individuality to those who speak it, particularly if use of the language is decreasing.

I agree with the thinking of Alan B. when he suggests that when they all have english,, university degrees and self determined economic self reliance, they can fund the preservation of all the stone age relics they want, or consider essential to their cultural identity?

The preservation of a culture is a personal and tribal thing, not a legislative one.
Posted by Ponder, Friday, 25 November 2016 1:37:29 PM
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Surely we can find some committed SJW will do it for free or for peanuts? Might get a PHD or two and provide a use for their otherwise useless Sociology degrees as well as distract them from bed-wetting over Trump.
Posted by McCackie, Friday, 25 November 2016 3:03:49 PM
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What a wonderful idea.

Lets waste more of the money we don't have, & have to borrow on such a productive activity.

Still I suppose the few millions wasted on this will buy a few votes, & probably for less per vote than Turnbull's 50 billion on submarines to be built in South Australia bought
Posted by Hasbeen, Friday, 25 November 2016 8:26:36 PM
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//Surely we can find some committed SJW will do it for free or for peanuts?//

Some already have. For example, in 1834 the Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld published 'An Australian Grammar, comprehending the Principles and Natural Rules of the Language, as spoken by the Aborigines, in the vicinity of Hunter's river, Lake Macquarie, New South Wales', followed in 1836 by 'An Australian Spelling Book in the Language spoken by the Aborigines', which together give an excellent account of the Awabakal language. He was attempting to translate the New Testament into Awabakal, in which he was unsuccessful, but thanks to his efforts the majority of the Awabakal language has been preserved for posterity.

I know about all this stuff because it is local history, but I suspect there's probably a few other languages that were preserved mostly intact in the early days of settlement.
Posted by Toni Lavis, Friday, 25 November 2016 11:29:50 PM
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Alan B

'Given my ancestry, my native tongue ought to be galic!'

Well, that's your loss. (And the spelling is 'Gaelic') I've been learning Gaelic for ten years, and have used it proudly in Ireland with native speakers.

Believe it or not, there is a huge Gaelic language culture in Australia, and in other migrant-based cultures, especially the US. People in Sydney and Melbourne attend classes at least once a week and people from all over Australia participate in Gaelic residency courses a couple of times a year.

What do they get out of it? Who knows. A link to their heritage, perhaps? The love of an ancient and beautiful language?

Whatever the reason, it goes beyond cynical practicality.

This is why the preservation of what's left of Aboriginal languages has huge symbolic value. Damn the expense. We need to keep them.
Posted by Killarney, Saturday, 26 November 2016 6:23:57 AM
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Isn't any white heritage just disguised Racism??
Posted by McCackie, Saturday, 26 November 2016 7:01:11 AM
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//What do they get out of it?//

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10126883/Why-learn-a-foreign-language-Benefits-of-bilingualism.html
Posted by Toni Lavis, Saturday, 26 November 2016 7:14:52 AM
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NT is home to most of the language speaking tribes and residents of most remote communities do speak language fluently, however the introduction of technology and communication into those remote areas will eventually erode the strength of the skill. I have lived in the top end for nearly 50 years now and noticed that the language has been lost in those areas closest to urban centres with easy access to digital entertainment.
However, also in the NT is a very large home grown Greek population, all of whom speak fluent Greek and maintain the most important of their cultural habits.
They are a perfect example of how culture and language can be preserved, even in a foreign land, several generations removed from their cultural roots.
Greek parents ensure their children are fluent in Greek in the home before they start school, whilst also enabling their children to learn English. Once children actually commence school the parents keep speaking Greek in the home so that children become fluent in both languages whilst achieving well at school.
It is the responsibility of aboriginal people to preserve both language and culture, not the taxpayer, however, from observation, they have been committing cultural suicide for decades, with little thought to preserving what minimal culture remains and small interest in teaching the current generation those ancient skills that enabled them to survive on this land
Posted by Big Nana, Saturday, 26 November 2016 11:25:26 AM
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I'm all in favour of preserving languages, all languages, and if it costs a bit to do so then it's money well spent.
Money doesn't need to be spent to preserve our then heavily represented Gaelic (early settlement) as, as has been noted, it is doing well in Australia; under Gov. Macquarie it almost became an Official Language in the settlement.

My paternal grand-father was a native speaker and didn't learn English until he was 12, like most of his generation he didn't pass on his language skills to his children, my father understood Irish but could not speak it fluently.
I learned it as a second language, my children learned English as a first language and Irish in school in Ireland..

