Aboriginal English

ABORIGINAL ENGLISH KATHERINE MOFFAT

Aboriginal English is a dialect of Australian English used amongst the Indigenous population of Australia. There are many varieties of Aboriginal English which ranges from close to Australian Standard English to close to Kriol, a separate language from English derived from an English creole. Though Aboriginal English may seem similar to Australian English it has it's own distinct grammar, lexicon, accents, ways and meanings of speech.

When the British invaded Australia there were said to be around 250 Aboriginal Languages with approximately 600 dialects. The British were not interested in learning these languages so in order to communicate a simple form of English was used between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal speakers. Linguistics refer to this as a 'pigeon English'. This pigeon was then also used amongst different Aboriginal communities which lead to the linguistic spread of Aboriginal English. There are various dialects of Aboriginal English all over Australia and also variations due to Aboriginals learning English who brought in there accent, grammar and way of speaking from their traditional language. Aboriginal English is the first language or second language of the majority of Aboriginal Indigenous Australians which makes up 2% of the Australian population. For the population of Indigenous people Aboriginal English is a sense of Identity especially where traditional languages have not survived or is no longer strong and though the language is mainly oral it is also used in published literature.

The most persistent features of Aboriginal English is it's grammatical structures which have maintained there distinctiveness over time. In Standard Australian English to ask question one uses question words such as what, when, who etc. though in Aboriginal English tag words are used, such as inna, unna and eh at the end of statements to denote a question. Example: They bite, eh?Adding tag words is quite common in Aboriginal English. For example sentence structures including a noun phrase and 'there' is used to mean there is/there are or It's a... As demonstrated: 'When the river go down, this little island there.' Standard english equivalent: 'When the river goes down there's a little island'. In Aboriginal English to express possession one juxtaposes the possessor and the possessed. In contrast in Standard English one add's the '-s' suffix. For example: "I can see that man car" --> "I can see that man's car". In traditional Aboriginal languages this structure was utilised and has therefore been incorporated into Aboriginal English and so to say that the '-s' suffix has been dropped would be incorrect.

When it comes to Aboriginal English's lexicon there is often regional variations. For example the word policeman: Buliman in Queensland and NSW, Gandjibal in other parts of NSW, monartch in Perth and so on. These words have derived from either various native Aboriginal languages such as mardanyuwa which means 'man with chains', or a variation of a borrowed English word such as 'buliman'. Aboriginal English also uses many borrowed English words though they are used with different semantics. For example: Country to mean land in general, camp to mean home and growl to mean scold.

Aboriginal English's phonology has been influenced by traditional Aboriginal languages as well as British and Irish English. The most distinctive feature of Aboriginal English's sound system would be the absence of the 'h' phoneme. In traditional Indigenous language the 'h' phoneme does not exist, the same as many other languages around the world such as French. Indigenous people learnt English with their accents and therefore never pronounced the 'h' phoneme in oral conversation and rather start words with the vowel phoneme instead. E.g 'Enry's 'at --> Henry's hat.Though it is also a tendency to overcompensate and add the 'h' phoneme to words beginning with vowels which is referred to as 'hypercorrection'E.g Huncle Henry --> Uncle HenryOther variations and replacement of sounds include:'f' and 'v' pronounced 'p' or 'b' in Aboriginal English'Th' --> 't' or 'd'Example: "We 'ad a bight" --> "We had a fight"As seen in the above example these phoneme variations can cause confusion between Australian and Aboriginal English speakers as this could be interpreted 'We had a bite".

Gestures are another main feature of Aboriginal English as it was also in traditional Aboriginal languages aspects including silence, eye contact and body language. A common word seen in Aboriginal English is 'unna'. Unna best translates to english as 'Isn't that right' or 'Isn't that so' though also is a marker or solidarity as seen in the transcript below, an extract from 'Blackfellas'. Pretty Boy: I’m sorry broDougy: yesterdays history (pause) unnaPretty Boy: I was gunna get ya some roses bro but Idecided to get ya the whole fucken bush unna ha ha ha. Dougy: fuck you Boy. [Brief physical exchange] Dougy: for ever and ever. Pretty Boy: brothers for ever and ever unna'Unna' is repeated three times and stands alone to have it's own meaning. It acts as a grammatical tag to show agreement. This is a very common expression with the young Indigenous population. Pragmatics is the term linguists use to refer to the use of language. Certain pragmatic differences exist between Australian English and Aboriginal English which most people do not realise.The best example is to see how speakers of Aboriginal English ask questions. Public details may be asked in the standard way such as "Where 'e from" though if one is wanted to know more personal details they must first share their own information in order to hint at what they wish to know. Indigenous people do not want to put people 'on the spot' and the discourse becomes a 'two-way exchange'.

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