Second son is now studying and learning to speak Welsh at Uni in Ireland, which'll make him tri-lingual as Welsh is sufficiently different to the other branches of the Gaelic tongues to be another language.
Posted by Is Mise, Saturday, 26 November 2016 5:07:13 PM
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The native tongues of Scotland Ireland and Wales, is a different proposition as outlawed by the land annexing English conqueror!

And they used transportation under the most cruel and inhumane conditions in recorded history, with a better than a fifty percent kill rate. With survivors arriving horribly emaciated and barely alive! Most illiterate and completely bereft of reading and writing skills!

The colonising by transportation, English however, had no official position on Australia's diverse native tongues! None of which have ever been officially outlawed!

How lucky for you Killarney that you can afford to go to uni? I one of four kids raised by a single mum, when there was no social safety net, was lucky, given the sheer number of schools I attended, to learn to read or write; let alone gain tertiary qualifications in three separate largely self taught disciples!

Even so, I never had any mother tongue added to me by any of my forbears! So, never learned to spell gaelic correctly! Being partially sighted and recovering from a hemorrhagic stroke hasn't helped!

So clever to critique and focus so myopically on my spelling! Your IQ must be astronomical? And given you are so brilliant as a native speaker! Perhaps you could correct my gaelic spelling of pogue ma hone!
A.B.
Posted by Alan B., Sunday, 27 November 2016 9:28:02 AM
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I've read a few "studies" on the benefits of learning another language. Most of the data seems forced and inconclusive.
Posted by Cobber the hound, Monday, 28 November 2016 7:21:10 AM
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I agree with ttbn in that learning unwritten languages used by stone age people has no relevance to modern society. On our continent there were something like 270 of them. Is there an intention to fabricate one language from all of them?

Why waste time and money when you can have a go at learning a language like Mandarin that may be of more use.
Posted by Roscop, Monday, 28 November 2016 10:03:58 PM
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Is Mise

Always nice to interact with another Gaelicphile.

I only found out about 10 years ago that all my grandparents were native Gaelic speakers - and only through genealogical research that led me to the 1904 Irish Census. I suppose that knowledge died within the family, because it was no longer relevant to their children growing up in north Queensland.

I learned Gaelic in Australia. Now, living in Ireland, it's taken on huge relevance, as I can relate to a lot of the culture through this knowledge.

There are many arguments for letting a language die a natural death, but there are just as many arguments for investing in their preservation. In Ireland, many criticise the reasons for enforcing Irish in the school curriculum, but few really want to get rid of it, regardless of the expense. It has too much symbolic value to Ireland's culture and past.

Every language that dies is like losing another natural species. Some couldn't care less. Others feel profound grief. I fully support Aboriginal people for wanting to preserve what is left of their languages. We don't have to let them die.

After all, Latin hasn't been spoken in an everyday sense for at least 1500 years. Yet, most of the top private schools in Australia still offer Latin as a language. Go figure
Posted by Killarney, Tuesday, 29 November 2016 3:41:02 AM
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Alan B

I'm sorry. Tá brón orm!

Correcting people's spelling on the internet is a low blow. I shouldn't have done it. Thank you for putting me right.

My Irish background is similar to yours. My mother was left a young widow with four children under 10 to support. This is the major reason I get extremely angry at cynical politicians who want to attack welfare at every turn. Without the widow's pension, I and my siblings would have been raised in an orphanage and no doubt abused in every way possible. Instead, I was allowed to grow up in a caring, loving (albeit impoverished) home.

The reason I went to university was because of Whitlam-era free university tuition. Today, I'd be left with a massive HECS debt, which my children are left to pay off for god knows how long.

The Gaelic schools I mentioned in my previous post are private affairs - not part of university courses. I learned Gaelic at the Irish Club in Brisbane. The courses and residential schools I attended didn't cost much.
Posted by Killarney, Tuesday, 29 November 2016 3:42:32 AM
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Tony Lavis

Thanks for the article link. Agree with all of that.

Sadly, English speakers are at both an advantage and disadvantage. English is the international language of business and diplomacy, and thus native English speakers have no practical need to become fluent in another language. So, in many ways, that is their loss.

Non-English speakers have a practical reason to become fluent in English as a second language. That is their gain.
Posted by Killarney, Tuesday, 29 November 2016 4:04:18 AM
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